The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-29
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 80 1869.
THE PARDON OF ILLICIT DIS.
TILIERH

Ir is currently rumored that the conviction
and sentence of George Mountjoy are to be
followed by q vigorous effort to secure his
pardon; that many act i've politicians, includ-
ing Senators and congressman, are concerned
in this movement; that desperate exertions
will be made to convince the President that
Mount oy is more sinned against than sim
ming and that he is in every respect proper
object of executive clemency. We have no
personal feeling against the criminal whose
case has excited this lively interest, but we
earnestly protest against the movement to
shield him from the punishment inflicted by
the Court. OF all classes of rogues, thosele least
deserve mercy who systematically plunder
the Treasury of the nation, and make sport
of its revenue laws. The thief who under
the pressure of necessity pliers paltry arti
Gle, or the ruffan who, under the impulse of
passion strikes deadly blow, are more legi
innate objects of executive clemency than the
calculating villains who deliberately attempt
to fill their Golfers by defrauding the Gov
ernment, and who, in committing this crime,
freely resort to all others. The whisky
ring" has become the synonym and en-
bodiment of every species of pri-
vate and public rascality, and there must
be something fearfully rotten in Den
mark when the sentence of
one of its representatives is followed by
attempts in high quarters to shield him from
deserved punishment. 1t is now well known
that during large portion of Johnsons Pre-
sidential term the tax was scarcely paid on
ene gallon of whisky out of ten manufactured;
aI, he
groaned were fearfully increased by the sys-
tematic evasions of the tax laws by illicit dis
tillers. Only small proportion of men guilty
of these frauds can ever be brought to JUS
tice; but, since the present administration is
making vigorous efforts to detect and punish
all who defy the amended laws, the public
welfare is deeply involved in the rigorous
enforcement of the new policy. Andrew john
son did enough harm by pardon
ing counterfeiters and, violators of
the revenue laws to consign his
name to perpetual infamy for these
offenses alone, and we trust that General
Grant will not, even in the most remote de-
gree, initiate this disastrous example. Con-
gressmen and all other politicians shoald
understand that mercy to fellows of the
Mountjoy stamp is rank cruelty and injustice
to the toiling millions who are compelled to
fill the Golfers which the defrauders of the
revenue are perpetually striving to illegally
dsplete. The people are in no mood to
regard with lenient eye either the robbers
of the Treasury or their aiders and abettors;
and in this latter category they will hence
forth class those who seek pardons for the
leaders of the whisky ring. The moral effect
of Mountjoy's sentence will be worth millions
to the Government, if the course of justice
is not arrested. His pardon, on the other
hand, will incite hundreds of designing
knaves to repeat his offenses This fact
seems to us 80 clear that we shall esteem it
our duty to expose all efforts to secure his
release from prison, and to publish the names
of all prominent politicians who connect
themselves with this movement, so that the
public may know who are the friends and
champions of the sworn foes of honest tax
payers.