Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1876-03-08
aABcocK,s Acou1rTA1.

whisky ring, says "Gcncral Babcock
was not proven guity--so much will
be generally conceded. Arraigncd on
a charge Of peculiar gravity, consider
ing all the circumstances OF his case, a
verdict of guilty could be reached only
on the hypothesis that the testimony
was irreconcilable with his innocence,
and it must be admitted by all that
the evidence was not sufficiently con-
elusive to warrant judicial condem-
nation. If this were nm isolated or an
ordinary case, the discussion Of tho
verdict would end with tho statement
that the government failed to make
out clear case against the accused I;
but the position of General Babcock is
exceptional In several marked particu-
lars. He is an officer OF tho army in
high commission, and has well earned
soldiers fame to protect, and judg-
ment of guilt against him in the issue
just tried, would, have reached far be-
yond tho dashihg young Colonel of the
Engineers who gaccd the prisoners
dock He has been the most trusted
political adviser and con6dant of the
President of tho United States, and
record of his guilt, in the face of the
deposition from the White House ties.
tifying to his spotless probity, would
have borne Its whitening curse to the
very inner temple ofnational authority.
These exceptional circumstances doubt
less did much TO strengthen tho case
of the defense. They brought the
sworn testimonials of Grant and Sher-
man, and u dozen others of revered
regulations, into court, regardless Of
the accepted rules of evidence, TO throw
grave doubts upon the case of the gov
ernment that hod been dug and ham.
msfsd out of unwilling sources and
they made the Tuttons and kindred
revenue mendicants hasten TO the scene,
under official orders, to explain mex
plicablc complications as they arose on
the trial. They threw in and about
the court an element that tempered
the pitiless storm under which Joyce,
Mcdonald and others had gone down
and it was not difficult, under all the
circumstances, for General Babcock to
gain verdict of acquittal.
judged by the record the verdict
was proper one, for no measure Of
prejudice, no public necessity, can jus.
tify the conviction of any citizen, of
however high or low position, who Is
not clearly proved to be guilty, and
General Babcock was not positively
proved to be in guilty completely with
the whisky thieves. But the excep-
tional features of the case, which have
operated so powerfully in aid of Gen.
cral Babcock's acquittal, also invite
much moro than ordinarily critical in.
quiry into the verdict that the higher
tribunal of the nation will render in
his case. That he has been discharged
from the custody of the law does not
decide the issue of bis innocence or
guilt in the Judgment Of the country
whose honors he wears, and whose in.
tercsts he is solemnly sworn to main
tain. The one pregnant point Of the
case as II presents itself to the public,
is that while the government tailed to
prove him guilty, he failed to prove
himself innocent. True, under all or
dinary circumstances, to ask a defend
ant TO prove a negative would be not
only unjust, but in every respect un-
but it was one OF the pecu-
liar features of this case that General
Babcock could have established his in
nocence If he really is innocent, and he
owed it to himself, to the Administra-
ton of President Grant, and TO the
country to do so. The circumstances
which pointed most strongly to his
guilty completely with the revenue
plunderers had their source in certain
kilograms, confessed to have been sent
TO and from General Babcock and the
men who are now in prison stripes
and it is not disputed that the dis
patches related to the illicit operations
Of the whisky ring. So much stands
out in bideous deformity on the record
Of the trial, and it demanded explana-
lion.> A jury could not assume that
the absence Of explanation was con-
elusive as TO the guilt Of tho defendant,
for crime cannot be inferred in trial
between the government and citizen,
involving both reputation and liberty
but when the most confidential and
trusted Secretary Of the President cx-
changes mysterious dispatches with
banded thieves, on the subject OF their
to promote their schemes
of plunder, and resis.s all efforts to get
1t their true meaning in a court of
Justice, he confesses either that he is
guilty Of actual completely with the
thieves, or that he was asserting to
political debauchery at the public cost
that he dare not confess before the
world. No one will say that Gen.
Babcock is simplcton that he was
leceivd by designing men who simply
lsed him to advance their peculations.
He is'not a fool, and the world will
ook in any other direction than that
Tor the solution of his strange, and at
lines jubilant, dispatches to those who
made him their chief agency TO keep
he government from dogging them in
heir paths Of crime. Had General
Babcock met these kilograms with
prompt explanation, and shown that
hey were thoughtlcss or tree from any
Intentional wrong, be would have
proved his innocence; and as 1t was in
iis power to prove his innocence, If in
ioccnt he is, be committed blundcr
hat life is too short 10 overcome, by