The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-04-19
S. G.
Sunday Morning. April 10. 1874
Invoke tho Aid Of Tho .La W.

mitted by State officials In this State.
c3he machinery Of courts is complicated
in such q manner as to make it next to
impossible to get GASES OF this kind
sairly before them. The Jury Commits
sioner is stumbling.block to any ho-
nest judicial proceeding, and some
times to any judicial proceeding at all.
He has only to misoarry conveniently in
she time or mode of selecting a jury, to
lsage County wittoc. courts c: justice
80 long as it may suit parties who have
reasons to fear their action. It is an
Office which, from it's administration as
We have seen it, seems intended to
screen criminals. And the juries. as
constituted often, are in sympathy with
wrong-doers. and averse to convicting
any one WHO may play upon their preju-
dices by claiming that he is prosecuted
Tor opinions sake, and for his love Of
freedom and regard for the dear colored
people. It has been common opinion,
and almost become law, that those in
high stations whom fraud has touched
wore sacred objects. not to be inquired
into, not to be Investigated, not to be
prosecuted. To do this would have
been to reflect upon the government
itself, and would have endangered the
official head Of him who attempted it.
It isrnotorious that the most stupsndous
frauds have gone on. openly as we'll as
secretly, here for half dozen years.
Ihe prosecuting officers have looked on
2owerless aud inactive, knowing that a
step against criminal was one out OF
the path OF their own safety. The
frauds Of the Land Commission, of the
Sinking Fund Commission. OF the con-
vers&on bonds, those attending the sale
~ aypoSnecation of bonds, those of
the Blue Ridge swindle and the doings
OF the Financial Board, afforded splen-
did field to the e4-Attorney. General in
which to serve justice, whose minister
he was appointed TO be. But he did not
move q peg. Perhaps. in justice, We
should say he could not, for "Quid va.
!samt ieges, sine n,oribus9" But the world
moves even in Radical South Carolina.
The public opinion, which stood for
several years compact as granite wall.
resisting all inquiry into official miscon-
duct and shielding it from investigation,
has, under the stimulus of the necessity
OF unloading. from the force of divi-
sions, aud. let us be willing to admit,
from convictions of duty on the part of
some OF the better elements, at last de.
manded action in the courts. This
spirit, to whatever due or however COM
pounded. carried its point in the last
Legislature, in the enactment Of law,
requiring the Attorney General to pro-
seonte in certain case. and in the vote
OF funds to enable him to bring the
offenders against the State to condign
punishment. True, the Act was stolen,
but its moral foSee remains And we
are inclined to hope that the present
Attorney General will conceive himself
20 be instructed by the better spirit of
The party which he serves. When the
small jobs are over, let him put some OF
the big ones through. There is higher
game than defaulting County Trea-
surers. And il he will heed an outside
voice. there is distinction to be won In
this field. There is possible reform to
be introduced into a corrupt party,
whose base and pivot shall be purgation
OF its bad elements of men and measures
through prosecution in the courts.
But this is duty which must not he
loft to the Attorney General alone. He
must feel the strong arms Of tho honest
people OF every class sustaining him
and urging him to enter boldly upon
this thorny path. Every man is
power in the force of his honest and
fearless convictions. Livery good citi-
zen, every person, who can lift himself
above the leyel Of self and purity prciu-
dice, ought to feel it his duty to give
his assistance and countenance to an
undertaking which promises much for
she public good Aud hore we are re.
al e