The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-15

chical form of government. He girds, in Ian I
guage more glowing than logical at "demo-
cracies, as being by their constitution inca
pable of this wise and gracious emoient of |
authority. If the decision of Judge Blatch- |
ford, of the District Court of the United States
for this district, in the matter of the petition |
Of one Moses Dupuy, heard before him on
Saturday is to be the definite interpre tation
and final settlement of the law of the land,
we should be inclined to think that Sir Will |
liam Blackstone understood the nature of
democracies wherein he had never lived quite
as well as he understood the nature of the
monarchy wherein he had lived.
The case of Moses Dupuy should be as fa- |
miliar to most of our readers as anything of
recent occurrence not directly affecting their
own interest can well be expected to be
Moses Dupuy, convicted Improbable as it
may appear) of illegal conduct in connection
with certain ''whisky operations" was SEN
fenced, some time in last January, to pay
fine of 5000 and to be imprisoned for year.
President johnson, just before his term
expired, saw fit, for reasons not here neces-
sary to be inquired into, to issue pardon
to Dupuy, the fine imposed upon him having
been already paid. This pardon passed
under the great seal of the United
States and was remitted in due course of
the mails to the Marshal of the United
States This officer had placed Dupuy in
the custody of the warden of the Penitentiary
on Blackwells Island, and it was obviously
his duty, as soon as he received the par
don of his prisoner, to cause him to
be released from that custody. Before the
Marshal had discharged this duty, however,
telegram reached him from President Grant
ordering the pardon of Dupuy to be sent
back to Washington. Similar action had been
taken at the same time by the new President
in regard to certain other pardons granted by
his predecessor; and a good deal of amaze
ment was, naturally enough, expressed
throughout the country at this promptitude in
attempting to annul the mercy of the Govern
ment shown by President who exhibited
no such alacrity in making up his mind
either as to the policy which his admins
tration should pursue or as to the counsellors
who should assist him in framing and carry
ing out policy. One of the persons struck
at by this attempted revocation of the pardons
of President Johnson happened to be Bos-
tonian. Mr.. Attorney-Ge Hoar pronounced
against the action of the new President in
the case of this Bostonian, and the latter is
now, we believe, at liberty. Quite otherwise
has it Jared with the unlucky DupuY. By
remarkable combination of circumstances,
Dupuys case came into the hands of Mr..
Clarence Seward, formerly the law partner Of
Judge Batchford and now the law partner of
Judge Blatchfords father, that venerable
gentleman, though well advanced in years,
and long retired from the bar, having come
forward in a truly beautiful spirit of paternal
devotion to supply, in the name of the firm of
B1atchford, Seward, and Griswold, the place
| left vacant by the elevation Of his son TO the
bench. With Mr.. Seward Mr.. Stoughton,
| another eminent Darrster, associated himself
! in the attempt to secure the Presidential pre-
rogative of mercy against the innovations of
! President Grant Both of these gentlemen,
| it is understood, pressed their services i'll the
most chivalric manner upon the prisoner,
asking, like the -1lmen-AdC0cut, or poor
man pleader, of the German courts, and like
| the gig-philanthropist of Boston, Mr. John
| Augustus no other fee or reward save the
appreciation of their own consciences, which,
as we all know, bears no eXchangeable value
in Wall street, and goes but a litCle way to-
wards favorable discounts at the bank. On
the other side appeared for the Government
Mr.. Edwards Pierrepont, the newly-appointed
| District Attorney. We are 10th, being lay
men, to raise questions as to the relative legal
ability of Mr. Pierrepont and his adversaries
| But holding, as we do, very clear and decisive
| views as to the original nature and intended
scope of the great Presidential act of grace
we are forced to infer from Judge Blatchford' S
decision that the merits of the case can hardly
have been presented to him by his friend, Mr..
Stoughton, and by his former partner at the
| Daf, MT. OeWdru, as SUrOISly dS lJS ueIlerlJS
must have been by his friend who is not his
partner, Mr.. Pierrepont.
The vital question of the case, covered, as
we showed week ago, by Chief Justice Mar
shalls reasoning in the case of Marbury VS..
Madison as to the conclusive character of let
ters-patent passed under the great SEAL does
not seem to have been touched either by the
prisoners counsel or the Government attor-
| ney nor does it seem to have so much as en-
tered into the mind of the very learned Judge.
At all events the result is that his Honor has
recorded his decision not only that Presi-
dental pardon, like contract for the sale of
shoes or of peanuts hath no validity until
delivered to the person pardoned, but that
pardon which by any means is prevented
from being delivered, and thereby certified,
| to the warden or other functionary having
charge of a prisoners body, is no pardon
at all. Whether this decision would
or would not be thought to have any possible
bearing on the facts or the controlling law OF
the case on Il review, we will say before Judge
Nelson, may perhaps be doubted. Nor is il
possibly very grievous thing that Mr. Moses
Dupuy should be for a season longer secluded
from the society of his fellow-men and the
pursuit of prosperity through whisky. But i
does appear to us to be rather in the nature
of public misfortune that the general esti
mate of President Grants apprehension of th
rights and duties of his high Office should rest
even for time, upon the public sense of tn
virtue and the validity of a judicial decision
rendered, as we may say, in the bosom of
small legal family, and tending, as far as
goes, to put the pardons of an American
President upon a level, in point of fore
and significance with the PIrd0RS de PIgr