Joseph remonstrated against such barefaced, illegal, and tyrannical proceedings, but the still insisted that they should go to jail. requested the to wait until he could see , and was told by that he would only wait five minutes. Joseph and again remonstrated, and the waited until about 9 o’clock, when they heard by that the did not think it with within the sphere of his duty to interfere, as they were in the hands of the civil law, and therefore he had not the power to stay process, or the due course of law, and that he could not interrupt a civil officer in the discharge of his duty. knew this was illegal (for he had formerly been an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the ) and when he was appealed to by Captain Robert F. Smith to know what he must do, as he had found his mittimus as a magistrate was illegal, and therefore that it was a false committal. replied “You have the Carthage Greys at your command.” Captain Smith therefore commanded his “Greys” to execute and carry into effect his illegal mittimus as a Magistrate; thus practically blending the civil and military in the same person, at the same time, and the prisoners were violently and illegally dragged to jail without any examination whatever, while his was in the adjoining room to that from which they [HC 6:570] were thus taken. So much for his professions that the law must be executed.

Thus a justice of the peace, acting as a Military Officer also, by virtue of his commission as such, orders his command to appear under arms, and to incarcerate the prisoners whom he had just before ordered the to commit to jail by mittimus without having them brought before him for examination; and the , having been himself at one time a judge upon the bench, knew and well understood the illegality of the above proceedings. He also well knew that military power and authority had been used by one and the same person; and yet he, acting at that time as Commander in Chief, which gave him the supervision over all his officers, and in fact made him responsible for all their acts and movements, refused to interfere when requested by the prisoners to interpose his authority on their behalf against an illegal civil process, and also refused to countermand the illegal, oppressive, and unofficer-like order of one of his Captains. Moreover, having taken the oath of office, as Governor of the State of , he was by virtue of that oath bound to see the laws faithfully executed, and not, as in this instance, see them violated and trodden under foot, and even prompt one of his officers in his lawless course. Thus he violated his solemn pledges and oath of office.