The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1874-08-05
fGe Abuse OF lhs Pakaoning Power and
the RsfiedY.

vr' --L+-
No one would suppo,e for.an in
llstant, did they not know, that oul
Legislature, as a body, is as oorrept
Ids the" executive; that this rpowe,
lIgiven to the Governor for wise ant
humane purposes, to 'be exercised dis.
creetly, i1 special cases, wksre the
Courts fam to do exact justice, wa.
1;guarded by a4peolal plovision in ou,
State Constitdtlob. :SectioA II o1
Article I'LL, reads thus :. l.. -
ole shall have,power to grant re-
Prieves and ;pardons afteE, tan~iotion
(except 10 case Of impeaobment,) in
in such manner, i;oi. suoh terms and
Under such restrictions as he. he shal
thiuk proper and he shall "heve
power to re nit fines and forfeiturees,
unless otherwise directed BY law.n
y shall be his duty To-, +tHort ta the
General assembly at Tie 'Aeat regula,
session thereafter, all pardons granted
BY him, ,Oith full statement Of each
case, and the reasons msotiny him there.
unto" (The italioising is ours.) 1t
is thus sseR. that.,A, vgr3 ,iHtp portant
duty II imposed upon the ExssGtive ;
important to the Executive and i'm.
pbntant to the General Assembly, the
representatives of the people.
In n conversation with a Conberya.
tive Senator recently, speaking of
this teotion, Of, tHeE Constitution, and
its REQUIREMENTS Of the Exeoutive-
he said, "that aih6e ha,had been in
the Senate, (for two years past) he
did not recolleot ever to have heard
or seen report by the Executive of
the pardons granted with, tie qeaeons
assigned, in edoh oase and that he
was morall8 certain that no such re-.
port evet ''had been made" Now,
here is clear case Of willfql risla-
tion Of the Constitution; and a viola.
tion Of the oath Of Office taken by
the Executive on assuming charge Of
the ,reins Of Eoverpmd4s. The Con.
stitution certainly has not been pro.
tected and defended in this barticu-
lar, at least. The, truth Of the mat.
ter is just this; tGas the. pardoning
power has been go, fagrantly abused
by Governor Moses, that he, knowing
it would be simply q farce to pre-.
pare a. report for the General Assem-
oily, has spared himself the manual
labor.
For tho evils arising from the
abuse Of the pardonihg power, Gov.
Moses is directly responsible. He
tramples upon the Constitution, and
that too in a vital ,partioular he
strikes down, one Of the barriers
placed by the people between the
Executive, and arbitrary. bower he
ignores the saneti.hs of the law and
the earnest protests of the Judges ;
he converts the Penitentiary into a
political machine, and the ory of All
Hail q! Moses, Master, coming from
its inmates, is made the test of re-.
pentanqe and ,ne6euefatioh. :.
Nor is the HovernoE alone respon {.
aible for the continued abuse of the
pardoning power, and the entire set.
ting aside of the ] lth Section of Art.
Ill of our Constituti9n.,, This re.
quirea, as w9 have seen the report of
the Governor, to be m,de to the
General Assembly, and it is equally
their duty to Ike care, that this re-
port is made ;c ;cwhonever they fail to
do so, they become equally culpable
and equally RESPONSIBLE with tbe Ex-
ecutive, for all the evils resulting
from his wilful neglect Of duty it is
enough when the power of the Exeou-
t We is used to overthrow that of the
judiciary, but when he is upheld by
a corrupt and vena legislature, then
indeed, does oil hope for good gov,
ernment seem to vanish, and the base.
ness Of our rulers become the index
(humanly speakiDgl, of the misery
INTO which We are u be plunged. In
this condition Of affairs the extent to
which tho Executive may exercise
his assumed arbitrary powers and
liceDse, is measured only by the en-.
fduranoe. Of our people. OF how far
and to what extent this endurance
may be counted upon, We shall speak
We turn sii to- Consideration, Oh %, ),
the remedy for this great svil-th,
abuse of'the pardoning power. .'...
\ Seqtioa nSl Of Article II. of oul
| Constitdtioh rSads thus. ."Offloert
sball be removed for iucapscity, ms
eondpot. Of .neg'ect Of duty, in ouci
mahtier 90 asayrbo provided by law
kwhen no mode trial, or removal, il
rprovided in this Constitution"
! Article VIII. Of the Constitution
provides tho, mode Of procedure, viz
/ I'm peaohment.' - :, :"
From the above it will be readil,
seen that Franklin j. Moses, Jr,
Gov. Of South Carolina, stands clear
/. ly 4mithin the.law, and, that yhoneve
o case is made he must be conYioted
AT this time the whole politioa
!. atmosphere Of the State is filed Will
. cries of reform, and the, thieves sl,qu
. the word % loud. % any one else. lie
tha Conservatives take them IN O.