Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1888 — BEN BUTLER. [ARTICLE]

BEN BUTLER.

He Writes a Remarkable Letter to Capt. W. P. Black, of Chicago. In Which He Refers to the Execution of the Anarchists as a Judicial Murder. fChicago special.! The following letter from Gen. B. F. Butler to Capt. W’. P. Black is given to the public through the columns of the local press: “I am very much obliged to you for your letter, and I am also thankful for the receipt of your argument to the jury in the case of Spies et al., or what will be known in the long history as the * anarchist case.' "Our pleasant acquaintance under the most unpleasant circumstances—the joint unsuccessful advocacy of life for men who were unlawfully convicted and unwisely executed—has given me an insight into your purpose and character, and will make our friendship a lasting one, at least on my side. “I had not believed it possible that palpable judicial murders could again prevail in this country. They once did in what we have been accustomed to regard as the best and purest days of the colonies. It is less than two centuries since seven men of the highest standing, a majority of whom were reverend gentlemen, clergymen, as good and pious men as ever 11 id, as exemplary in every relation of life as it was possible for men to be, sat in a socalled court of justice, each morning session whereof was opened with fervent prayer to the divine source of all knowledge, grace, and power to direct the actions of nis servants as the judges of that court; and in that court were arraigned day after day poor, miserable, broken-down, superstitious women and children upon the accusation that they, had commerce with the devil and used his power as a means of spite upon their neighbors, and as one of the means of inflicting torture because thereof the devil hod empowered these poor creatures to shoot common house pins from a distance into the flesh of their neighbors’ children, by which they were greatly afflicted. Being put into the bar to be tried, they were not allowed counsel, and, thank God, our profession was not disgraced, because the attorney-general was a merchant. The deluded creatures sometimes pleaded guilty, and sometimes not guilty, but in either event they were found guilty and executed, and the pins, which were produced in evidence, can now be seen among the records of that court, in the court-house of the county of Essex, Massachusetts.

“And beyond all this that court enforced, worse than the tortures of inquisition, dreadful wrongs upon a prisoner iu order to accomplish his conviction. Giles Corey was an old man, 80 years of age. He had a daughter some 40 years of age, simple-minded, not able to earn her own living, and a small farm, a piece of land and a house thereon, which he hoped to leave to his daughter at his tMu impending death. Giles was accused of being a wizard, “His life had been blameless in everything except his supposedrtcommerce with the devil. Upon ex parte testiurony he was indicted for this too great intimacy with the evil one, and set to the bar to be tried for his life. “Giles knew that if he pleaded not guilty he was sure to be convicted, because that was the doom of the anarchists of that day, and if he pleaded guilty he would be sentenced to death, and in either case the faim would be forfeited to the king. But, if he did not plead at allsuch was the law —then ho could not be tried at all, and his property could not be forfeited to the king and tsken from his daughter. So Giles stood mute and put the court at defiance. “And then that court of pious clergymen resorted to a method to make him plead which had not been in practice in England for two hundred years, and never here ; and poor Giles was taken and laid on the ground by the side of the court house on his back, with the flashing sun burning in his eyes and. a single cup of water from the ditch of the jail with a crust of bread was given him once in twenty-four hours, and weights were placed upon his body until at last the life was crushed out of him, but not the father's love for his child. He died, but not until his parched tongue protruded from the old man’s fevered mouth. It was thrust back by the Chief Justice with his cane. The cherished daughter inherited.

“Being fully imbued with this knowledge of what good men will do when they are either frightened for their souls or their bodies, it has not been to me a source of so much wonder as it might otherwise have been how the law “was administered in frenzy in Chicago. Years hence when you and I have passed away the cases of Giles Corey and the witches and the cases of the anarchists will be compared by just-minded men more than they are now. I hope there may one fact follow in the anarchists’ cases that followed in the witches’ cases. Judge Bewail, a reverend clergyman, one of the judges of the witches, before he died learned how greatly he had erred and sinned before God, and he repented in sack-cloth and ashes, literally coming out in the face of his congregation and standing in the broad aisle of the church exclaiming, while his written confession of his sins and folly in the witches’ case was being read: * Alas I God have mercy on me for what I have done.’

“I hope you will live to be present when one of the judges before whom you argued will find it his duty to take a like step; but I fear that while he has had the incredible folly of Judge Bewail in the treatment of his prisoners, he won’t have the piety of Sewall in publicly appealing to his God for mercy, as an example against all others offending in like manner. “A learned and upright judge, writing the judicial history of witchcraft in this country, sums up as follows : ‘lf the popular cry is to be the standard of what is right, the security of property is at an end, personal liberty is no longer safe, and the blood of the innocent will often seal the triumph of a popular administration of justice, in the triumph of popular vengeance.’ “Some later writer on judicial proceedings, comparing the judicial murder of the witches with the trial of the anarchists, will close by saying: Alas 1 how surely from age to age doth history repeat herself. One further fact, which I send" to you for your comfort: The determined action of a single member of our profession standing up against this craze brought it to an end. I look for like fruits to come from what you have done.”

Chicago Anarchists Reorganizing. [Chicago special.] Information has come to Chief of Police Hubbard that the anarchists in the northwestern part of the city have been quietly organizing again and have been holding secret meetings lately. It is said that a large number of the old Northwestern Group met at 703 Milwaukee avenue last Sunday and indulged in some wild talk, as well as making some progress toward reorganization. This meeting was attended by one of the ex-members of the group, who afterward visited police headquarters and told what he knew. Capt. Hathaway has been requested to keep a close watch on this section of the city for further developments.