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Show IS THE "HABEAS CORPVS " ACT SUPK.VDLI). One great bulwark of a people's liberies lib-eries is the habeas cm-pus act. It is a clmck upor. the power of unjust or prejudiced judi;es, and is designed to Secure the citizen utrainst wrongful imprisonment, im-prisonment, no matter by whom the commitment may be wade. The right to exercise it has never been questioned, ques-tioned, during time of peace, in this nation ; nor in Great Britain since it first became a law of the land, unless when the legislative power of the nation na-tion suspended it for extraordinary reasons. It has been freely exercised in this Territory by the Federal Judiciary, Judi-ciary, and by its process numbers of criminals have escaped the just action of the law. There are some unwritten chapters of its history iu Utah that would be edifying to read. Yet with all the sacredness that is attached to its exercise, it may be considered con-sidered practically suspended in Utah, unless the Judiciary should "feel 'i the mood." Eight gentlemen bave been held prisoue son a charge so contemptible contempt-ible that we have never yet been able to treat of it in a really serious manner. man-ner. Their arrest was an outrage, in the fiist place; their examination had so many of the characteristics of a farce tbat sober men and sound jurists spoke of it with sadness, at seeing such an exhibition by the bench. Their commitment was in keeping with the rest, not a shadow of law being quoted to sustain the validity of tlie proclamation, proclama-tion, for a breach of which they were arrested. These men have been prisoners pris-oners for about a week, not because bail would not be taken, as appeared in some of the western papers, but because be-cause they would not give bail. And during the week past they have been denied a writ of habeas corpus or a hearing upon it. Are our Judges determined de-termined to "drag the ermine through the filthy pool of partizanship" until its original purity is undistinguisha-ble? undistinguisha-ble? Will some sage man, good at prying into the future and the sinuosities sinu-osities of human acts, tell us how far our officials can or will go in defiance of law, and in opposition to the Constitution Con-stitution ? It is about time that a change should take place, and there is one way it can be brought about. Take some of the . decisions of these Judges before the Supreme Court of the United States. Bring them before a tribunal that is not - swayed by partisan purposes, that is Dot venal, that knows law and will decide de-cide according to it; whose Judges cannot and will not stoop to play pet-t pet-t fogging prosecutors when they should sit a Netors in the judgement seat, holding the balance of Justice righteously right-eously between all men. Take this very case beyond this Territory and let these men be taught that Governors and Judges and officials of every kind, must bow to the law, which governs all alike. Let them be taught that neither gubernatorial nor Judicial position po-sition can set aside one single Constitutional Consti-tutional law which stands upon any of the statute books of the nation. It is time these would-be dictators and despots learned that even their power is circumscribed; and that free men cannot be dragged to prison and held there without the right of having their case inquired into by another tribunal tri-bunal than that of the committing magistrate who consigned them to prison. |
