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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 8, 1913
John W. Brown on West Virginia Despotism: The Military Court Martial
From The Coming Nation of May 3, 1913:
[Part III of III]
The [Military] “Court” convened about 9 a. m. on March the 7th. Squads of soldiers were sent to the different “Bull Pens” in different parts of the town and marshalled the defendants into the Odd Fellows Hall, where the court was in session. After fifty-three of the defendants were present, the Judge Advocate arose and addressed the court.
During his introductory remarks he advised the defendants that Houston and Belsher [Belcher], the attorneys for the United Mine Workers, had declined to appear in court, (he did not say that they refused to prostitute their profession by appearing before such an institution) but that he, as the Governor, or some one else, solicitous for the welfare of the defendants, had graciously and without any expense to the defendants, selected a couple of military men to defend the accused. It here developed that one of the “military lawyers” who was so chosen to defend the accused was one of the gentlemen who sat on the former commission and whose name was signed to the affidavit that the defendants were all guilty of murder and sundry other felonous crimes.
About this time J. W. Brown, one of the defendants, rose and asked the court to define for him his status in the case. The question was a little too big for the Judge Advocate, whereupon Brown tried to elucidate. He asked the judge if the court took the position that the Governor’s declaration of martial law suspended the state and national constitution, a position which the Judge Advocate took before the Supreme Court. This looked too much like a “leading question,” to use the vernacular of the American bar, for the Judge Advocate. He declined to answer, but told Brown to “proceed.” Brown then stated for the benefit of the court that as a citizen of the state of West Virginia and the United States his rights as such were woven and interwoven into the organic law of the State and the Nation.
If this junta had set aside both the State and National Constitution, then he had no rights to defend, as he would then be a subject and not a citizen. This being the case, he had no use for a lawyer and declined to acknowledge the jurisdiction, or the legality of the court and refused to enter a plea one way or another.
“Mother Jones,” the avenging nemesis of the coal miners, took the same position and added that “she had violated no law of the land; that she had done nothing but what she had done all over the United States and would do again when she got out.” Boswell, Battey [Batley], Parsons, and Paulson [Paulsen] took the same position. Parsons, who was quartered in the freight depot where most of the prisoners were kept, stated that he spoke for the “bunch,” to which the genial (!) Judge Advocate replied that he would enter a plea of “not guilty” for the whole “squad.” How kind, after having signed our death warrant!
This act having been performed, the wheels of justice began to grind, but before they made their first revolution they struck another snag. The attorneys for the United Mine Workers petitioned the District Court for a restraining order prohibiting the military court from trying the cases until after the question of jurisdiction had been determined by the United States Courts. A restraining order was placed in the hands of the Sheriff. This is the same gent who ordered the Baldwin thugs to fire on Holly Grove. Needless to say these papers were never served.
In the meantime one of the defendants, whose brother holds an official position in the Miners’ Union, had engaged counsel, or what is more to the point perhaps, the office holding brother secured counsel for him, in the person of “Mike” Mathny [Matheny] of the firm of Littlepage, Mathny and Littlepage. Mathny was present when the court opened to defend his client. When the Judge Advocate announced that he was going to try the prisoners in “squads” and the prisoners refused to enter a plea Mathny was up a tree.
Now comes about as lowdown and contemptible a trick as ever shyster lawyer pulled off. Between the attorneys for the defence and the Judge Advocate they agreed to take a recess. The prisoners were marched back to the “Bull pens,” after which the “Bunch” which Parsons spoke for in the morning were taken over to the hall where the court held its sessions, leaving Parsons in the “Bull Pen.” Here they were sweated and subjected to the third degree with the horrors of the penitentiary depicted on one side and the hope of acquittal on the other until the “bunch” were wheedled into signing a paper to the effect that the “court was a just and equitable tribunal and that they believed each man would get a fair trial and his just dues and therefore had decided to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court and enter a plea of “not guilty.”
Armed with this document the Shyster Lawyer beat it back to Charleston, where he presented it to the Judge of the District Court as an evidence that there was no excuse nor justification for his restraining order. After this piece of jugglery the wheels of justice (?) once more began to move. I have always heard it said that it was a shame to cheat a blind man, but what shall we say of a man, a judge advocate-heaven save the mark-that would take poor old blind Madam Justice, gag and bind her hand and foot, then smack her plumb in the face with a black jack. This is practically what Judge Advocate Wallace did.
The farce had scarcely got fairly started again when one of the attorneys appointed to defend the prisoners called the Judge Advocate’s attention to the “Code of West Virginia.” To which the Judge Advocate replied: “This court is not bound by the Code of West Virginia!”
