Weekly Standard

Chief Justice Pearson—Law and Order.

We concur with the Salem Press in the following remarks. No State on this continent contains a sounder or an abler jurist than Chief Justice Pearson. He is not dependent on any earthly power for his office, for he holds it during life; and he can, therefore, have no sordid motive, and no fear of popular rebuke in the performance of his duties. We are satisfied that duty is the governing rule with him.

The State was grossly insulted by the Secretary of War, who acted under the direction of the President, when Mr. Irvin, discharged on a habeas corpus by the Chief Justice, was re-arrested and placed in camp. Such an act, if perpetrated by a foreign power, and not promptly apologized for, would have justified a declaration of war on the part of the State.

The State was also grossly insulted when Enoch Jones, discharged by Judge Kerr, was re-arrested by order of Capt. McCoy, thrust again into the Bastile in Salisbury, in which place, from confinement and cruel treatment, he died.

The State was also grossly insulted when this same man McCoy, convicted on an examination had in Salisbury of very improper conduct in office, reported himself in Richmond, and, after a hearing there, returned to Salisbury promoted to the rank of Major.

The Press is correct when it says, "high judicial decisions must be respected, and the Destructives are the last men who should attempt to inculcate lawless doctrines." Certain prominent Destructives are in the habit of threatening the Standard with mob law. When they find themselves unable to meet our arguments, and when forced to admit in their own minds that the people are with us and against them, they say we would not be allowed to print our paper in certain localities, and hint that we ought to be driven from the State. To which, in the language of the Press, we reply, "it is only the respect of the masses for law and order which saves them from the vengeance of an insulted and slandered people." Time makes all things even.

The Press says:

"We have witnessed, with pain and regret, the libelous assaults contained in certain newspapers opposed to the administration of Gov. Vance, on our highest Chief Justice, whose sole offence is that he decides according to law, and the impartiality of whose decisions are such that the humblest citizen takes his case before him with as much confidence of being protected in his just and legal rights as if he was the mightiest in the land. Neither threats nor blandishments of power can swerve him from a faithful and impartial discharge of his official duties. The poor and the humble are protected by him the same as the rich and powerful, and no State can boast of a more profound expounder of the laws of the land.

Do not the Destructive presses know that if they destroy the respect of the people for law and order, that there is no security for persons or property? Might becomes right, and no man can call his property his own. He is liable at any moment to be dispossessed of it by brute force, and the acts of the highwayman and robber become the law of the land, and liberty will indeed be but a name!

High judicial decisions must be respected, and the Destructives are the last men who should attempt to inculcate lawless doctrines.

They should remember that they are in a large minority in this State, and that their course—generally has become very odious to a large majority of the people, so that it is only the respect of the masses for law and order which saves them from the vengeance of an insulted and slandered people."