The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1876-03-17

.te he swore he was employed by DAVIS TO
o. the pardon in May. Before the com
55,;ttee he swofe that Dowslngs receipt,
caIIed a check, was for $500 and tnat DAVIS
on his return from Columbus paid hiih 9ooV;
and said. Heres that money IN Tue case l
was talking co you about, 40 ioI So H.
any further remark than that BEFORE Ihe
Senate he said Davis went over {" CoIum-
has with a draft he had brought mere, hu-
tborized him to collect it. lt was only LOT
$500 He went over there, got that money
on the draft, brought it back ana pa'u 10 U
me. | told him | had been engage ~ -
$500 ana he agreed to make 1t up at tnal
time These statements are irreconcllaDle
and the last were made to correspond win
testimony which he knew had Deen given
on this trial. But If 1t were not contraoict-
ed by the statement before the com mlttee
this last statement pears 1aIse6oou Oh ia
face. II he had objected at all, 1t would
have been when he saw the check was only
for $500: and il is absurd TO authorize man
TO COLLEGE $500 and then complain. IhaC ne
did did not get $500.
This check also furnishes an answer TO the
argument that Davis did not know sliao
Gibbs had reimbursed himself with $lO0
out of the So called Packer money. When
Gibbs gave Davis the receipt for only $oOO
he was bound to know that Gibbs had Kept
500 And further, the statement OF Packer
that Davis paid $500 and then mace up
the other 500 in week is contradIcted py
the restimon of Gibbs, who, saws that after
Davis was charged with bribery, he said to
him that he did wrong to pay himself out OF
that Packer money and that he, (DaVi')
owed him that. Gibbs replied, Il nave got
my money, and if you owe anybody. you
owe Packer" If Davis had paid Packer he
would have said SO.
But no sane man who heard this testimo-
ny can believe that Davis was afflicted with
any such disinterested regard for Barren
tine, or such unselfish emotion for Packer,
a. to take so much trouble to make himself
simply guilty procurer of brides for 9TH
erS without any pecuniary benefit to him
self The testimony of Packer, like that of
Col. Matthews, not only fails to acquit
Davis, but strengthens the case against him,
aud discloses a system OF corruption in our
State, which, in another age and at another
time, would have startled the country. But
when bribery and corruption permeae s
every branch of the government; when
President grows rich on gifts, made, In
many instances, by persons who have been
or deserve to be convicted OF felony; when
cabinet officers and private secretaries, on
small salaries, acquire fortunes with ra-
pidity unequalled, except in romance; and
when officers, professedly virtuous, who de-
cline to perform corrupt acts themselves,
shut their eyes to the corruption of their
daily associates, and put it in the power of
corrupt men to carry OUT all manner OF ne
farious schemes, and when the cupidity
OF an emancipated slave is excited by daily
intercourse with such men, we are not as
tonished at his fall, and can only regret
that the dupe should become the victim.
Lastly, the defense have undertaken to
show that there We're mitigating circum-
stances connected with the killing, and chat
this was proper case fOreXecutive clement v.
1t this be true, | cannot See how il is to b, IL
eft the respondent. If this be true, the
ma III Ghn MI h.,ryn Il
and without price, and TO my mind it is as
great, 1t not greater crime in a Governor
to withhold pardon in a meritoriouS case,
until money is paid for il to himself, or TO
his friend. than it wonld be to grant a par
don In ,a>e of atrocious murder. For
these reasons. and, believing that the chars en-
have been fully sustained by the proof /
vote guilty on each and every arJire OF i'm
parchment against Alexander X, Davis,
Lieutenant-Govtr nor of Mississippi.
JAS. Il. CHALMERS,
Senator 18th District.