| Show I WILLETT DEFENDS FREEDOM fREEDO 1 OF PRESS I Grand Jury Investigation Into Panama CillO Caso IS as Most eXERCISES USURPED POWER t 1 HUlet rue at Qi nr at I I hibel the OI r Feb eb 12 I as the mot flagrant and the mot most I I dangerous rou It of usurped power ever witnessed In till this country th grand rand jury Jar investIgation lon which bleh hv have been In tw r weeks tu I pact t tIn In connection with the alleged d lan mA libel case of Nw New York who several weeks eo co vigorously attacked J President Re vit veat on alt the floor of the ho houes tudy todar Tame me to the of tM the whose alleged n libelous publicatIon are being declaring cI that the COUlot of tIM the United ha have no Jurisdiction In oases of libel against the tho government of the United It hu not Men bean upon them b by all any legislative sot b he asserted and they possess no DO criminal tieS derived from tile lbs common lw He the present investigatIon th most extraordinary on tile the part of the whIch bleh has baa shacked the country itis the days of the old Federalist party This proceeding has fur for w wea I een goIng on right hers here In III the District ut of ColumbIa under the very shadow ot o othe th the and seem INI to have ben been instigated It If not nol directly ordered by the tho president A large part of Mr WIlletts Willett speech peach peachIa was Ia taken up with etra e from van varl lU court ourt decisions by which he be t 1 tempted to prove proe that there is I no DO le al atlon f for cases of alleged libel tile the He declared that th the old doc do dovine vine rUn relating to the libeling of the government ur or of great Ireat public rc haM bali been rejected In all U the state tea of t the since I nee the revolution of nd and that It had bad before that thaI tI time been n reJected je ted In KII nd b by the act abel In the reign of II the stiLl chamber bambe court lie He asserted that t the doctrine ha has eV ever r sines In been n reo re regarded as unreasonable un and ft l Uon tion He Be held that the views Ie ep ed b by John Milton In hi his famous h en 01 the freedom of the PI press and tile the vIe view of Lord In h his l de 4 tens fen ot of Tho Thomas Paine Palue ben that thai w win indicted for libel upon government have lIed flied the law subject In opposition tu tip the theold old oil deaP theory of paternalism en which he said Id the present lion I is founded Ife rIdiculed the which he said eaid the governments y are repotted reported to held that the e that the government nant of II a country wIth a Constitution like Ilk ours cannot be libeled applies everywhere e else le la in the United States State but does doe not apply In the thO DI DIt t of C Columbia Libel uy be a crime against the DistrIct of o Columbia he declared u aa uIt It I Is against t tile Ut state te of Ne New York tork but It I II no crime against the f federl del Iov gov as such nor ha It ever r Non been beenson son will It ever be so 10 1011 long am Con poe geese adhe adheres to those on Which wille the revolution and t be Con Constitution depended ba n nat t It In an any federal dral statute nor ha has Congress given Ivell any ny district ni cult court ot of the UnIted diction of the tm fOl the theas n as stated by Iud Judge Johnson tile Ike Goodwin case that Congress m ant antak rut make ak an at act a crime and tn a thereto before fOro It ran give to an any court ion |
