The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-11-03
Tnstmidat ng Electors.

If the administration has lost Ohio and
Indiana, it is very clear that it is determined
not to lose Louisiana and Alabama. 1t il
plain that Attorney-General Williams
whatever may be his faults, is a man o
strong character, and has assumed the
leadership OF the present cabinet. 1t mat
ters little what post an official holds; if ma
ture has endowed him with a COM
manding disposition, he will carry
things his own way. Under the two previous
administrations Stanton welded almost
exclusive control over the policy of the
government, and managed the details in
carrying out that policy. His mantle
seems to have fallen upon Williams, who,
in a different position and with less ability,
Yields the whole power of the nation. He
has made the department of justice a dan
gerous executive branch of the government
instead of a mere lawyers Office for supply
ing the president with safe advice in diff
cult cases.
Those who read Louisiana and Alabama
papers can not doubt the design with which
the United States marshals are working. In
the lOTulbI SLdlt llG OusluCcS ~ nldhlD& az
rests has only just begun; but in the latter it
has been going on vigorously for some time.
The ostentatious style in which the arrests
are made, the h~arshness with which the
prisoners are treated, and the fact that they
are removed to a distant point for examina-
ton all tend to intimidate men from the
open expression of opinion. To shun
- - tn =
back put of politics. Where soldiers sur
round residences in the night time and
households in searching for arms,
anything like the exercise of the elective
is a mere farce. When it is re-
membered that all the proceedings of the
United States officials take place under the
provisions of an act to secure voters from
being frightened out of the exercise OF their
right of suffrage, the tyranny takes on an
air of absurdity. In Alabama, in the ceIe-
brated Billings case, Gillette, the commits
issued his warrant for the arrest of
Rentro and others charged with the
merely on the ridiculous
plea that they were intimidating voters
IN order to prevent their exercise
IF the right of franchise. The accused men
we're not arrested because they had violated
Ill laws human and divine, by p~lunderiDg
md numbering Billings. with malice pre-
ense, So near to his own home that the fatal
ihots rang in his wife's ears. They were
eized because they were interfering with
he workings of the constitutional amend
nents. The killing of a white man became
a~;~oa ry;fAfn the o0-,;o-oa % H. 4l---rI
overnment only as it tended to keep me-
,roes from coming forward on election day.
here could scarcely be a more miserable
of legal pretense conceived OF. II
Billings was killed by common highway
then, according to the position of
.iillette, the United States has nothing
0 do with the matter, and in order TO get
ontrol Of the case, 1t must be inferred that
70 was killed by a certain Glass of people,
by a certain class of motives. The
ase of Wetmore, a reputable lawyer in
county, would doubtless come I'M
er the same head as that of the alleged
lurderers, (the Sentinel has not seen
papers connected with his ~arrest,)
nd yet he is only charged with conspiracy
gainst Hester, the government detective,
nd has probably committed nc great
r fault than that of de-
ouncing the william in terms as nearly
lifted to his rascality as che language can
lrnish.
In fact, Alabama seeLns to be in that
Iteous condition in which suspicion poisons
l social and business intercourse, and the
'st members OF the community are put by
o operation of the law at tue mercy of the
west. The oath of some worthless scoun- 4
"a, who believes neither in God nor man,
enough to cast the most blsp7eless citi-
n into prison to answer for plots |
at he never dreamed of and threpks that he
'ver uttered. A sort of premium is put
perjury, and no man Is safe. The people |
inning to stand among the most trutbful (.
L civilized in the world, namely, the .
H'ish, have failed TO stand such a temrta- b
d, and their history furnishes eras in :
ich the word Of an iniormer, In regard tn =
is that had no existence, was sufficient to +
troy IA o noblest In the land. It Is not
nderful, consequently, that negro wit
,ses are multiplying faster than the agents rs
williams CO n use them. el
n such q reign Of terror an ex- ,.
pie of unshaken fidelity n good 10 con- "a
nplate. One OF the Alsbsma journals n
such q one. II is well known that "
en- Tom Ivy. the mail sgent, was muir ~
a negro stood ont bafore che train on iii