The Ottawa free trader., 1873-05-24
THE COMING JUDICIAL ELECTION.
Strange Transmutations OF the
Contest.
The Chicago Times admits Judge L""re"'"
to he on the Side of tho Farmers
IF HE is NOT THE CANDIDATE OF THt
RAILROADS, WHO tS'
Tho "Times" makes Craig the Railroad Canai
date, but insists that the Farmers
shall support him

: the Fifth District is assuming curious phases
, For some reason, probably best known 10 Tn
| railroads, the opposition to the re-ciec'ioh
Judge Lawrence has been almost "hoii.
, cbampioned and engineered by the Chicag
Times, "A paper published outside OF the dis
trict. The ground on which it hypocritlcall.
placed the opposition to Judge H. was una
in his judicial decisions he had favored I'M
: railroad monopolists against the people. L
was on this pretended ground that the Prince
ton convention was engineered by the Times
and the railroad attorney Craig was placc'
on the track against Lawrence.
But the Times had undertaken too much
The falschood Of the charge against Judge
Lawrence was so gross and outrageous that
cloud of witnesses at once rose up to repcl II
First came the letter of Judge Cation, a per
feet settler in itself then came quotations
from twenty different decisions OF the court
nearly all prepared by Judge Lawrence; ther
came the letter of Judge Thornton, published
elsewhere; and finally the crushing letter OF
Gov. Palmer, to the last Of which the 7ime'
surrenders. Thursdays Times, in view OF
this letter, at last fully admits THAT the de.
cisions of the Court (mostly rendered by
Judge Lawrence) as the cases have arisen,
have not been according to the theory rs set
up by the railroads." chat they are mere pri.
vate corporations, above legislative regula-
ton or control) "but according to principles
resting on the solid ground OF equity "The
railroad companies have been beaten in the
courts at every point in attempting to carry
out their fallacious and despotic theory"
If this is true, as the Times is now com
PEELED to admit, and as indeed all the world
knows it is, why was this hubbub so strange
ly and suddenly raised against Judge Law
renee? The matter can be explained in q
dozen of sentences. Up to the delivery of the
decision by Judge Lawrence in the Chicago,
Alton & ST. Louis r. r. case there was not
a whisper anywhere of opposition to his re-
election. The decision in that case covered
but single point, and that was, that the
railroad law of the legislature of 1871 was so
drawn that the court could not
enforce il. Thus far the de.
cision was in favor of the railroads, and fully
met their tactics, which have ever been, so to
engineer bills intended to place restrictions
upon their power through the Legislature as
to procure the insertion or omission in them
of something which would render them un-
constitutional and throw them cut Of the
courts Had Judge Lawrence been the friend
of the railroads, after announcing the uncon-
of that act there was the place
for him to stop. There was no need, and in
deed the common practice of the court for.
babe him, to go step further. But Judge l..
felt a deep anxiety in this question in favor
of the farmers. The legislature was in ses-
sion, and now was the time to act if ever. If
the legislature was allowed to proceed in the
of another law, Judge Lawrence
knew very well that some adrot railroad at
torney would again defeat its purpose by the
insertion of other clauses that would again
compel the court to declare it unconstitution
al and imperative. What could Judge L.
do? He stretched his duty-wcnt out of the
beaten path--and with a courage and manli
ness for which the farmers can never too
much honor him, pointed out to the legisla
turc, in language so plain that it could not
be mistaken, how a law could be passed that
would accomplished all the farmers had ever
asked for IN the way Of railroad legislation,
and yet law which the court would be but
too glad to enforce, and the legislature passed
a law in strict accordance with his sugges.
tions, and the railroads, seeing how the stra.
tegcm Of Judge Lawrence had headed them
OIL, are now sullenly preparing to obey its
provisions
1t is here that Judge Lawrence committed
that mortal ottense that raised such storm
against him. By a bold step, bordering on
the cxtrajudicial, he had completely blocked
the game of the railroads, and their indirna.
ton knew no bounds Yet, knowing the
temper Of the people they dared not assail
him directly, They therefore hired the Times.
the Peoria DCm0crat, and few other papers
to force a false construction upon the Alton
Railroad deC lsion, and raise this hue and cry
against Judge L. and the entire Supreme
Court as being in the interest of the monopo.
lists, a ialschood now SO clearly exposed that
the Times Itself abandons it, and crawls out of
it like awhipped sneak thief
But tie Times now insist, that, although
Judge Lawrence is right on all questions that
interest the farmers, ana although Craig has
been nominated agains, him through the
spite Of the railroads, yet the farmers having
nominated him, their cause must suffer ire
trievable damage if they allow him to be
defeated! If the farmers have made Il blum
der in nominating their enemy instead OF
friend,-in nominating the railrood candid
ate, as Craig is thus virtually admitted to be
against the real farmers candidate, Judge
Lawrence, their cause will be irretrievably
lost unless they stick TO their blunder.! Can
impudence and chop-logic go further than
this?