A self Constituted Vigilance Committee in the hands of the law.
--In the Court of Sessions of
Cumberland county, Pa., last week,
Richard Oswald. A. J
Kaufman, Jr., and Levickberty, all of
Mechanicsburg, were found guilty of arresting and holding in confinement a men named
John Kennedy.
It appears that
Mr. Alvey, a prominent lawyer of
Hagerstown, Md., was arrested by military authority in June last, on a charge of disloyalty, and was brought to
Mechanicsburg, enroute for Fort Lafayette.
Kennedy, who claimed to be a Union man, on seeing
Mr. Alvey in custody, denounced his arrest as n outrage, whereupon, it is alleged, he was taken into custody by the defendants, who, after giving him a mock trial, released him Soon after he was again arrested by them, and an attempt was made to compel him to take the oath of allegiance.
This he refused to do; and was finally released.
The
Carlisle (Pa)
Volunteer says:
‘
The case created considerable interest, and a great many witnesses, as well as spectators, were in the court room during the protracted trial.
It was the first case of the kind, perhaps, ever tried in this county, and it was to decide the question whether a set of fanatical enthusiasts can with impunity, and whenever they please, arrest and insult men who happen to differ with them politically.
It was to test the question whether a self-constituted and unlawful committee of stay-at-home gentry dare set the laws and Constitution at defiance at pleasure.
The trial occupied two full days, during the whole of which time the court room was crowded.
At this writing the defendants had not been sentenced.
’
