The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-24
Fraud Upon the Bench.
| KrnAai fho ~ Y ThsbaIDan


George G. Barnard is Judge of the Su-
preme Court. He is a young man of more
than average ability, and has held high
disnities. Some of his acts have commended
him to the confidence of good men; and
there was a time when we hoped he might
have earned precious fame by leading the
war upon corruption and municipal crime.
He has certainly recovered from these ten
dencies, and is now one Of the most willing
and reckless tools of Peter b Sweeney and
the Tammany ring. We are perfectly aware
that he has been working for renominatiop
and that the men who hold the power of
Tammany are hard and grasping, and apabls
of putting cruel stress upon any expectaut
candidate.
Judge Barnard, we have said, is a young
man. He has friends and others dear to him
He has never impressed us as man of sensi-
bilfty. Men OF sensibilty are never the dar-
lipgs of Tammany Hall, but no man can be
dead to the opinion of the world in which he
lives, nor deliberately seek to leave name
that will cause every one that bears it to
blush. The most infamous characters in his
tory have worn the ermne. Their evil deeds
were, perhaps, not greater than those of men
in other professions, but the universal judg-
ment Of mankind condemns an unjust Judge
to the lowest depths of infamy. The Bench is
freedoms last asylum. Public order, de-
cency, personal rights, property, society, life
itself, depend upon the just administration of
the law. Its ministers have a vast, arbitrary,
sacred power, and their responsibility is pro-
portionate. An unjust Judge is not merely q
citizen breaking the law or an officer vio-
latiDg public trusts. The ordinary crimes of
men in office only affect small class. But
an unjust judge il the common enemy OF
mankind. He strikes at the very founda atons
of society, and makes the law a tyranny and
q shame.
Judge Barnard is on the high road to defeat
at the polls-or impeachment before the Legs-
lature. We can stand good deal from New
York Judges, but we do not choose to submit
10 the stupendous frauds upon the franchise
which are taking place daily in the Supreme
Court. Read the shameful narrative which
We printed ON Thursday, and which is only q
continuation OF narratives heretofore printed.
Can any man see what is doing in the Supreme
Court and feel that Judge Barnard is Just
Judge? 1t is impossible for him to give any
excuse, or to make believe that he is ignorant
of the multitude of crimes daily committed in
his presence. No man knows better the
infamy of this proceeding. No man knows
more thoroughly the nature, the extent the
motive of these frauds, the exact means ol
carrying them ont, the men who are engaged
in the business, tle results to be gained the
perjuries and torgeries aud bribiDg constantly
practiced. The common sentiment of the
people is that for every one of these crimes
udge Barnard il espOnsible.
Well, Tammany Hall has paid him his
price, and he is again its candidate. Is there
not enough Of public honor left in New York
to secure his defeat Surely if there was ever
a time when men of al parties shOuld unite il
an earnest effort to save the Bench from the
infamy that surrounds it, it ia now. Judge
Barnard must reform these practices, or con
tent himself with infamous notorlety. Ou
duty is plain. We must beat him before the
people. Failing there, he must be impeached
before the Legislature.