The Portland daily press., 1875-12-07


recover dime of it.
And that is the reason why cannot find it
in my heart to grieve cry bitterly that he has
run away. If he gets off there will be an end
of him. He will never come to the surface
again. If he stays here, there is no knowing
what may happen. This is an extremely tickle
and capricous populace The man they are in
clined to cruelty to-day, they may take no.
tion to canonize tomorrow. Tweed is no more of
a rascal at present than he was five years ago,
when many of the great lights of the Demo-
cratic party gathered him to their bosoms-
when the foremost merchants of New York as
sociated with him-and when our Governor,
Legislature, Common Council and Judiciary
Frustrated themselves before him in meek SUBJ
missiveness. He had not been convicted of
theft then, it IS true, but he had committed it
so openly soifrequently and with such reckless
audacity, every day of the year, for preceding
decade, that any body who did not know of his
knaveries must have been hopelessly and stu
pidly ignorant.
We must remember that although Tweed is
robber, the highest judicial bench Of the
state has proclaimed him also martyr. The
Court of Appeals declares that be was kept in
the Penitentiary five months unjustly There
were intimati0ns at one time that he would in
stitute prosecution against Judge Davis for
false imprisonment. That is project reauir-
ing simply money and impudence. Tweed
is popularity supposed to have an inexhaustible
supply of both. rather think he would have
done it if he had succeeded in getting his bail
rad, <o nh,
abled him to obtain q release. 1t is not so
very easy to conduct crusade of that kind
while under duress. Nevertheless if Judge
Davis was wrong In his construction of law
and the Court of Appeals so maintains-why
then the state owes reparation to this injured
citizen who was sentenced to twelve years i'm
prsonment when one measured the utmost
severity Of the statute. And as the doctrine is
held very generally that the dctum of the
court is conclusive till reviewed, and the last
judgment must of necessity be absolutely i'm
peccable, there is nothing for US but to apollo
gize TO this victim of judicial cruelty.
That the escape could have happened with
out colluson with the officer in charge is by
no means easy to credit Tweed is not one Of
those shadowy beings who can 60 through a
keyhole or climb up chimney fue in twink
ling. Ipresnme the sheriff has reposed too
much faith in a subordinate. He of course
had every motive for wishing to retain his pris-
oner. Nominally he is responsible for any
judgment which may be recovered against
Tweed, though that is one of the most illusory
liabilities which it is possible to conceive Of
The injury which this affair will inflict upon
Sheriff Connor is moral rather than pecuniary.
The impression it produces is that he has not
exercised quite as much vigilance in the dis
charge of his official functions as was required
of him. 1t is fact however that with the
class of men the sheriff is surrounded by, he
needs the eyes of Argus to keep out of diff
Guilty. The place is one of great responsibility
and risk, and the emoluments are by no means
excessive, particularly when the bills are scru.
tinized and objected to by Comptroller Green
The selection of Mr.. Kerr for Speaker points
this moral-the Democrats are far from feel
| ing sanguine of carrying the Presidential elec-
tion. If their confidence of strength had beer
sufficient they would have chosen Randall
He is much more nearly representative mar
among the Democrats of the House But his
L
the imitation and protective vagaries of Penn
| sylvanian Democracy counted against him.
l The ''little game" which is to be played thi
winter, is rather too Transparent to promise
much solid success. Randall himself blurtet
it out in the caucus: "our mission must be a
far as zoe are able, to restore the government t.
its constitutional purposes and to expose til
corruptions Of the administration Now Their
is no man in Congress who knows better thai
Samuel j. Randall what adficult undertaken,
it will be 20 find any 'corruptions" of the ad
ministration. But these gentlemen are ex
pected TO make bricks even if the administra
tion has failed to furnish them with straw, an,
they will probably inpute 'corruptons'' all tn
more clamorously because there are none t
discover
When some of the more pretentiously vrtu
Gus members of the last Congress who carried oil
a lively campaign of reform in the newspaper
were wringiug their hands over the dreadful de
moralization of our times. their Democratic col
leagues laughed at them consumedly behind
their backs though for party's sake they joinet
in the chorus of snivel, in their presence. Occa
sionally when they thought thev could ventur
to be sincere, they were in the habit of speak
ing in the most contemptuous terms of tn
weak-jointed Republicans who were wont
endeavor to appease reportorial clamor by al
ject apologies for belonging to the Republican
party. Most OF these men were signally re
buked by their constituents, and it is thin
to be taken for granted that the minority i
the House will not be ashamed of their part
or their administration; but will stand by bot
with the manliness which BELTS great caus,
strong in its integrity and certain to gro
stronger by purifying itself of sneaks and d.
serters. YARMOUTH