New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-11-27
THE GREAT TRIAL,

The deep ana universal lDlefesJ eAclteu NY
the great conspiracy trial in Washington has
not sprung from the sensational character of
! the crime itself nor from the personal reputa-
| ton or public position of either the accused
or their intended victims. 1t has indeed been
clear from the start that an extraordinary
plot had been formed, either for the ruin of
Alexander or the ruin of Harrington, and that
it had been pushed toward its catastrophe
with q devilsh malignity of which the annals
of crime afford but few examples. 1t was
evident also that in one way or another yan-
GUS officers of the law were implicated in this
wicked affair, and that no possible issue of
the trial could leave the Secret Service force
with more than rag of reputation to cover
its multiform uncleanness. These cOnsidera-
tons would have made the case an interesting
one in any event; but behind them was a
widespread belief that the persons really on
trial were not the insignificant sub
ordinates named in the Indictment, but
certain Government functionaries of higher
rank and of much greater cunning. Har-
rngton was the type of a class of men in
whom the enterprisng and astute rascals at
the head of corrupt political combinations
find their most useful and least guilty instru-
ments. Young, reckless, fond of the pleasures
of the world, proud of the favors of power,
amenable to social batteries, not thieves in the
vulgar sense OF the word, but too lax in con-
science to keep themselves in the strctest
lines of conduct or to be over-particular about
their company, they serve an important pur-
pose in throwing around their more vulgar as
sociates an atmosphere OF quasi-respectablity.
Gov. Shepherd gave the key to the connection
between himself and Harrington when he told
the story of the nine dollar lunch at Wclcker's.
"Dick, you have done first rate" said the
Boss, after the young lawyer had bothered
witness who testified unpleasant things about
the affairs of the District, land as reward
"for it guess we will go and have some
"lunch," and then followed cocktails and
champagne. In the famous clubhouse at
Washington there were scores of smart young
fellows who joined the Ring mainly because
it enabled them to have jolly time. III the
Americas Club house, during the prosperity
Of Tweed, the same class abounded. The
trouble was in both cases that the brumma-
gem bloods were not careful enough in draw
ing the distinction between good fellowship
and felony.
1t was impossible for the public to cherish
any special animosty against Harrington if
he could have cleared himself from all sus-
picion of completely in this crime there would
have been a general feeling of real satisfac-
ton. For the obscure Williams and the fugi-
tive Nettleship the world cares very little at
any rate. Hence the verdict of the jury has
not been awaited with the same eager interest
which the public bestowed upon the successive
developments of the trial. Two things were
apparent long ago; first that the alleged con-
spiracy against Alexander was real one, and,
secondly, that although the theory of the de-
Tense might lead to an acquittal it could never
result in a complete vindcatiOD The prison
ers' counsel argued upon the supposiion of
conspiracy between Hayes, Zirruth, and Benton
to destroy Harrington whom they did not
know at all and Whitley and Nettleship
against whom they were represented as having
an underlined and merely presumable grudge,
by entrapping them into q fictitious
conspiracy to commit fictitious bur
glary. This theory requires a long series
of fctions within Gctions. all devised by two