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' sas n or « Cbe JeFrersoiuait Vol. 14, No. 33 Will the U. S. Judiciary Permit, and the People Ratify, the Congres sional Overthrow of Our Constitutional System of Government? Mr. Watson’s Argument Against ilte Conscription Acts Before Judge Emory Speer, at Mt. Airy, Aug. 18, 1917 / ZYV the 18th of August, 1917, Judge Emory Speer, of the United States District Court, heard argument in the cases of two negro men, jailed in Augusta, .-Georgia, for failure to register, as per the Acts of Con gress, May 18, 1917. The Judge held court under the trees in front of the hotel, with a large crowd of peo ple—many of whom were ladies—encircling the improvised open-air court. Probably no Federal Judge ever presided under circumstances so unique and informal; and the inborn respect of our people for legal authority was never more beautifully illus trated than by the perfect decorum of the assemblage during the several hours of the sultry day, when Judge Speer, without Mar shal or Deputies, or other official attendants, held court as our Germanic ancestors did a thousand years ago—under the spreading branches of a noble tree. The District Attorney, Mr. Earl Donaldson, replied to Mr AV at son by reading the decision made by the Supreme Court of Georgia dur ing the Civil War, and the obiter of the U. S. /"AN Saturday, Judge Emory Speer at Mt. Airy heard the application of The Jeffer sonian Publishing Company for an injunc tion, forbidding the Thomson postmaster from refusing to receive The Weekly Jeffer sonian in the mails. The Government was represented by Judge Lamar and Mr. Barnes: the Company was represented by Mr. B. J. Stevens of the Thom son bar, by lion. J. Gordon Jones of Cordele, and S. G. McLendon. The Government’s attorneys contended that the Company had no legal standing in the District Court, but should go to Washington City, and apply for a mandamus there to compel the Postmaster-General to restore its mailing privilege. Judge Lamar interrupted the proceedings very often, without rising from his seat, to prompt his associate —the urbane and able Mr. Barnes —and to throw out information for the enlightenment and guidance of man kind, generally. Mr. Barnes took the position, that when the authorities in Washington came to the con clusion that any issue of the weekly Jeffer sonian was in law non-mailable, the legal con tinuity of the issuance of said paper had been broken, although that issue had in fact been actually mailed and the postage paid to the Government. The Jeffersonian and the Mails Thomson, Ga., Thursday, August 23, 1917 Supreme Court in the Tarble case, where a STATE undertook to question an Act of Con gress. Mr. Donaldson did not attempt any de fense of Section 6 of the Conscript law; nor did he try to answer Mr. Watson's argument on the 13 th Amendment; and he appeared to evade studiously the claim that the citizen Our Central Meeting at Macon Is called off, owing to the host lity of the City authorities and the impossibility of se curing a place of meeting. We have been threatened with military violence, and I take the responsibility oi can celling the meeting, to avoid bloodshed. The world must be made safe for democra cy, even though none is left’ in these United States. THUS. E. WATSON. cannot lawfully be sent out of the country against his will. the District Attorney did not seen to realize that the President's proclamation of July 10, 1917) had already FUSED THE STATE MILITIA WITH THE REGULAR ARMY) IN VIOLATION OF THE CON STITUTION. Judge Speer ashed that the briefs of the Thus, a mental conclusion in Washington annihilated a physical fact at Thomson! According to that view, the Government could (and, in this case, did) receive the paper in the mails, collect the postage due on it, and distribute the same according to custom, but when afterwards the lawyers in Washing ton decided that the paper ought not to have been mailed, the same was not in laW) mailed. Thus do we make the world safe for de mocracy. Messrs. Lamar and Barnes also contended that only the second-class mail privilege had been revoked, and that The Jeffersonian could put up a deposit of cash for the third-class postage, apply again for the second-class priv ilege; and if the application were granted, the Government would refund the overplus from the cash deposited—regardless of the increasing financial necessities of Uncle Sam. Judge Speer seemed inclined to treat the persuasive suggestion with some levity, re marking that down in this part of the coun try we do not have the surplus cash for lux uries of that description. Again and again, Judge Speer asked to be informed of the accusations made by the Gov ernment against The Jeffersonian. What had the paper done to cause its ex clusion from the mails? Wherein had it violated the law? attorneys be submitted to him, an J he stated his purpose to carefully consider them before rendering his decision.) May it please your Honor: We are here for no other purpose (han Io discuss a question of law. We have nothing whatever to do with the politics, or the senti mental aspects of the Great War. Those matters have no place in this forum and this case. We are here with one issue only, and that issue is, whether Congress in exercising the Constitutional grant of power to raise armies has enlarged its own powers and those of the Executive in a manner destructive to other provisions of the Constitution. Has Congress, wilfully or inadvertently, adopted a method of raising armies which overthrows the Constitutional scheme of government? Does the method of 1917 nullify the system created in 1787? Does the present plan of Army increase practically abolish the militia system of the States, which system was in existence when the present Fedcral Government was formed, and whose contin ued existence, as a necessary part of State machinery, is provided for in the Constitu tion? Is it within the power of Congress to authorize the Executive, by his Proclamation, i CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO.) The attorneys for the Government could not —or at least did not —say. They pleaded that they had come to Mt. Airy with only three hours’ previous notice, and would re quire time-) to specify the charges upon which the paper had been suppressed. In other words, the Washington officials ruin your business and destroy your prop erty) and then have to ask a continuance, be fore they can tell the Court why they did it! Thus do we make the world safe for de mocracy. Judge Speer finally informed the Govern ment’s lawyers that they must file a bill of particulars, and he granted them a week for the purpose, adjourning the case to Sapphire, North Carolina, Saturday, August 25th. In the meanwhile, we have no other means of reaching our subscribers, than by express. Nearly 40.000 free Americans are denied the privilege of getting through the mails the kind of literature they want, and have paid for, because the Washington autocrats do not approve of their taste. About the only time that Judge Lamar stood up, in the midst of his puddles of am bier, and addressed the Court, was when he emphatically denied that his Department had established a press censorship. According to the Lamar-Burleson view, a (continued on page six.) Price, Five. Gents