Justice - 3 quotations

"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm ... is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.   If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege."
-- Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)

 

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This is a verbatim transcription of the sentence from United States of America v. Gonzales, imposed upon the defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico in the year 1881, by a United States Judge, sitting at [near] Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom:

 

"José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring.  The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, [and the air will become soft and balmy, in short, José Miguel Xaviar Gonzales,] and the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won't be there.

The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose.  Still, you won't be there to see.

From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation.  The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you.

You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some [other] officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.

And then, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch."

United States of America v. Gonzales (1881)
United States District Court, New Mexico Territory sessions

(true attribution unknown) falsely attributed to 'justice of the peace', not federal judge the Judge Roy Bean
(the [Texas] commissioners courts appointed Bean 'Justice of the Peace' in 1882 (in Eagle's Nest, Vinagaroon, & Langtry, TX))

sources: http://westernsensibility.blogspot.com/2008/07/good-ol-days-of-death-sentencing-1881.html (+ Wikipedia & various, including the LOC)

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Song: "Beer for my horses"

 

"Well a man come on the 6 o'clock news
Said somebody's been shot, somebody's been abused
Somebody blew up a building
Somebody stole a car
Somebody got away
Somebody didn't get too far yeah
They didn't get too far

Grand pappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that

Chorus:

Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles well sing a victory tune
Well all meet back at the local saloon
Well raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
We've got too much corruption, too much crime in the streets
Its time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Sendem all to their maker and hell settle em down
You can bet hell set em down cause

Chorus (x2)

Song: "Beer for my horses"
Sung by: Toby Keith/Willie Nelson
Written by Toby Keith and Scott Emerick.
( Tokeco Tunes/Sony-ATV Songs LLC dba Tree Publishing Co./Big Yellow Dog Music.)
From "Unleashed", 2002, Dreamworks.

 

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related:  Traditional American Values & Founding Fathers' Quotations:  http://harrold.org/quotes

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