The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-08-10

ne course Nhich ule newspapers have taken atls
ring Gifts long and tempest in a teapot invssi-
CATION This ia so much the rnore Necessary on our
part e. morning paper yesterday insimates " that
certain parties are endeaVoring to PREJUDICE the
Rey abduction case ia favor Of the Spanish Con-
sui BY publishing documents which have been
offered in testimony, hus were Tejscisd by Judge
Bright and Commissioner Cohen as being deficient
in that authenticity which would invest them with
the attribute Of legality
independent Of the ignorance which is shown
in chaFacterizing documents rejected by court
as stamped with suspicion" the paragraph in
yesterdays Picayune is farcical in the extreme,
coming as it does from those who, throughout the
ReY affair, have, By their suppression Of weil-,
authenticated intelligence, no less than by their
publication Of idle and ridiculous rumors, done as
much as they could to fan the excitement against
the Spanish Consul. The legal knowledge Of the
Picayuae seems to be on par with lis capacity
for discriminating between probable and an i'm.
probable Tumor; and we would advise it Of the
fact, which most American youngsters Of fourteen
are acquainted with--that Judge or a court may
rule out evidence Of whose moral truth and weight
be Or il is perfectly convinced Nay, if the Solo
monte Picayune had but observed the course of
the court on Wednesday, il would have seen that
the Judges admitted the very testimony which they
had previously rejected.
But the Crescent forsooth attempts to PREJUDICE
the Rey abduction case in favor Of the Spanish
Consul" The Crescent has but published facts
aud statements which other journals have sup
pressed. We have confined ourselves almost en-
tirely to facts and the deductions which might be
drawn from them. We have not, in our comments
the investigation, been obliged to resort to in
situations of wholesale bribery, forgery and per-
jury. We have not exposed ourselves to libel pro-
secutions BY aspersing the characters Of American
citizens and foreign officials We haye not gar
blsd the reports of tie Investigation by putting into
the mouths Of Witnesses words they never uttered
sentences calculated to produce an impression
directly the contrary Of that The witness intended
Can those papers which have egged on the prose-
cution Of this affair say as much
So much for our course in the affair; we now
come TO speak Of what others have done.
Some three weeks ago the New Orleans public
was thrown into state Of violent excitement by
the publication of certain fumors which were afoat
as TO the abduction of Rey, alias Garcia. Reports
were given as true which the least reflection would
have shown to be improbable in the extreme.
Where the reports were deficient, newspaper re-
polters and newspaper editors drew on their fancy
~ up tiie bhEu s6blHu 10 De EMIL
lous of the others in the violence of their denunc
atoms and the Fecklessness Of their assertions At
last one man was found who swors that he had
good reason to believe that Rey was abducted
What did it matter that both judicial and execu.
tive funetonaries-the guardians of the justice and
honor Of Louisiana.-expressed themselves satisfied
that the charges against the Spanish Consul were
unfounded! The opinion Of Morante, founded on
wanna rslradr and hpavpa14 toe4frn,r,rr
by the patriotic newspapers as more reliable than
the opinions-of Recorder Genois and Governor
johnson based, as these latter were, on definite
declarations and sustained BY the total absence Of
positive proof Of the alleged abduction What did
it concern these generous journals that the Spanish
Consul was 3 stranger in our midst--a foreigner,
without the sympathes Of his countrymen to sup
port him No" they soliloquzed, r the current
Of popular opinion is against the Consul and so
il was owing to the very fair and impartial state
menis Of these papers themselves-' our people
want Cuba, and this Rey abduction is a fair pre-
text A fig for generosity and fair dealing we
win join with the popular cry and make the most
Of the affair" And so they did. They out Her.
oded Herod-they were more violent in their state
ments than the biterest out-of- doors enemies
of the Consul.
As we said, Morante made his affidavit, and the
case was SET for an early day. Before the time for
the investigation arrived public feeling had some
what subsidized. This, however, did not suit the
getters up Of the affair. So the evening and the
morning papers put forth inflammatofy articles, in
order 10 produce a public feeling which might
overawe the Court and force the prisoners to be
committed. The abducdonist iunta, too, under
took 70 manufacture feeling in tie Northern cities
which would come back and increase the excite
ment here. But had the proceedings Of the Court
been fairly reported, all these efforts would have
been useless. The community would have per
ceived the discrepancy between the facts proved
on the trial and the facts asserted in flaming and
trashy editorials IL was necessary, then, to get
up new trial, different from the one going on in
Court and intended especially for the vast majority
who could not get into the Justices room, but
eagerly read the newspaper reports in the morning
Even all these man@uvres and precautions would
fail, however, if news should come from Havana.
excuipating the Consul and explaining the depar-
tpre of Rey in a simple and reasonable manner
Another device was hit on. The abduetionists
determined to suppress such news if it came: and
if anybody not in the Plot should fooIishy publish
The intelligence, they determined to prove it false
by algebra" If the agebraic'' process were not
it would be easy TO throw dseredt on the
news by the publication Of all the current stories !
which could only have been started by New |
Orleans Messmer or Cagliostro, who possessed the
faculty Of seeing things a thousand miles of, and
then from the back of his head or the pit Of his |
stomach Only one circumstance was not provided |
against. Il was possible that vessel might come
to New Orleans direct from Havana with Rev's |
deposition, sworn 20 and subscribed before the |
American Consul, that he eff New Orleans of his |
own free will and consent If she abduetionists |
had not been so imprudent as to demand loudly the
testimony Of Rey, they might even have got over
this difficulty by saying that the oath of criminal,
or at least one accused of crime, was not to be
believed. Even as it was, after having called for
Rey' after saying that his was the only best evil
denee in the case, they turned around, and with
the unblushing e6tonlery Of DR.. Oates, declared
that nothing Rey could say would in the least affect
the merits Of the case gratuitously alleged to have
been made out against the Spanish Consul