Newspaper Page Text
ope <t rrctsoitidit
Vol. 14, No. 2G
T he Supreme Court of the United States Should be Asfeed in the
Regular Legal Way, to Decide the Constitutionality of the Re-
CCIrt Acte of Congress, on Conscription and Espionage ~
Court, State or Federal, high or low,
North or South, lias ever held that all
of the provisions of the recent Acts of Con
gress are constitutional.
Various District Courts of the United
States have hurriedly passed upon one or
two phases of the recent Conscription Act:
perhaps a Circuit Court may have done so.
but I am not aware of the fact.
V hat I do know is, that the Supreme
tribunal for the arbitrament of just such
questions, has never endorsed those provisions
of the new laws, which The Jeffersonian has
attacked—and will continue to attack, until
silenced by the Prussian militarists of this
country, who have usurped more than Caesa
rian powers, since they were re-elected last
November, to the slogan of “Peace and Pros
perity.”
There are some who believe that the Su
preme Court of Georgia, sitting in Milledge
ville during the winter of 1862-3, decided the
principles involved.
It did not do so.
I have gone over that decision twice, with
great care, and I call the attention of the
legal profession, to the following vital facts:
The court emphasized the conditions un
der which the government of the Southern
The Stone That Was Rejected by the. Builders
'THE missionary funds of the Roman Pagan
Church are being devoted almost ex
clusively to “Make America Catholic.”
The crafty Jesuits who rule the inner
mechanism of the Pagan system which grew
up within the Christian church at Borne, do
not scatter and dissipate their efforts upon
immovable China, apathetic India, and
skeptical Japan.
The Jesuits recognize the United States of
North America as the coming World-power,
destined perhaps to an imperial and mili
taristic domination to which Great Britain
herself will play second.
As clear to my mind as .anything veiled in
the future can be, is the secret purpose of our
Trusts, to aid England drive Germany out
of Asia Minor ,Africa, and South America—
and next to drive England out.
For the present, millions of our best men,
our picked men, the flower of the land, may
fight and die with England, to put an end to
German gains of territory ; to wrest Turkey
from her control, and to seise Armenia, Ana
tolia, Persia, and Mesopotamia; to capture
Constantinople, and appropriate the Eastern
part of the Berlin-to-Bagdad Bailroad, but
you may rest assured that our Money Trust
and Manufacturing Trusts will never allow
England to reap all the*fruits of victory.
Our Emperors of Finance and Trade will
divide with England the spoil they have
Thomson, Ga., Thursday, July 12, 1917
Confederacy adopted the policy of conscrip
tion. At that time, armies of invasion oc
cupied Southern territory, actually had de
vasted large areas of that territory, and were
strenuously endeavoring to subjugate all the
rest.
Not only did the Supreme Court of Geor
gia, in the body of the decision, allude to
these physical conditions as necessitating con
scription ,when volunteering had ceased, but
the very last paragraph again alludes to that
physical fact, in the following words:
“And it is a high gratification, that in the
crisis of our fate as a Nation, when flagitious
war is desolating our country, we are
enabled, in perfect consistency with the ob
ligations of official duty, to stay up the hands
of our Confederate authorities in the use and
timely exercise of a power expressly granted.”
I am sure that it is no reflection upon the
integrity of the Court, to suggest that it-was
composed of patriotic rebels, who found it
easy to believe what they wanted to believe.
The case against the conscript law was
argued by a lawyer of whom I never before
heard; his name was McKinley; in favor of
the Government appeared Mark Blanford,
who was afterwards a member of the Su
preme bench of this State.
jointly won with the blood and treasure of
our people; anj when the day of division
comes, America and England may come to
blows.
Our Emperors of Finance and Trade had
already squeezed nearly the last gold dollar
out of England and France, when those Eng
lish and French Commissions came over.
It was a case of “Save me Cassius, or I
sink.’’
And our Emperors decided to pull Eng
land and France out of the water, because
England, especially, had the bait-gourd in
her pocket.
Our Emperors couldn't afford to let Eng
land and France go down, because of profits
and investments already made .and because
of profits and investments in prospect.
This line of reasoning, and none other, ex
plains the terrific pressure brought to bear
upon Congress, in favor of those revolu
tionary new Acts, appropriating for foreign
service such quantities of our blood and
treasure as dumbfound the human mind.
If you have, for an instant, believed that
the powers which give orders to Congress
care one straw about German militarism, or
about the making of the world safe for de
mocracy, or for the vague, altruistic welfare
of universal “mankind,” pray dismiss the
idea.
Second: No point was made or passed on,
involving, the old Anglo-Saxon principle,
that the free- citizen cannot be taken, or dis
seized, or deprived of liberty, property or
life, without due process of law—that point
does not enter into the discussion at all.
Third : That decision does not touch, much
less decide, the question of the Government s
right to take free citizens, deprive them of
their liberty, and send them out of the realm,
for military service beyond seas.
This ancient principle of the Common Law
was not even mentioned, because the Southern
Confederacy was not attempting to do any
thing more than defend its own soil against
invading armies, who were actually in occu
pation of it, after dreadful battles had been
fought.
Fourth: The Georgia decision dees not
apply to the present situation, because the
Confederate Constitution did not contain any
provision similar to the Thirteenth Amend
ment of the Constitution of the United States.
The reasoning of Justice Jenkins, who de
livered the opinion, is not strong; one of his
main arguments is, that the new Constitution
intended to give the government greater
powers than the old Confederation possessed,
(continued on page two.)
It doesn’t de credit to your intelligence.
Leave such illusions to silly preachers,
like W. C. Daniel, of Atlanta, and to Aunt-
Nancy lawyers, like Andrew Cobb, of Athens.
In your heart of hearts, you are bound to
know that Congress obeys the Great Banks,
and the Great Trusts —including of course the
Bail road Trust.
Do you ask for evidence?
If so .study the statutes which have made
the Government itself the mere rubber-stamp
of the Privileged Capitalists, and which have
reduced to poverty the millions of toilers
whose industry enriches the non-producing
thousands.
Do not believe, for a single minute, that
such men as J. P. Morgan, John D. Rock
efeller, Elbert Gary, Henry Frick, Frank
Vanderlip, Jacob Schiff, Julius Kahn. James
Stillman, William Baker, the Guggenheim
Brothers, and John Hays Hammond would
turn on their heels, to “save the world for
democracy,” would give one dollar for the
freedom of peoples throughout the earth, or
would take the slightest interest in changing
the inner government of 05,000,000 Germans.
Such an idea is absurd.
The President is put up to talk it, for
effect; and it has a delicious effect upon boys
who are too young to think; upon grown-ups
(CONTINUED ON I’AGE THREE.)
Price, Five Cents