The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-02-16
The President and tho Attorney
General.


Our special correspondent in Washington
yesterday gave the public some surprising
information in respect to Attorney General
Pierrepont's letter concerning the punish
ment of informers in the whiskey cases.
That letter, written to the district attorneys
ments that ''there would be no further pros
ecutions of many guilty persons who con-
fessed their crimes in st. Louis, Chicago and
Milwaukee. cannot believe this to be
true" continued the Attorney General with
much simplicity. and grounded his incre-
dulity on the improbability of faithful district
attorneys ''favoring or protecting men who
have defrauded the government" lit is the
repeatedly expressed wish of the President
that no guilty man should escape" he said,
and added that he was determined that
the prosecutions should be so conducted that
when they were over the honest Judgment
of the country would be that no guilty
person, who had been convicted or who had
confessed his guilt, had been left unpun-
ished This sweeping order naturally
startled the country, for, if it were literally
executed, the whiskey prosecutions must
STOP The members of the Whiskey Ring
could never be convicted upon the evidence
of men who were not in the Ring. Their
movements were shrouded in secrecy, and
the government could only reach them by
the aid of their repentant or their frightened
accompices. The disintegration ofthe Ring
could only be effected by encouraging the
dupes and smaller criminals to point out the
ringleaders. Every lawyer knows that to
punish the great criminal it is sometimes
necessary to condone the offence of the small
one. The Attorney Generals letter repudi-
ated this essential method. 1t placed the
penalty of conviction upon confession and
rewarded repentance with prison.
That the Attorney General appreciates the
effect of this letter is shown by his explana-
ton. We are told that he did not originate
the letter, but that it was written by special
direction of the President, who sent for him
for that purpose. 1t is also said that he soft
ened the terms of the letter as much as pos
sible, and that when the President saw it he
was dissatisfied because it was not stronger.
planned. The President is not lawyer; he
is plain, blunt soldier, who is so inexperi-
enced in the detection of rogues that the
revenue service is filed with them He
probably did not know that when he ex-
pressed his wish that mo guilty man should
escape" he was declaring a principle upon
which oil guilty men would escape. Is
Bevis, the whiskey distiller, who testisfed
yesterday that Joyce induced him to re-en-
gage in the manufacture of fraudulent whis-
key by showing him the ''Sylph" telegram
81 have succeeded They will not come.
Will write"-and the Dab" letter-is this
important witness to be punished because he
confesses? The Presidents policy, as inter-
preted in the Attorney Generals letter,
would deprive the government of its strong
est evidence.
But if the President is not lawyer Mr..
Pierrepont is, and his letter has placed him
in no enviable position Is the Attorney
General mere clerk of the President bound
to execute his command, or is he consti-
tutional officer of the United States, holding
a direct legal responsibility to the people?
Has he not taken an oath to fulfil his official
duties? Can he not be impeached and re-
moved for neglecting them? We presume
that Mr.. Pierrepont would Indignantly re-
fuse to be considered the Presidents clerk,
and would claim the full dignity and powers
of his Office. How then, did he come to write
this letter, containing instructions which
he must have disapproved, the terms of
which he was obliged to soften the fact of
which he is now forced to explain, the effect
Of which would have been to have paralyzed
Mr.. Dyer in the trial he is now conducting
in St Louis, and to have jeopardized the
prosecutions of the Whiskey Ring through
out the country? Important questions such as
these should have formal answers, and if the
Attorney General will not reply TO the press
and the people Congress might properly try
the effect Of an official inquiry into the whole
matter.