People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1895 — NO LAW VIOLATED BY DEBS. [ARTICLE]

NO LAW VIOLATED BY DEBS.

In reading the following by Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois, it must be remembered that he was for years a judge and is considered one of the ablest jurists in that state. His opinion should also have the weight accorded an honest man with the courage of his convictions: “There were two separate proceedings against Debs. One was according to the established forms of law; .he was indicted by a grand jury for acts alleged to have been committed during the strike, and he was regularly tried by a jury and it turned out. there was absolutely no case against him. Nothing was proven. It is true the jury was not allowed to bring in a verdict because near the end one of the jurors became ill and the prosecution refused to go on. Debs’ attorneys offered to proceed with the remaining eleven or to add a new man and proceed, but the railroad lawyer, who also represented the government, feeling that he had no case at all, would not consent, and he thereby prevented a verdict of acquittal and had the case postponed. The other proceeding was by injunction. A federal judge on motion of some railroad attorneys issued a ukase against the people of all the states in that judicial circut, in which he forbade nearly every thing that the ingeniuty of man could think of and which the law did not forbid, and thus legislated he then turned around and had Debs and others arrested, not for violating any law but for failing to respect his ukase or injunction. And then this judge not only refused to give a jury trial, but he himself proceeded to determine whether his own dignify had been offended, and he promptly sent the defendants to prison, the judge being legislator, court and executioner.”