powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 14, 1906
Washington, District of Columbia – State Kidnapping Challenged
The Appeal to Reason of October 13th published a good part of the brief presented by Attorneys Murphy, Darrow, and Richardson on behalf of Fellow Workers Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone before the U. S. Supreme Court. The attorneys for the defense seek to free the men who were kidnapped from their homes as part of a plot perpetrated by the governors of Colorado and Idaho to deprive the men of their constitutional rights. The brief takes up an entire page of this issue of the Appeal, and we, therefore, offer this summary:
We ask and we believe that the action of the supreme court of the state of Idaho and of the circuit court of the United States, sitting in and for the state of Idaho, will be reversed, and that they will be directed to sustain the writs and direct the release of the prisoners, with an opportunity to them of returning to the state from which they were kidnaped by the conspiracy, confederation and agreement of the governors of the states of Idaho and Colorado, for the overthrow and in avoidance of a provision of the constitution of the United States and an act of congress made pursuant thereto.
Respectfully submitted.
JOHN H. MURPHY.
CLARENCE S. DARROW.
EDMUND F. RICHARDSON,
Counsel for Appellants and Plaintiffs in Error.
From The Washington Post of October 11, 1906:
MINERS CASE IS ARGUED
—–
Council for Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone Charge Fraud.
—–
Colorado and Idaho Authorities Said to Have Conspired
to Kidnap Steunenberg’s Alleged Murderers.
—–
The Supreme Court of the United States heard argument yesterday [Wednesday October 10th] in the cases of Charles H. Meyer [Moyer], W. D. Haywood, and George A Pettibone, officers of the Western Federation of Miners, who are in prison in Canon County [they are charged in Canyon County, but imprisoned in Ada County], Idaho, under charge of murdering former Gov. Steunenberg, of that State.
The case comes to the Supreme Court on an appeal from the decision of the Idaho Federal Court refusing to grant writs of habeas corpus. The case for the prisoners was presented by E. F. Richardson, of Denver, and C. S. Darrow, of Chicago, and for the State of Idaho by W. H. Hawley, of Boise.
The principal point in controversy was the method by which the Idaho authorities secured jurisdiction over the men. All of them are residents of Colorado, and it was alleged on behalf of Moyer and his associates that they were kidnapped in pursuance of a conspiracy, to which the governor of Colorado and the Idaho authorities were parties, and hence that jurisdiction was acquired by fraud. The act was denounced as “a flagrant malfeasance of executive duty, from the contemplation of which right-thinking people turn with loathing.”
Mr. Hawley contended that the extradition proceeding had been entirely regular, and referring to the reflections upon the Idaho and Colorado authorities, said the courts could not afford to countenance such abuse of high officials by counsel.
He took the position that even if it were true the governor of Colorado had connived at the removal of the Federation officials in an irregular way, their remedy was in an action for damages, and that the status of the prisoners could not be affected by such a course on the part of the Colorado executive.
—–
[Photograph added.]
From the Washington, D. C., Evening Star of October 11, 1906:
THE COURT RECORD.
—–
United States Supreme Court.
Wednesday, October 10.Present: The Chief Justice [Fuller], Mr. Justice Harlan, Mr. Justice Brewer, Mr. Justice White, Mr. Justice Peckham, Mr. Justice McKenna, Mr. Justice Holmes and Mr. Justice Day.
No. 249. George A. Pettibone, appellant, agt. Jasper C. [P.] Nichols [Sheriff of Canyon County, Idaho];
No. 250. Charles H. Moyer, appellant, agt. Jasper C. Nichols;
No. 251. William D. Haywood, appellant, agt. Jasper C. Nichols; argument commenced by Mr. Edmund F. Richardson for the appellants.
[Photograph added.]
SOURCES
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Oct 13, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67586732
The Washington Post
(Washington, D. C.)
-Oct 11, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28874479/
The Evening Star
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Oct 11, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/146503950/
Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town
Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America
-by J. Anthony Lukas
Simon and Schuster, 1997
https://books.google.com/books?id=d07IME-ezzQC
IMAGES
HMP Brief bf US Supreme Court, AtR, Oct 13, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67586732/
Moyer Haywood Pettibone, ab 1906
pdf! http://darrow.law.umn.edu/documents/Wilshire_Mag.pdf
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photo.php?pid=777
1906 (before Dec) US Supreme Court-Holmes Day McKenna Peckham White Brewer Harlan, Chief Justice Fuller
https://www.loc.gov/item/90707013/
See also:
Melville Fuller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melville_Fuller