Newspaper Page Text
THE LOUISVILLE GAZETTE.
l—■————— —mmr*mm m— '' . ' —.-- - r
j i 1 UES D A \,. Atr i l 1799* £No,i2,
' fi ~ —REASON' AND TRUTH IMPARTIAL GUIDE THE WAY .
[p • Publilhed every Tuelday, by AMBROSE DAY, at three dollars per aim. payable half yearly in advance.
jX)UIS v * L,Lj , u
Tvcrutive Department, Georgia,
Louifvillty Apri* 3’ 1 799•
HIS honor Judge Walton in
discharges in Striven and Mont
20rnery counties, having indi
jedly refleftedon the Executive
department; and charged the
Officer filling it, with influencing
Grand furies in Burke and Han
cock. to make certain prefent
menrs, it becomes a duty in the
Department to defend itfelf.
And it is there fort ORDERED ,
That the following letter, be
written to his honor the Judg~,
and be published in the Colum
bian Mufeum, of Savannah—
the Gazettes of Louifvdle, and
the Augufla Chronicle, where
thole charges have been pub
lilhed,
‘ Executive Department,
Loiiifville , April 3 , 1799.
S ! R,
A HIGH refpcdl for the con
tituted authorities of my coun
ty, would compel my filence
m judici A proceedings, did they
ilFefl me only as an individual—
Jut your charges of the prefent
Circuit, contain fuch affertions
nd implications again ft the Ex
cutivc Department, asnow filled,
hat fdence would not only con
irm the afperities you have exer
ted, but criminate the Execu
te Officer—Duty therefore to
lie dignified Ration to which my
Blow- citizens have been pleafed
0 cad me, and not a defire of
etaliation, commands rpe to
cpel the attack, and to contra-
even judicial authority on
he occafion. 1
It is in my opinion, fir, im
)ropcr and unconftitutional, for
iny other Department of the
government, to impair, in the
maileft degree, the independ
nce of the judiciary fyitem—
! t 0 ta^ e fr°m its refpeftability
~ or to inteifere with its rules—
luc“ more to deprive it of the
i t,ce of the people, whofe
Ves a J d property fo eflentially
-pen ° n it s j u ji deeijions,
u * ir , Uis equally improper,
e 9’idlly as unconftitutional,
, r fudge, whilfl
[ r ot l^s Inqucfts to
e ‘J n ’ Public tranfadlions be
!r / he * r county—himfeif,
/.°- U a Grand fury to prefent
nis charges, the other De
-1 Government, and
tr upt to imp a i r their inde
lenc! Ce, p an u Cftr ? nge the con ‘
em. ° tne c^izens from
Whether you have in effedl
"«>I»E„ cotiveoe '“'„ a
inde d V tempted t 0 impair
iCs * or the citizens
in the Officer filling it— a candid .
view of your charges muff de
termine.
Take the fecond fe&ion of
your Sciiven charge, and there
can be little doubt, but that the
Executive as now filled , was the
objedl of your animadvetfions.
You as plainly pointed him out,
as if you had named the perfon.
In the commencement of that
fe6f ion, you rake up the aflies of
a tranfadlion, which 1 dare fay,
the gentleman there alluded to,
neither defired your remem
brance of, nor your approba
tionary comment on his releafe.
For what other purpofe could
you have brought it into view,
but to defignate the Executive
Officer, as the primary objedl of
your new modelled prefentment
—furely it was not to wound that
gentleman’s feelings by a painful
remembrance of his late fixa
tion, nor to flamp an irnpreffion
that you were friendly to his re
lease-—it is clearly afeertained
that neither you nor your con
ne£lon% political, or natural,
afforded him aid on the occafion;
and that h d he depended on
you, his fitu ition would not have
been changed, it is a feene fir,
which I wifh buried in oblivion ;
but which whenever brought
into view, for party or political
nurpofes, I affure you 1 fhall
reflation that part of it, his re
leaf cment, with moreconfolation
than vou will derive fatisfadlion
from flirring its cinders, and
making your extra judicial com
ments on it. If I poffeffed re
fentment at one flage of that
tranfadlion, I believe my conduct
at another, when his former
friends deferted him, would
meet applaufe from any tongue
but your’s. There can beno|
doubt, but that the tranlaclion
was ripped up, to exhibit the
prefent Executive Officer, as the
target for all your fubfequent
attacks—it is fo pointedly done,
as to be impoflible to miflake it
—nor will the jefuitical falvo at (
the conclufion of your charge j
of recommending confidence in
the Executive, change one atom,
of the irnpreffion, you had pre
vioufly made.
