The Camden Weekly Journal

Judge Withers' Charge

To the rioters on the North Eastern Railroad, who had been arrested and imprisoned for their outrageous conduct, in resisting the authority of the law is one of the best that we have ever heard or read. Elsewhere in our paper to-day it may be found, and we commend it because of its high tone and correct sentiment. As the learned Judge has so well remarked although we have no standing armies to awe, yet on every foot of Carolina soil there is a greater than Victoria herself, and the law is our Monarch. A careful reader will discover much that is forcible apart from its mere aptness to the occasion for which it was specially designed, and we are impressed with the remark made by an intelligent and true southern Irish gentleman, whom we met on the cars a few days ago, that a more comprehensible address, on such an occasion, has been seldom heard from any Bench in the country, for, whilst it is manifest, that the Judge intended to be distinctly understood by Pat in the ditch, he has judiciously trained his language to the comprehension of all who presume to make war upon our institutions; assuring others, besides those turbulent sons of the Emerald Isle, that the rights of the person and the property of southern men, will we vindicate to the bitter end. Is such language intended only for the guilty culprits before him? By no means; the point is strong, and we would be glad that the doctrine be preached constantly from the Bench. The Judge with his characteristic perception saw this as a fit occasion to administer proper rebuke to that growing spirit of mobocracy, which has more than once essayed to pollute and invade the sanctity of our laws, for whilst it is true this is the first exhibition of a mob strike, it is not the first, which has disgraced our State. The Judge too is very happy in his compliment, to the country from whence these rioters came, and we must acknowledge, although there are many who come to our shores, and create disturbances, yet there are also others who are among our best citizens and who are therefore entitled to that respect and consideration due to all worthy persons, whether foreign or native. The gentleman to whom we have alluded, is a genuine Irishman, and yet he expressed the most perfect admiration for all that Judge Withers had said to the rioters, and we know him to be as true upon every southern sentiment as any native born Carolinian.