The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1876-11-07

and was published, and although in fact
he had borne an unexceptionable characrer,
so much so that friends of the highest re-
spectability volunteered to come and give
him the benefit of their testimony, even
from New Mexico. and from every other
place in which he had lived since he was
IL years old, a bad character was by the
press imputed to him, and even crimes
were charged against him. Mrs. Sullivan
was charged with having gone with her
husband to the house Of Hanford to super
Intend his murder, and in tie ARRAY, for
the purpose OF revenge, was described as
having leaped like a tigress from the car
riage in which she was sitting.
In fact, Mrs. Sullivan was a poor, sick
peace-maker, and lady Of the purest
character. Sullivan was a man, also, of
high character and honest purposes, and
the killing Of Hanford was to him and to
his family blow almost as severe as to
poor Hanford and his family, and the
charge Of an attempt injuriously to affect
the schools, or exclude the bible, or cause
them to be permeafed with Catholic infu-
ence, was utterly without foundation.
At the trial. therefore,
A STATE OF FACTS UNPRECEDENTED
in the history of the city appeared. The
foreign population were alarmed aud
aroused at seeing the most respectable Of
their class and their religion so wantouly
and falsely attacked, while the Americans
and Protestants, having no time to exam
inc, assumed that the charges which they
read, and the alarm sounded from their
pulpits were well grounded and true.
Mr.. SWEET then proceeds, at length, to
review the course pursued in getting a
jury in the case, and the law of this state
applicable thereto; also the rulings of the
court, showing clearly that Judge McAllis-
ter had precedents for every one Of his
rulings, both in the English courts, and in
our own courts for the last 70 years, from
Chief Justice Marshall to the present day.
The cases cited are closely in point, and
their application is shown by most clear
and comprehensive course of illustration
and reasoning.
Mr.. SWEET hits the grain gamblers and
scalpers of Chicago, who set themselves
up in judgment upon the rulings of the
court and ask the judge to resign, some
pretty hard raps. He says:
All the 1000 lawyers of the board of
trade, whether 'long" or short" of mo.
2 spring, or whether they have outputs
or calls and all the lawyers among their
boxes and chicken coops along South Wa
ter street, have a wonderfully clear sight
upon this question. Upon these
rulings an unprecedented clamor has
arisen, and the papers announce that the
board of trade and the merchants of South
Water street are about to move upor
Judge McAllister and demand his resigna
ton. Hence questions of grave import
arise as to the relations of the judiciary to
the people and public opinion, and this is
a question in which the people themselves
have an interest far greater and more
abiding than Judge McAllister himself.
The question is: Dare the courts admin
lister the law fearlessly, and will they be
sustained if they do so, honestly and cor
rectly? And here we must remember
that our judges are no drawer than the av.
erage of mankind; and is it safe to assume
that they will long dare to administer the
law independently when they are in fac
not only dependent, but dependent upor
an ignorance of the law and popular
caprice2 speak within bounds, anc
, speak what my professional brethren
, know, when / say that the judges of thu
state Of Illinois are not all Of them FIRE,
, from public influence, and that when pru
dent lawyers are about to try causes the!
, are often compelled to look to popular ele
ments as well as to the law, as the marine
| is compelled to watch and calculate the Sc
cret current if he would get accurately hi
bearings. 1t must be remembered, toe
that if judges must account to the public
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