The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-29
Our New York Letter.
The Verdict i'm the Babcock Trial-An
Extraordinary Proceeding g.--The Presi-
dent and the The Attorney
Generals Letter of Instruction.
NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 1876.

New YORK, Feb. 26 1876.
Inc verdict of aequittal in the case of Gen
baocock was 80 obviously in accordance with
the law and the facts, that IL was inst az nucb
loregone conclusion when Judge Porter
moved to have the complaint dismissed as it
was when finally rendered in court. This nm.
wise and inexcusable prosecution has thrown a
cloud of suspicion over the motives which IN
spired taat grand raid upon the defranders
OF the revenue, which was initiated with so
much expertness and has been pursued with so
much vgor. The President and Secretary of
the Treasury entered into it so heartily, and
with such evident good faith and singleness of
purpose. that for a while there seemed to be
no danger that the evil spirit of partisanship
would obtrude itself upon the scene, and per-
vert the whole thing to the uses OF politicians
Yet that is what it came to. The Indictment of
Babcock. whether we consider the appliance
ny which it was procured, or the flimsy web of
circumstances on which it was based is dis
creditable to the law officers by whom it was
engineered. Honest, straightforward, disnter-
ested ministers of justice do not employ their
time in manufacturing sensational and highly
colored dispatches for the newspapers to influ.
ence public opinion. They do not furnish ca
ger reporters little scraps of information to be
worked up in such fashion as to tell against
an accused party, and prepare the way for his
indictment. Aud yet that is precisely the way
Dyer and Henderson worked up the accusa-
ton against Babcock. For weeks beforehand
they put out feelers Of various kinds with
view of sounding public opinion, and ascertain
ing whether it would be safe to 90 SO far as TO
get a bill found. They discovered that the
democratic press were favorable to and the in
dependent (?) press enthusiastic over the
"friendly move" Then, by way of further
test, they caused it to be telegraphed all over
the land that Babcock had been indicted, an
announcement which filled both mentioned
classes of journalists with rapture; for though
they knew it wasn't true, they hoped it soon
would be. At last, when there could be no
reasonable doubt that SO much of popular sem
timent as manifests itself in the columns of the
anti-administration organs would stick at moth
ing which had flavor of scandal about it, the
two worthless whom an unsuspicious Attorney
General had left in absolute control of the entire
machinery of federal law in Missouri yentured
upon the desperate exDedient of arraignng the
Presidents Private Secretary. Any body who
is at: all familiar with the deliberations of
grand juries knows how easy it is for the prose-
cutting officer to procure an indictment. The
st. Louis inquest took the statements and the
law from the District Attorney and did what
he wanted done. -SJEa 1HeG
The first effect of this extraordinary proceed.
ing upon sober minded people, not utterly
crazed with the prevalent clamor in repect to
men in office, was one Of profound amazement
The temple of justice has not hitherto been pro-
famed by the conversion of it into an arena for
the display of the spite of selfish politicians.
1t is fortunate that the issue of this first ex-
pertinent in that line has not been such as to
invite a repetition of it, otherwise we might
look for an abundant harvest of indictments
and trials as incidents of the ensuing Presi-
dental campaign. 12'ia il prag O. 1ss. fa
There is no doubt whatever that the Presi-
dent was equally astonished and indignant
when the oft telegraphed, oft contradcted
rumor that Gen. Babcock had been indicted
proved at last to be a fact. His feelings were
shared by Attorney General Pierrepoint
These gentlemen had urged on and watched
the prosecution of the wrong doers who had
been detected in cheating the treasury with
interest and satisfaction. They thought Of
nothing SO much as of strengthening the hands
OF the prosecuting officers SO that every delin-
quent should be brought to justice, and future
malyersatons prevented. Their objects were
pure and patriotic. They had no sinister de-
signs in view and were not looking for any.
Hence their surprise. But of course since the
Indictment was found nothing remained but
that it should be tried. Dyer was permitted to
see it out Nothing was done to influence the
action of the petit jury. Everybody saw the
the prosecution rested that there was
no case. 1t was a premonition of the inevit-
able result that led the bafled District Attor-
ney to announce before the verdict was rem
dered that his retirement from office would be
speedy. There is no questioning the veracity
of this statement. The President is patient,
long suffering, slow to anger, but has manful
adherence of cant and hypocrisy. He has
small liberation for "reformers'' of the Dyer
type. 1t must be admitted that they have
made the very word reform the synonym of
pretence and humbug. They confne them
selves to noisy declamations against abuses,
instead of quietly endeavoring to rectify them.
They are continually whining and snuff1ng
about the degeneracy of the age, without con-
triouting one iota TO its publication. But it
would not be so bad if their spleen vented
itself in mere snivel. They are ready to catch
up, magnify and circulate every preposterous
fabrication without waiting moment to con-
slider how inherently monstrous it is, or on
whom it may indict irreparable injury. They
are to the poll tical world what the Mawworms
and Chadbands are to the religious, and hinder
creating distrust for the sincerity of their
professions. ......-. s.
These noisy shriekers against corruptions
which they are always ready to impute without
evidence and proclaim without reservation,
are most credalous in accepting as true every
flying story they hear which contains an asper-
sion upon anybody's character; it is on the
other hand the most difficult thing imaginable
to convince them of the innocence of an ac-
cused party. They revere the established
maxim of the common law. Dickens descrip-
tion of Pecksniff fits them exactly: ''Let it be
written down to their confusion that the enc.
mics of this worthy man unblushingly main
tanned, that he always said of what was very
bad that it was very natural; and that he un-
consciously betrayed his own nature in doing
so.''
If healthy reaction does not grow out of
this bare-faced triAing with justice, it will be
because the American people have grown
pitifully stolid. Every sentiment of respect for
the sacredness Of personal rights and private
character revolts against the outrage of trump
ing up charges which will force man, for his
own vindication, to travel twelve hundred miles
with witnesses and counsel and spend thirty
thousand dollars in protecting his reputation.
If Gen. Babcock had not been so fortunate as
to have kind relatives who possessed the means
to assist him he could not have borne this
burden. But the consideration of expense Is
triflng when compared with the sorrow and
suffering entailed upon his household by this
infamous persecution. The conspirators who
have wrought this deed of shame appear TO be
imbued with all the malignity of assassins,
without their courage. In the light of this
wicked performance it is not too much to
assume that they would stick knife into the
back of an enemy if they could do it with the
~ xr;t oh thau