The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-03-09
BABCOCK AND,TIIE ARMY

The jurors in the BABCecK case are
probably entitled to the benefit of the
supposition that their verdict was based
upon conscientious convictions of duty
The inability. Of juries to stand npon the
middle ground of "not proven"
lied by the Scottish law-may often jus
tify an American jury in its finding
of mot guilty" in cases where
the benefit OF doubt given TO the ac-
cused saves him from the terrible verdict
of guilty. But the result ofthe trial does
net rescue BABCoCK from the conse-
quences Of that moral conviction which
has determined his standing in the esti-
nation of the people. 1t certainly does
not justify his recognition and endorse
msnt at the White House, by the Presi-
dent.
General GRANT has been a soldier and
he cannot fail to recognize the force and
truth of the distinction drawn in the fol-
lowing article from the Nation, a paper
which although Of al exceptionally
high type and digRity is, in its politics,
thoroughly Republican 1t remains
to be seen whether the course here so
plainly declared to be suggested by every
consideration of military propriety, will
be adopted by the President acting in
his con stitutional relation to the army,
as its Commander-in.ch chief.
"In estimating The effect which the re-
suit of his trial ought to have on Gen.
BabcOck's future, it will not do TO forget
that he held two relations to the public
service. He Is not merely the Presldent's
Secretary, but is an officer OF the army
besides. The army has always been,
above all other professions, school Of
honor, and has professed to test, by a
standard altogether nicer and more sensi-
tive than that OF courts of justice, the con-
duct o. its members. What it asks Is, not
whether an officer has or has not COM
rnitted an indictable offesse, but whether
he has been guilty of conduct "unbecem-
ing an officer and a gentleman" and in
discovering this it is not bound by any
technical rules of.evidence or law. The
military idea Of the ''ofiiccr and gentle
man, as settled by the practice of mill
tary courts and by usage, especially ex-
cludes want of frankness or sincerity or
truthfulness. The telegram, for instance,
from Babcock to Luckey, telling him, at
the very time that he was clamoring for
an opportunity to clear himself, that
his counsel in St. Louis must prevent
his gong there now at all hazards, was
not sent by ian officer and = gentleman"
and it was not the act of an officer and a
gentleman, but that OF petti.fogging
criminal to have it ruled out as a"privi-
legged communication" And the whole
farcial spectacle of gentleman of high
character, as the President declared him
to be, accused of high crime, first prom
ising to explain all, and then sitting
down as dumb as an oyster, and keeping
all the evidence to himself, is, IN the eyes
of military usage, utterly disgraceful.
1t is before a military tribunal that
General Babcock ought to be summoned
now. The present position of his case
makes his retention IN the army public
scandal, and his request, if he really made
it, to be assigned to active duty, is piece
of lmprudence which, if there were no
such thing as politics" would probably
result in the loss of bis commission on
the spot.