The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-23

Chase is represented as suffering the pangs of
disappointment over the escape of the great
criminal. II is given out as though warm
from his judicial tongue, that he twas not i'm
any way party to this wonderful oonsum-
nation of the four years slaughter Nav. he
fairly bamboozled of the greatest of causes
celSbres and by the unaccountable conduct of
a legal lay figure. He fully expected that
the trial would take place, and that he him
self would preside" lie doubtless pictured
his appearance in history on greater oooa-
sion than ever called forth the wisdom of his
illustrous predecessors. Imagine his ohagrin
at the loss of this chance
Nothing more interesting has been taken
from the remains of unbured Pompeii than a
piece of the machinery which shows how the
people were governed in the good old times.
This piece of machinery is merely metal god
dess Standing on high in the temple, with
masses bowed to the earth in alteration, the
goddess uttered, or seemed to utter the de-
Crees of Justice insorutable to the merely
human wit of those simple, pleasant people.
But the ruin has developed that the inscruta-
BILE wisdom of the gilded goddess came to her
lips through so simple contrivance as q tin
tube, the neither end of which descended to q
chamber in the lower depths of the temple
There sat the priest-the governor of that age
and through his tube spouted up such
divinity, justice, or law as suited his personal
preudices or the little games of his party
How simple all this was, and how effective
What trouble it spared Here is noble in
stance Of that splendid simplicity we laud in
all the types of the antique. None of the tur-
mOil of political savagery disturbed those
masses; no llnotty questions of right worried
their happy days; no one made war but the
rulers; that tin tube, the chap in the cellar,
and the splendid piece of brass up above in
the temple, solved all such difficulties with
magnificent simplicity. Nearly two thousand
years have apparently brought us around to
the same place; for none can fail to see the
similarity between that ancient machinery and
the machinery operated in the Richmond
Court-that temple of national justice
There was the magnificent piece of brass
on the bench, which settled the great case by
utterances not his own; and there were the
masses amazed by the tubular wisdom-be-
wildered into partial appreciation of their
own insigniicance. But who was the fellow
at the other end of the tube This is likely
to become the great dispute. 1t was sup
posed at the time in the courtroom. by those
who understood the machinery that the
man at the neither end of the tube was Chief
Justice Chase; although, even so early as
that, some faint attempt was made to relieve
that gentleman in advance, as it We're and to
cast the Odium towards the President, who
was suggested as responsible for the refusal
W tly, anu ltI Jll6 ldiIuI6 10 oppose Jle
motion for baiI-the President or the legal
officers of the Government, Chandler and
Evarts. Who was it Chase denies it fatty.
Are the tube and the avenue so much alike
that the same man was at the other end of
both If Chase was ready and prepared to
hear and determine, how was it that the Gov
eminent prosecutors were not ready to go on (?
If Chase was ready too, how is it we are told
that the case could not have been tried
without packing jury ?'' This is one of
the inadvertent utterances of Greeley, though
it is noticeable that Greeley quietly edges
towards the doorways Of discussion when the
subject comes up-Who is responsible?
In the lame explanations and attempted
excavations of their conduct thus far put
forth, the Republican workers of the oracle
have emulated Barnum. Barnum crowned all
his humbuggeries by rushing into print with
volume that explained his cheats, and was,
Of course, based upon an acknowledgment OF
them. 1t is the same with these self-accusing
explanations, and the result must be the same
Just as Barnum was repudiated in Connec-
ticut, as a man whose trickeries rendered it
impossible to repose any confidence in him.
so these party tricksters will be repudated by
the grand undivided voice of the nation. That
must be the result for all, unless the out
rageous proceeding can be definitely fixed
upon some one.