The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-14
The Pomeroy scandal-Let All Traitorl
20 Public Trust DO Punished.


corruption must not be allowed to cool before
weapon that will terrify evil-doers of every
stamp. The very daring of the conspirators
against public integrity has helped to betray
them, and the laying bare of their schemes
must only indicate the places whore the hand
of relentless justice shall drive the retributive
steel and cut out the cankers to the roots. We
are happy in one respect that the unsoundness
has not reached the great honest heart
of the nation yet and that the process of ex-
cision will touch no vital parts but had the
fostering been allowed to spread but little
longer who can tell that the attempted cure
might not be as fatal as the disease2 The
point we wish to emphasize in this connection
is that all honest men and all independent
journals should be of one mind in dealing
with corruptionists and corruption. They
must lift themselves above leanings and
likings above policies and prejudices, and
where man is found q traitor to his trust o
corruptionist or willing tool that he be NOR
ally executed and his detested memory held
up to the public gaze, like felon's head in
olden times upon city's gates-a warning to
the evil-minded forever.
The developments in the case of Senator
Pomeroy fully bear out the worst suspicious
Of Wholesale corruption which were predi-
Gated upon the dramatic scene which ended
in the disgrace Of that Senator and the election
of Mr.. Ingalls,. From the graphic letter of
our correspondent at Topeka, Kan, may be
gathered the incidents which will form so
remarkable chapter in our history To the
thoughtful and patriotic the evidence given by
State Senator York before the joint committee
of the Kansas Legislature charged with
trying the case will be sad though interest
ing reading The bare facts which
summaries Of Senator York's memorable
speech will be recalled by our readers the
testimony of the cool-nerved man who lured
the too willing tempter to his destruction will,
before it is closed, complete the picture of
degradation, and we shall know exactly how
to apportion it. Upon the facts Of the bribery
York; statement is direct and has every evil
dence of truth. The midnight interview, at
which honor and honesty were made the SUBJ
jects of barter as cold-blooded as if they
were cotton in the hands of experts,
stands out with horrible distinctness Of
more significant interest than the most thrill
ling page fctionist could dream or write.
The ready man of the Lawrence Tribune who
went from the hotel corridor to the outer room,
and saw the man Of the Atchison Champion,
who would ''wink" at the plotter, York, when
the great vote traf1icker was ready to begin his
dirty work, are all in keeping with what fol-
lowed, as Senator York describes it. Here we
would state, in reference to the credibility of
the story, that the action of the joint conven-
ton on the Goth of January, in its hurry its
confusion, its unanimous desertion of Pome-
roy, is the best evidence ever likely to be found
of the truthfulness of the York accusation, with
its terrible seven thousand dollar accompani-
ment. Pomeroy was judged, convicted and
sentenced by jury, one might say, of his own
choosing; for his quondam supporters fed
like rats from the sinking ship of his fortunes,
and fastened by the narrow gang plank of
moments time into the first vessel that offered.
Were the fact unknown that Pomeroy was
likely to have bought and paid for the vote of
York or any other member his friends would
not have fed from him like a plague, and
York might have had hard work in proving
that he was not the mouthpiece Of con-
spiracy Matched to ruin an honorable man.
But nothing of the kind happened. York
was hailed with enthusiasm as a deliverer,
and the man he accused has not an outspoken
friend among those who fawned on him before
his fall.
We can return to the midnight interview,
and follow the course of that conversation
between the briber and his plotting, smiling
enemy, as well from the few sentences of
the evidence as if q shorthand reporter
had taken it in full. 1t may have
been in Inconsistencies of the terrible
weight of his words that York, leaning
back with his heels on the table, told what
Establishments Pomeroy used beside his money.
'He wanted me to be on the winning side;
that success would make it all right with the
people of my district, and that they would
think acted wisely in changing over in time
to keep my influence" The sinuousness of
the man who uses such arguments is study
In its way 1t is commentary from
tempter's lips which is model of its kind
He was solicitous that this man should be
on the winning side. He must have felt
the utter immortality Of this solicitude,
for does he not follow it with the
apothegm that success would make it all
right" Success, the glider of every rotten
ness, was to burnish over the disgrace which
might come to this man for taking up the
winning side. The unjust steward he argued,
would be applauded 'inasmuch as he had
acted wisely" The people of Yorks district
would think that he had acted wisely in
changing over in time to keep his
influence. Clearly this En-sedncfion xras ON