make up for this courtesy, the guards were ordered to stand in the court room throughout the proceedings, their backs to
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. J7
the judge — arms at present a living, meaningful show of defiance and contempt of that very law which the governor and military seemed so anxious to protect.
For several days this disgusting spectacle was repeated, until on Thursday, Sept. 24th, the judge decided that the prisoners were held unlawfully by the military, and ordered their immediate release.
As soon as Judge Seeds announced his decision. General Chase arose from his seat and informed the judge that he would not release the prisoners excepting he were ordered to do so by "His Excellency tiie Governor and Commander in Chief." The soldiers then secured the prisoners, and, with their general at their head, insolently tramped out of the court room, and rode back to their camp.
Governor Peabody must have become somewhat alarmed at the turn events were taking, for he wired General Chase that same evening to liberate the men, and liberated they were. But their release on the order of the governor could not wipe out the affronts and indignities that had been heaped on Judge Seeds and the District Court of Teller County by the military ruffians.
The following is an extract from the closing remarks of Judge Seeds' decision :
"I trust that there will never again be such an unseemly and unnecessary intrusion of armed soldiers in the halls and about the entrances of American Courts of Justice. They are intrusions that can only tend to bring this court into contempt, and make doubtful the boasts of that liberty that is the keynote of American Government."