“But,” replied the attorney, “you are trying these men for a violation of that very code.”
“That does not make any difference,” replied the Judge.
“Then,” protested the attorney, “you will at least observe the military rules in this case.”
“No, sir,” replied the judge, “this court is not bound by any code or rules. I have absolute power and I am going to use it even to the extent of hanging these men up by the thumbs.”
Then, with a grimace that made one think of a sewer rat, he said, “Proceed with the case.” And they did, and for five days they kept this farce going, at the conclusion of which the lawyers for the defense and the Judge Advocate tore off a yard or two of supercilious punk, which perhaps to their craven hearts sounded like oratory, and rested the cases pending the findings of the five “tin horns” who composed the commission, and the approval or rejection by the Governor of the whole bucket of slush.
And this will mark another chapter in the history of West Virginia!
Governor Hatfield is a new Governor, who came into office on March 4th. During his campaign he emphatically protested that if elected Governor the Baldwin Guards would have to go. He has been in office over five weeks and if we can believe the reports as they appear in the daily press the cut-throats are more arrogant than ever.
He has made several trips through the martial law zone and several speeches in which he promised that justice should be done and that everybody would get a “square deal,” yet so far as I have heard there has been no attempt made to bring to justice the cowardly assassins who shot up Holly Grove, while he emphatically refuses to turn Mother Jones and the Balance of the accused ones over to the Civil Courts for trial. On the contrary, he is holding them prisoners and incommunicoda.
There are many other phases of this controversy that should be brought to the attention of the American people, but which are too voluminous to take up at this time. Let it suffice here to remind the readers of the COMING NATION that if the coal barons of West Virginia and their hirelings get away with this deal then Liberty is surely dead and justice for the working class is a thing of the past. If they get by this then wherever and whenever the antagonism of the working class and the capitalist class reaches an acute stage, martial law will be proclaimed, the Civil Courts will be set aside, the leaders will be arrested on alleged offences, tried before a drum-head court and railroaded to the Pens. It means the death knell of our economic and political organizations, for what will be the use of electing men to office if the Codes and Constitutions are to be set aside at the behest of some irresponsible individual whom political accident or downright bribery has placed in a gubernatorial chair.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote re John W Brown Revolutionary, AtR p2 Mar 15, 1913
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/130315-appealtoreason-w902+supplement.pdf
The Coming Nation
(Chicago, Illinois)
-May 3, 1913
https://www.newspapers.com/image/487679272/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/487679274/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 7, 1913
John W. Brown on West Virginia Despotism: Mother Jones and Organizers Arrested
Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 14, 1913
Pratt, West Virginia – Mother Jones Seriously Ill, Awaits Verdict of Militia Jury
Mar 15, 1913, Pittsburg Coal Trade Bulletin p25
“WV Military Commission Hearing Case in Paint Creek Zone;
Court Upholds Martial Law”
-Names defendants, names charges, describes military trial from Mar 7 to Mar 10 when trial was paused awaiting decision of Judge Samuel Littlepage.
(search: jones boswell littlepage)
https://books.google.com/books?id=TYI4AQAAMAAJ
Hellraisers Journal -Monday March 24, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – State Supreme Court Upholds Martial Law
The Court-Martial of Mother Jones
-by Edward M. Steel
University Press of Kentucky, Nov 16, 1995
https://books.google.com/books?id=AbwYuZlwN6UC
In March 1913, labor agitator Mary Harris “Mother” Jones and forty-seven other civilians were tried by a [West Virginia] military court on charges of murder and conspiracy to murder, charges stemming from violence that erupted during the long coal miners’ strike in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek areas of Kanawha County, West Virginia. Immediately after the trial, some of the convicted defendants received conditional pardons, but Mother Jones and eleven others remained in custody until early May…
Constitutional Government Overthrown in West Virginia
-by John W Brown
Written during April 1913 while prisoner of West Virginia military.
Note: see page 24 (26 of 80) for “present time”: April 25, 1913.
https://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/AmRad/constitutionalgovernmentoverthrown.pdf
Ad for Pamphlet: Wheeling Majority of Aug 21, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092530/1913-08-21/ed-1/seq-6/
Tag: John W Brown
https://weneverforget.org/tag/john-w-brown/
Tag: West Virginia Court Martial of Mother Jones + 48 of 1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-court-martial-of-mother-jones-48-of-1913/
Tag: Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paint-creek-cabin-creek-strike-of-1912-1913/
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Which Side Are You On – Florence Reece & Natalie Merchant