The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-05-22
''"rki"s tho Responsibility Of tho JoG pa Va
Case-Nobody Co Blame.

mo AAoSpOmolDilty Oh the J6M Davk
Case-Nobody TO Blame.
Popular indign alton at the connivance o
officia Is and politicians, In the case Of JET
Davis, has excited already some squirming 0,
the part OF men who desire above all other
things to sssand well in the opinion OF the PEG
pie. The men justly chargeable with an acs
whose tendency Is TO make the American pes
pie ashamed Oi the war-whose assertion Il
that the war haA' no great basis Of principle
these men are now startled through that
natural constituencies that oils candidates viii
alarm whenever public opinion assumes forms
threatening to their ambition Chief Justic y
Chase is represented IS suffering the pangs of
disappointment over the escape Of the great
criminal. 1t is given ot, as though wars
from his judicial tongue, that he g was not in
any way party" TO this wonderful consum.
nation Of the four years slaughter. Nay, hs
ia not only 'not party" bat he is baked,
fairly bamboozled of the greatest of couses
cslebres, and by the unaccountable conduct Of :
legal lay figure. he "fully expected that tho /
trial would take place and that he himself
would preside" He doubtless pictured his Z
appearance in history ON greater occasion /
than ever called forth the wisdom Of his Illus
trious predecessors. Imagine his chagrin sk
the loss Of this chance.
Nothing more interesting has been takeA
from the remains Of unburied POmpeii than .
piece Of the machinery which shows how the |
people were governed in the good old times I
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 DEGREES
of q Justice nscrutable to the merely human viii |
of those simple, pleasant people. But the ruin /.
has developed that the inscrutable wisdom Of I
the gilded goddess came to her lips through - l
simple o continuance az a tin tube, the neither l
end Of which descended to chamber in the |!
lower depths of the temple There sat the |
pr.est-the governor of that age-and through l
his tube spouted up such divinity, justice OF |
law as suited his personal prejudices or tho !
little games Of his party How simple all this !!
was, and how effective What trouble it spared
Here is a noble instance Of that splendid sim /
plicity we laud in all the types Of the antique.
None Of the turmoil Of political savagery dis 1
turbed those masses; no knotty 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 thou
sand years have apparently brought US around
to the same place; for none can fail to see tho
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 o.
the bench which settled the great case BY utter
ances not his own and there were the masses
amazed by the tubular wisdom-bewildered
into partial appreciation of their own insight |
dcance. But who was the fellow at the other
end Of the tube, This is likely to become the I
great dispute. II was supposed at the time in |
the court room, by those who understood the !
machinery, that the man ct the neither end Of
the tube was Chief Justice Chase although
even 80 early as that, some faint attempt was
made to relieve that gentlemen in advance, IS ID
were, and to cast the odium toward the Presi-
dent, who was suggested as responsible for the
refusal to try and for the failure to oppose the
motion for bail 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 70
hear and determine, how was it that the gov
eminent prosecutors were not ready to 60 on :
II Chase was ready too, how is it we are told
that the case could not have been tried with
out "packing juryw This is one Of the in
advertent utterances Of Greeley though it is
notable that Greeley quietly edges toward the
doorways of discussion when the subject comes
up-who is responsibles
In the lame explanations aud attempted
excavations Of their conduct thus far put
forth the republican workers Of the oracle
have emulsted Barnum. Barnum crowned al
his humbuggeries by rushing into print with
q volume that explained his cheats, and was
of course based upon an acknowledgment Of
them. 1t is the same with these selfaccusing
explanations, and the result must be the same.
Just as Barnum was repudiated in Connecticut.
as q man whose trckeres rendered it impos-
sible to repose any confidence in him, SO these
party tricksters will be repudiAted by tho
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.