The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-10-15
PtoUet oa. EacL;cy-A Great DtDer-
eUCP.

| The nomination of PIoLLET to be State
! Treasurer Of Pennsylvania is received WIN
small favor by the Ring, now III possessio'' :
/ But Mr.. MACKEY. the preseh' ileasu'e',
J advances the most remarkabie obJectlou TO
-, ro h.ye We. seen He insists in his
,awsno oer-the foul Pittsburgh Connner-
! n;ol-that PIoTI.ET is not tit TO be ireasu-
rer because he does not know how TO take
: a bribe. About thirty years ago, floLLET,
/ ho;no a member of the Legislature, was
! offered sum of money for his vote, and
made. according to this modern expert.
( such wretehed bunglc of the aifaii that
MACKEY, upon reading the account, was
highly scandalized. and berated him sound
fv ssfor wan. of skill.'' Let us see precise
ly how these gentlemen differ in their treat
nent of a rendered bribe, and we may then
be able to understand lbe true reason OF
Nv MACKEY's disgust.
In the winter Of 1916 petition for the
repeal of certain bank charter was pre-
sented to the lower house OF the fenhSyi-
vania I,eoislature. and referred to COM
n,;troe nf which Mr.. PIoLLET was men,
her Three of the seven committee men
we're in favor of. aud four, counting POL
Irr were against the bank. The bank
agent endea avored to persuade fIofLET that
II was his duty to vote against repeal; but
falling in that. made various attempts 10
secure his support by offers OF money to
his friends. and even to his aged father, all
of which Indignantly refused the proposals.
At length he went directly to PIOLLET with
an offer of S4OO cash, and 800 conditional.
Mr.. PIOILET took into his confidence
three or four of the purest and best men OF
the day-among them Judge LAPoRTE and
the late JESSE MILLER-and determined
to teach the bribe-giver lesson. W hen
he called again he told him toput the mon
Ill, = ,,n6t
afely taken by the landlord of the house,
counted, done up in package, and sealed.
With this package in his hands, PIoLLET
walked into the House the next morning,
ana after denouncing in fitting terms the
attempted crime and the rotten bank IN
whose interest it was undertaken, he
laid the money on the Speakers desk,
from which it was i'll due time removed tya
resolution to the Court of Quarter Sessions.
The exposure was followed not only bya leg
islative investigation, by which these facts
were established, but by criminal trial
and The conviction of the bank agent, who
unlike the bIibe- givers or bribe-takers OF
today. served his allotted term in prison,
and was never nominated for Governor or
State Treasurer.
But Mr.. PIoLLET's old fashioned repug~
nance to bribery and his summary method
of meeting it i'm his own case. have excited
vi J, T.
doubtless regards Mr.. PIoLLET's conduct
as an exhibition of brutal integrity, Of
which no properly educated gentleman
could possibly be guilty. If he was too
soueamish to put the money i'll his own
pocket lie might at least have refrained
from putting it on the Speakers table, and
thus spelling other peoples chances. 1t
is not Mr.. MACKEY's way. He can take
bribe with grace which dcfies criticism,
and which no expert from Philadelphia TO
Pittsburgh would venture to denounce as
not being perfectly skillful.
When RICHMOND l.. JONES offered S10,-
900 in the second mortgage bonds of the
South Pennsylvania Iron and Railroad Com
pany 10 induce MACKEY to put the money
of the State where JOKES could borrow it,
he didn't call in a parcel Of honest witness
es, with idiotic scruples about taking mon
cy for public act, but chucked the bonds
in his pocket and gave the requisite order.
4 little further on he had his own name
erased from the books Of the Company and
G.. l.. MAGEE's fraudulently written over
it as the recipient of the bonds aud still
further on he swore with great deal of
complacency that the bonds really belonged
to the Allegheny National Bank, and were
purchased from MAGEE for bona fde cons
sideration. This part of the business, in>
volving a neat and perilous feat of perjury,
was very ''skillfully" managed, and excited
considerable admiration at the time.
If JONES and the Treasurer OF the Cons
pany had been equally deft, MACKEY might
have got away with the money, and left us
to guess as to what might be his peculiar
way of treating bribc as contrasted with
that of Mr.. PIoLLET. AS it is, however,
the people can take their choice. If MACK
EY had been in PIoLLEr's place the bank
agent would have saved his charter and
gone ahead with his swudling machine
If PIoLIET had been in MACKEY's place.
JONES would have been collarcd and hand
ed over to the Court Of Quarter Sessions,
where he might have been rendered useful
rs an example. VIII the people of Penn
sylvania choose the vaunted skill of MACKEY
or the sturdy integrity of PIoLLET?-N.
y. Sun.