You proceed by faying that |
from the time of that tranfadlion
u to the prefent. have the Grand
Juries of this Hate, been made, 1
moreorlefs,tbe degraded inftr*'
ments of a political (
As you frequently travel f
your Department, permu ic
fir, to accompany you here and
requefl you to inform me, whom
you mean by the word fad’ll on t
it muft either be the whole peo
ple, a few excepted, who bv v*
uniform and an unparallelicd ! (
conduft, through their represen
tatives, for four Succeffive Jegif
latures, and one general con
vention, have annulled and an
nihilated an ufurped aft, barter
ing their rights—or it mull be
thole, for whole private interoits
that aft was obtained. The
latter it is not likely to be in
tended for, as few Grand Juries
have been difpofed to favor them
—the appellation of a political
faftion, therefore, mud allude
to the former—and if fo fir, you
judicially ilander all thole le
gislatures, the general conven
tion, and what may be expreSSed,
the whole people of the (late of
Georgia. This is rather exceed
ing the limits you prefix for
G*and Juries, but probably—
and you have a right to condrue
your own powers—you have no
limits for yourfelf.
The presentments which Suc
ceeded the tranfaftion before
alluded to, were relpefting that
ufurped aft—and as the impli
cation is, that the prefent Exe
cutive Officer was a prime mover
of them, let us examine from
whom they flowed, and who
prelided at the time on the
bench, and it will be Seen, that
either you are cloathed with
greater powers, whilft thofe of
Grand Juries are diminiflied—
or that you have cflablidled a
new fydem of jurisprudence.
Thofe prefentments flowed fir,
from univerfal indignation, and
you prelided at the time on the
bench.
At the Chatham Superior
Court in February term, 1795,
as enlightened and refpcftable
a Grand fury as ever appeared
in this date, notwithdanding you
had invited their approval of it,
prefented that diigraceful aft,
' and declared their right of taking
1 cognizance of it, in the follow-
O 9
ing firm and manly language.
“ The Grand Jury are Sorry
there Should be occahon to bring
j forward any matters as grievan-
I ces : but it becomes a more pain
: ful tafle to them, when they feel
themfelves under the neccffity
of reprobating public meafurcs.
1 At the fame time, the duty they
owe to their country, and tlv
oath they have taken, r.'npel
them to brfog into the view of
their fellow-citizens, all Such
Hauers as they conceive will
has f* a tendency to injure the
; community, and ro exprefs their
Senfe of the fame, in plain, de
cent, and firm language."
Without attempting to define
your powers, or to encourage
Grand furies in oppolition to
our will, or to influence them
> make preferments to Support
, he Executives "finking
1% For
larity / orthc <{ domineering fac
tion of all the flate—one quM
tion naturally arifes—Why did
you not bar the Chatham Grand
jury from prefenting alcgiflative
and why did you receive
the prefentment and permit it
to be recorded ? Was it f. om a
prior knowledge of their fnm
nefs and independence, and an
experience that the Grand juries
of Chatham, neither permit tho
tyranny of Judges, nor public
(peculations to pals with impu
nity ?
But the Chatham prefentment,
was not the only one on that
fubjeft, yoa met fimilar prefent
ments, throughout your C ircuit,-
even in the very County of Scri
ven, where you (o pofuivcly
fixed limits for Grand Inqucfls,
and where you delivered that
prefentment like charge againfk
the Executive.
I was at the time this 4< firing*'
of them took place, attending
my duty in Congrefs, neaily
one thoufand miles off.
Having concluded what pre
fatory obfervations I thought it
neceflary to make, artd in which
fhouldany thing ofFenfive to the
judicial ear be expreffed you
have only to rcfledl that you
have fought the occafion by at
tacking a department equally
as independent, equally as firm,
and podellcd of an equal right
to defend itfclf when attacked,
as your own. I (ball now pro
ceed to the ultimate obje6l of
this add refs.
In the latter part of the fecond
fedlion of your Scrivcn cha ge,
you affert “ on the prefent circuit
at Burke. Court , was a prefentment
offered to the Grand Jury, generally
under flood , from a fnurce of author
ity t and a new refentment ; hut
which was re jetted in a b< coming
manner Take the tranfaftion
fir ft alluded to by you, and your
expreflions of the refentment p
which you aver occafioned it:,
and compare them with the cx
prcflions in this cafe, “from a
fource of authority and a new *'
feniment” and he that run;’ miy
that yni.” /.onor
a A r mean, no othbc but
th piefcnt Executive Officer,
and that improper influence and
of courfe corruption had pro
ceeded fiom the Department,
to procure the prefentment allu
ded to —mv frrfl intimation of
which, or an attempt to procure
one, came from your charge, and
I am yet ignorant of its nature.
In your Montgomery charge,
although not fo pointedly ex
prelled, there can little doubt
exift from the whole tenor of
th# fcntencc in which it is men
tioned, but that you alfo imput#