The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-07-17
The Louisiana Grimes.


of the Louisiana Returning Board Dy Tue
New Orleans grand jury, is violation
OF the plighted faith OF the NICHOLS gov
eminent and breach of the vita! terms
or conditions precedent TO the peaceiuI
establishment of the Nichols admins.
trstion by the Commission OF PRESIDENT
HAYES. These uttersnces have dubbed
out from sll sorts of places near to the iouh-
tain of power, and have sobbed through
trembling organs to the public; but un-
til yesterday there was no authoritative
declaration to the world that one OF the
means employed to drive Packard from
his usurped mockery OF authority ana
install the officers honestly chosen oythe
people OF louisiana, was the aSreeilen'
between the representatives OF the fresl-
dent and the Nichols government on
the one side, and the discounted reVolu-
tionists who had desolated the State ana
shsmed the nation by their infsmy on
the other side, that all lswlessnes', from
murder down through forgery, perjury,
embeZZ element, 10 assault and battery,
that could be called political, must be
above the law and defy its retribution.
Judge Lawrence, OF Illinois, regarded
As one of the intelligent, Upright ana
conservative of the louisiana Commls'
sion, Yesterday made the apparently OIL
cal statement to the public, through the
Chicago Inter. Ocean, that the lnolctmehl
of the members of the louisiana Return
ing Board, as gross riOLdtton Of the
piedqes made bythe Nichols government.
n gas the distinct understanding that
there should be no political prosecutors.
THIS startling confession from one OF the
leading members OF the Commission,
that one of the achievements OF that body
was the successful compromising OF
some of the grsvest teionles ever
perpetrsted in any portion OF
the Union, is declaration that
holds up the names of Lawrence, Haw'
lev. Harlan. MacV eagh and Brown to
the execrstions of every lover OF law and
Justice. That purely political otienses
were to be condoned upon the withdrawal
of the troops and the restoration OF
sovereign State to the rightiul soVer.
eighty of her people, was admitted and
approved by all dispassionate citizens
but what are political otienses! Ihey
are easily defined and well understood
even by the wsyfaring man. Two rival
governments claimed to exercise authorl-
~ in the State each with Its complete
departments, executive, legislative and
judicial; with military and police; with
tsz-gstherers and sheritfs, and with
sll the agencies and ceremonies
of de facto administration. Both
could not be lawful, and one or the other,
with sill its subordinates, was amenable
t. the law for usurpation, oppression,
trespsss, etc. 1t was certainly well that
when the people found lawful govern
ment established, with peace and protec-
ton to all as its offerings, they should be
rescued from the turbulence and dlscord
and inhsmed passions which must have
followed the vindictive prosecution o!
those who had offended under color OF
law, or under the pretence OF exercising
lawful authority; and to forgive all OF
that multitude OF offenders and restore a
commonwealth 10 tranquility and law,
was but the Office OF wisdom aud patriot
ism.
But is the public thief who has plum
dered the revenues OF the people to es-
cape because he stole in the name OF a
psrtyH Is the official embezzler to 60
unwhipped OF justice because be was a
stsnGard-besrer IN political bsttlesf Is
the forger 10 escape because ne forged
for party to delraud whole cOmmuni-
ties or whole State out of the expressed
popular will2 Il the perjurrr TO defy
the law because he perjured his soul to
pit q political friend IN the Legislature,
i Congress, in u State office or even in
the Presidential chair? Is the red-ha 'ded
murderer to be above the law because be
slew only those who were contrivlng to
defeat his party at the polls? Was this
the mission, this the distinct under
standing" made by such men as Law
r.nce, Hawley, Harlan, McVeagh and
Brown, when they were ostensibly seek
ing 10 have justice born OF law in a land
where both have long been strangers
If so, they have strangely miscOnceived
the considerate judgment OF the coun-
try and of the world, and have made
Themselves the con federates OF class OF
Criminals whose record Of crime Is ad-
Judged by civilization rs without u single
feature to plead in extenustiOn of its I'M
mingled villsiny.
As vet but one OF the members OF the
Louisiana Commission has thus con-
fsssed the consuming shame that he
would accept for himself and his
associates. Other members have been
loosely quoted IS asserting to the
views of Judge Lawrence, but they
should not be judged on so grave an
is ,ue until they shall speak for them
selves. Until then it would be most I'M
fair to assume that such men as Hawley,
Harlan, McVeagh and Brown would be
f,rgettul of the plsinest obligations
which all citizens, In both public and
private life, owe to law and justice, and
we are unwilling to condemn them;
but unless Judge Lawrence shall
himself explain his explanation OF
the sctlon of the Commission, they
will owe it to themselves TO wash
their skirts of the stains he has put upon
them, As TO President Hayes, however
much he may feel concerned about the
Developments which may be made sf-
fecting the integrity OF the vote OF Lou
i.isns, by the trial of the members of the
Returning Board in the criminal courts,
he has but one path to pursue, and that
is so plain that he cannot mistake 1t. lie
received his title from tribunal that
was created by the lawful authority Of
the nation and TO which the whole coun-
try yielded obedience at the time, and
t. which judgment the whole people
bow to-day, and he cannot tor moment
pause to psrley with crime or crlml
AIS who may have made his triumph
possible. The day he espouses the cause
of Wells and his associates, even to the
extent of pleading or suggesting direct.
ly or indirectly, that grand juries and
courts and the law shall be stayed III the
punishment of such otienses as forgery
and perjury, that day will turn from him
the trust and the support of just men OF
all parties, and he will be ground TO
powder between the upper and the Meth
or millstones.
Western Slang.
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