Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-10-25


YERKEs is not the only jail bird who was
prominent in securing the Radical civic
tory'' in Pennsylvania last week. In evil
influence says the Washington Pdtriot-
Hugh Mara, has eclipsed Charles T.
Herkes. His story is one of elaborated
ruffianism, in which he had many cOopera-
tors. Two years ago, in broad daylight
two assassins entered the office Of a collec-
tor of internal revenue, in Philadelphia, and
shot him, as they thought, to death. The
surv;VQr OF those rutiians is Hugh Mara
Death by violence has silenced the other
Every body knew at the time that these
men were but the instruments of an enor-
nous atfiliation covering Pennsylvania,
with its headquarters in Philadelphia,
known as the g Whskey Ring" and who
the immediate ahettOrs and accessOrits to
the attempted murder were, was perfectly
well known.
Politics had little to do with it. There
were Republican and democratic eOnspira-
tors, and among the latter, some Of a GER
tain kind OF commanding influence, at least
locally. Mara was tried and convicted he
threatened in despair to tell who were his
employers, and was instantly pardOned, the
active agents IL promoting which were
some of the $ Democrats I'VE have referred
to- Time rolls by, and this rutfian, yield
ing to the dread attraction which influences
such natures, returned last summer TO
Philadelphia and committed 8 bloody as
sault-ths time his victim being one Of his
former friends, For this he was arrested
and is now i'll prison awaiting trial, his
counsel being the Federal Dist let Attorney
for Western Pennsylvania, II. Ducher
SwOpe, the same one who figured in the
YeIkes pardon job. His counsel on the
former trial was the present State District
Attorney, a leading Radical politician.
The politician outside and tho convict in,
At GLANCE saw their chance. Mara sent
tor his former friend, the District Attorney,
and made al affidavit revealing the names
of all, especially the Democrats" who
had been parties 10 the first mIIrderous
experiment.
Armed with this instrument Of terror
the work Of tho Radical managers was
simple enough. Terrorism is a weapon
easier to handle than corruption, and here,
as we have said, it was handled rcmorsc-
lessly and effectively. 1t told i'll every di-
rection. 1t reached not only Philadelphia,
but TO the ICm0tCSt corner O: the State
where the whsI3cydom had lis outlying
stations. 1t paral5 Lcd energy. 1t penc-
trated the inner COuuScl5 Of the party, and
betrayed dangerous secrets. 1t rendered
fruitlcSs the ordiltary processes of party
discipline, and the honest Democracy of
the State aW0kc to the astounding reality
that they were utterly sold out and bascly
betrayed by their own friends. We do not
pause to measure the relative cnoImt5 of
a crime like this and the common one Of
"crimes against suffrage" Our inclination
is that this is the worse of the two, for it is
infinitely more difficult of detection. But
what sight and thought it is hat if the
knelI of liberty, and honest suffrage, and
political honor be thus sounding, the hands
that ring it arc the bloody ones of peni-
tentiary inmate, aud the equally foul ones
of his cOnfederates without.