The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-10-19

Getty Government"
The Office of States Attorney, under the Const
tuition of Maryland, is one of high honor and trus
Its powers are large lis responsibilities seriou:
and its duties of the very gravest Importance an
most ample scope. In some sense, the States AT
torney occupies a relation towards the adminstra
ton of justice which is still more intimate thai
that of the Judges themselves The proceedings o
the Courts are public altogether and consequently
open TO popular scrutiny, but the State Attorney
is entrusted with powers and duties necessarily tt
be exercised and performed out of Court, and in
great measure according to his own mere sense o
propriety and right There are functions connect
ed with his Office which must entirely depend, 70
their faithful execution, upon his secret and I'm
challenged discretion. He may discourage prose
cutions which ought TO be maintained, or encour
age those which ought 10 be dismissed. He maI
conniye at violations of the law; permit favorit
criminals to escape, and necessary witnesses to
main unsummoned; allow insufficient bail to b
taken; neglect to make proper investigations; tr,
important causes without sufficient preparation
submit, without argument, causes which ought tt
be argued; slur neggently over important point
of law and fact which his duty requires him t.
press in fine embarrass and defeat, in Thousand
private and almost nscrutabe ways the entire ad
ministraon of the criminal law within his dis
trct. All these offences he may commit daily
and yet be, to great extent, beyond the reach o.
certain detection, because, in all of them the line
between the honest and the corrupt exercise Of his
discretion must for the greater part be difficult tc
nd in tha IF t,n
easily be kept from knowing the extent to which
and the cases wherein, that discretion has been ex
ercised at all. For the purpose, therefore, of Sc.
curing, as far as possible, by proper inducements
the best professional ability and the highest per-
sonal integrity, the Constitution has made the
States Attorneyship an elevated and honorable
position, and has given to the Prosecutor larger
salary than the Judge at whose bar he represents
the Commonwealth. In this District, particularly,
the difference is very marked. The Judge OF the
Criminal Court receives but two thousand dollars
per annum. Mr. WHITNEY is allowed three thou.
sand, and takes for himself several thousand
more, in the shape of office rent, stationery, clerk
hire, fuel, books, &C.. to an amount so exortion
ate, that neither Judge BOND nor any other Judge
or officer of the State would put his reputation in
jeopardy by claiming it.
But the Constitution is not only liberal in its
compensation 10 the States Attorney. 1t is like
wise strict in its requirements and severe in the
penalties which it imposes and allows the Legisa-
ture to impose upon him, for the violation of his
duty or the abuse of his trust. The lst section of
the 9TH article of the Constitution provides that
che shall be subject TO removal for ncom-
Efficiency, wilful neglect Of duty, or mis-
t'demeanor in Office, on conviction in a court
ttof law" The Sd section prescribes the same
penalty for his receiving 'any other fee reward
ethan such as is, or may be allowed by law" BY
the LIST section of the 10th article, he is, in COM
mon with large class of other officers, "deemed
''to have vacated his office" in case of his failure
to pay over, yearly, to the Treasurer, the "excess
"by him received" over three thousand dollars,
''when the amount received by him, for the year,
'ishall exceed the Of three thousand dollars
By the 49th section of the 3Oth article of the Code
he is, in common with other public officers made
subject to Imprisonment in the Pententiary for
not less than eighteen months nor more than ten
years. in case he ''shall fraudulently embezzle or
''apprCpriate to his orR use, money funds or evil
sciences of debt, which he is by law bound to pay
"NNN''Aib
''or to any other person by law authorized to re-
''ceive the same" Under the 1st section of the
Goth article of the Code, he is made ineligible to
any Office of profit trust, ''until he shall have
Accounted for and paid into the Treasury all
''sums on the books thereof charged to and due by
fhim." If by reason of false accounts of what be
has received, he is not charged on the books of
the Treasury with all sums really due by him, he
is of course liable, under the Penitentiary clause
above cited. Should be be rendered ineligible,
under the Ist section of the Goth article, as above
and have been meanwhile elected 10 office,
his subsequent accounting with or payment into
the Treasury, shall not (under the ID section of
the same article validate his election. He must
go out notwithstanding, and if the Governor has
inadvertently given him his commission the 4th
section of the Goth article makes 1t the duty of
that officer, by proper proceeding, TO have his
election adjudged null and void and his place de-
clared vacant.
We do not propose at this time, to consider the
responsibilities which Mr. WHITNEY may have in
CURED under the provisions just cited, by reason
of any failure to comply with the obligations of his
office in respect TO the public moneys At the COM
mencement of the present session of the Grand
Jury, We called the attention Of that body TO the
remarkable account submitted by Mr.. WHITNEY to
the House of Delegates, under its ORDER on the
18th of February last, an elaborate analysis and
exposure of which were made in the American of the
25h of the same month. To the views and conclu-
sions then presented and adopted by the american,
there has been reply and if they be just, as to
us they seem unansweraby to be, the course of the
Grand Jury is plain, and the public will rely on
them TO pursue it, We have only to add, that in
their Investigations they not to be governed or
controlled by the fact that Mr.. WHITNEY may have
settled the accounts, which he has rendered to the
officers Of the Treasury at Annapolis. The times
at which he may have settled these, and the at
tendant facts, will determine the legal effect of
such settlements upon his eligibility to Office and
his right to retain it. But the still more import
ant question for the Grand Jury will be-not
whether Mr.. WHITNEY has settled, according 10
the accounts which he has rendered, bnt whether
those accounts themselves are true-whether he
has charged himself in them with all the moneys
he has received, and has dsbursed all for which
he claims credit. The Jury, in order TO enlighten
themselves upon that point, must summon before
them the accounting officers of the State and City
and the several Sheriffs who have paid fees TO Mr..
WHITNEY since he has held Office They should
see and examine the book which the lst section
of the 10th article of the Constitution requires
Mr.. WHITNEY to keep; in which he is bound to
enter f'every sum or sums of money received by
"hm, or on his account as payment or compen-
isation for his performance of official dutes;'
and copy of which, verified by his oath, he is
required to return yearly TO the Treasurer 'for his
''inspection and that of the General Assembly"
They should find out the items of the enormous
charges for 'ofice rent, fuel printing blanks,
stationery books, records,' &C., which, in Mr..
WHITNEY S account before mentioned, amounted
to S773.35, in 1856; 81, $50. AZ in 1857, and in
1863 to $3.50, or S4,6e3 II in three wears. to |
say nothing of 81 SEQ, salary of his denutv dnr-
ing the same period, making more, in the whole
than his own constitutional salary which bo |
likewise received for the years in question. With
out such Investigations, patiently and fully made |
and followed, too, through the collateral inquiries
to which they lead the Grand Jury cannot do |
Justice to their own position in the matter, the |
grave public interests at stake, or the expectations
of the community, whose confidence in them they
have thus far justified SO well.
In regard to the general responsibility which
he States Attorney may have incurred under the