The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-16
The PrOper Punishment of Crime In
High Places.


tiary, but if man steals hundred thousand
dollars he is defaulter, and the chances of
his ever seeing the inside of prison are
too remote to be taken into consideration. Is
It not time, then, that this discrimination,
(which shocks the moral sense, and is bitter
mookery of Justice" should be obliterated :
The consideration of this difference in the treat
ment of the various grades of criminals is called
foroibly to mind by charge delivered by Judge
Shipman, of the United States Circuit Court of
Connecticut, to the grand jury of his court,
when he sent before them certain bills charg-
ing officers of the national banks with defal-
cations. AS the failure of national banks in
various portions Of our country is not such
rare occurrence, it renders the charge of the
Judge of general interest, and as all the failures
thus far have been due to unfaithful officers
We will cite some of the sensible and certainly
just sentiments of his Honor.
The law of Congress in creating these banks
recognized the necessity of providing for dis
honest officials, by declaring that any officer
who should embezzle the funds of the assoeia-
lion should be guilty of misdemeanor, and
liable to not less than five nor more than ten
years Imprisonment This punishment is
severe, but not unnecessarily harsh. The
officers of the banks possess certain claims to
the position, which the Judge sets forth
"They occupy places of trust and confidence
conferred upon them for their intelligence and
supposed integrity. They are men of good
social standing, are raised by their salaries
above want and are removed from many of
the temptations which assail those in the
obscure and humble walks Of life."
And inasmuch as their temptations are less
30 much the more should their punishment be
severe. There can be little said in extenua-
tion and much in aggravation of such an
offense. The character of the funds placed in
the keeping of these officers is such as to
render it sacred. The widow and the orphan
deposit their sole support in the keeping of
those who have a reputation for integrity
The hard-working man, the day laborer,
place in the care of the banks the fruits of their
toll. And for any one under the plea of mis-
fortune in speculation, or any other excuse,
to defraud those who most need all they
possess, is an offense richly meriting ten years
in the penitentiary. The Judge does away
with all false sentimentality in the
behalf of such, and aptly adds:-
fyet the public and the victims are told
that the high positions of the oulprits, their
attractive and manly qualities, their past un-
blemished reputation, or their eminent piety,
or all combined, are such that those who have
Lhe earliest and freest access to the evidence of
guilt do not desire their punishment and
pannot find it in their hearts to aid in bringing
them to justice. If the moral sense of those
most Immediately interested in the manage
ment OF these institutions is reduced to this
were enacted declaring every officer, director, or
5tockholder of bank, who has knowledge
that fraud has been committed upon it, and
fails to make immediate complaint to the Off
GERS of the law, an an accessory after the fact,
punishable by fine and Imprisonment"
We like to see high law officer thus de-
nouncing sham sympathy, and desiring to
deal out the due punishment to all, whether
rich or poor. If the idea of those who thus
shield the guilty is correct, or even to be tole-
rated, it will end, as the Judge says, in its
being "di6icut to punish any except the friend
Tess. If high social position, or reputation for
moral worth in the offender, is to shield him
from prosecution, and release the members Of
the community from all obligation to uphold
the enforcement of the law, courts of justice
will soon be powerless to punish for any crime
where breach of trust is involved. For the
respectable and intelligent are alone hOnored
with great pecuniary trusts. 1t is to such
men that the vast and varied interests of cor
porations are committed and to exempt them
from all penalties for embezzlement is to license
Be crime, without even the poor return of a
revenue derived from those who practise it,"
The extent to which this feeling is already
carried is also we'll stated by the Judge, in an
example which had fallen under his notice in
MS own COurt;-"so demoralizing has the
sentiment OF the community on this subject
become, that offenders of the more respectable
class 6cgln to demand exemption from punishment
as a right! tits not long since that a man of
education and prominence, notoriouslv puiltv
of repeated and extensive forgeries. wbiIe tam
porarily confined, or rather lodged, in the iail
in this county had the efIrontery to denonnoa
every one of his victims who hesitated to unita
with him in suppressing the evidence of his
guilt. He finally overcame all their scruples.
and is now engaged in enlghtening other com
munities on their moral duties, and in the
enjoyment Of the patronage and favor OF
sooietv. But mark the contrast About the