Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1883 — On Courts and Constitutions. [ARTICLE]

On Courts and Constitutions.

A short article on one of our inside pages headed “Broad wagon tires” ought lo be cut out and pasted in the hat of every farmer and wagon owner in Jasper county. In another place we. publish the president’s Thanksgiving day pro clamation. Although having the merits, unusual in such documents, of brevity end conciseness, yet, like all of president Arthur’s public utterances* it is couched in beautiful and eloquent language. Th£ Rochester Sentinel agrees i-itli this paper in the opinion that the whipping post should be established, in Indiana, for the benefit of wife-beaters. The Sen - fennel claims to have in ptepttra tion for publication, a list of the wife-thumpers of Rochester and vicinity. * . TI UT. —• _

The failure of the late Infamous egislature to pass the appropriate ion bill, leaves University n ( a had way for Unless some other means for the Support bf the institution can be devised, the c l° SQ d. Except in regard to money matters, the institution is in a* very prosperous condition.

/The action of Judge Ward, in setting aside the verdict of the jury i n the Lamb case, will, we believe, give general to people of the county. Not because the penalty affixed by the jury is believed to be too severe, but from tfte character of the purifeWiM* keep a man lying in utter for a long period, in jail, unfits him for earning an honest living when he is released, and has a demoralizing effect upon him generally; a!nd besides makes him a burden upon the people during hrs incarceration; whereas, convicts in, |he penetentiary usuaJlj earn their living, or something near it.

1 Mary Churchill, the missing St. Louis “beauty,” about whom the detectives and newspapers have jacked up such an everlasting ca(her parents, mind you, knew the girl was, all right and would turn up sopis time)-, was discovered Isst week quietly working in the laundry department of the Insane Asylum, at Indianapolis. Mary is a straight enough sort of girl, but left home,, probably, from a sort of morbid,iambition to strike out for herself in. the world. There never was any occasion for the great, stir which has been made over her “mysterious disappearance.” ~ xr

The tidal wave has turned. Despite the mendacious vaporings of that howling, unkempt; unprincipled, and demagogic hqi’d,, the democratic editors, the Ohio election showed, plainly enough, that the democratic tidal wave had lost its force. That state was just barely saved to democracy by what was little more than an acci- . de nt —the disturbing presence of the prohibition question. The November contests have been de cided more upon the merits of the two parties, and on tire whole is a very gratifying victory for , republicanism. The Town Boabd.— At the regInar meeting of the town council, Monday evening, a large number 1 of bills wore allowed, the reports of assessments for the sewers ordered on Batson street w*fe received, and an important ordinance in regard to thd storing of gunpowder, and other Explosives, Within the corporation limits was passed. This ordinftncfe; number JOO. will he found, in full; hi this issue of The Republican. : „

If the neighbors of Cephas Atkinson had discovered the brutal murderer of his swfeet child, Ada, the day upon which the crime was committed, and had, then and there; wreaked vengeance upon hiin, the act would have been so natural, under the circumstances, that few people could have blamed them severely. l But after this long lapse of time, however, when sober reflection has had opportunity to assert its dominion, and when the guilty man seems so certain bf punishment by process of law, if the people of Benton county shduld take the law into their own hands, and lynch Nelling, when he is brought into their county for arraignment, as he must be within a short time, they will commit an act which will be nothing less than a great crimd, and which will not only be a disgrace to the people Cf Benton county, but which will merits ably leave a stain on the soul of every person engaged in the act.’ In this connection we can do no better than to add a few, wise, strong words, upon tjris subject, from the Indianapolis Journal: “If the wretch that murdered Atkinson is not lynched it will. ny.r be the fault of officials arid certain newspapers, notably sOirie in Chicago. They have invited violence, and the shame of mob law will be theirs in case the people are persuaded to hang Selling. It matters not what his deserts are, the people of Beriton county owe. it to themselves and to the State at large not to disgrace themselves and all Indianians in common by dishonoring law and ; order and butchering even a fiend. There can be no possible justification for mob violence in this instance. The guilty party is safe in custody, his guilt se6ms established, and his proper punishment by due process of law is assured. Besides, it may be that if, a legal trial is had, others scarcely less guilty may be implicated. The whole truth .Should be arrived at, and this pannot be unless a wise deliberation is ( a lynching could but result in a lasting disgrace upon the community that was weak enough and wicked enough to permit it.

Rensselaer, Nov., 3rd, 1883. Mr. Editor: —We heard the address of M-r. Ross on temperance, Tuesday evening last. It was good. He seems well to have studied the laws the State. From him, we understand the aim of leading temperance men, is to secure a legislature that will pass a •‘prohibitory amendment” to the "constitution We think a shorter and better way “perhaps” to reach the end would be to secure a legislature, that will pass an act to prohibit the manufacture ana sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. We hold that the constitution of our StatS requires no amendment to authorize the legislature to pass such an act. We hold*.

further that the Supreme Court has no right to deciare an qct of the legislature void or unconstitutional.; If any article section or clause in the constitution; or laws under it, gives the court such power, we would be glad to have anyone, who will, to point it gout, that A few individuals who have thought some, may see their oversight. IVe think our State Court, and the United States Court in such cases have always acted an mere assumption of power, and. thq.toleration of the people. The framers of a government, with three “cordinpte departments'’ >could never have contemplated such power in the court. It is an absolute king,ey power. Jefferson speaking of this court once, < said, * ‘they are a set of miners Ahi sappers, and will ultimately destroy the liberties of the people." If it be said they act by prescription or unwritten law”, then we think it is high time the people, the source of all power in this country, should intimate to these high courts, that this is a government Of ‘/.written laws”, and that they are unwilling longer, to tolerate this assumption >of power. Let the people, the court of 'ultimate appeal, decide this question. H. It is claimed that as the flange of high land in Southern South Carolina and Northern Georg?#, is particularly conducive to the healfiof children’witu an hereditary' taint or A disposition to* consumption,* that locality possesses est ire able advantage its a school saditarium. 'Asfr-