The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-11-28
lOnn,in,led from frst paae J

pose of the case manfully as lts excep
tional Importance merited, and warned
him that with the law, unexecutet
while its Judgment was unquestioned
and Kehoe in prison during desperate
partisan battle, neither tie Executive
nor the administration Of justice coult
escape the gravest imputations OF per
fdv in the one or uupardonabl
weakness in both. And this journa
but spoke and appealed as did the en-
tire unshackled press of the Common
wealth, and they voiced the universa
convictions Of honest citizens. Blu
Governor Hartranft halted and turnet
the homes of the criminal classes of thl
State toward the very fountain Of all
thority. Had he halted brave'y he WOE
have commanded respect; but he halteC
trembling as he halted, and counselet
only with his fears of something tina
was undecIared to the world. Tht
Board of Pardons was made the LITTLE
sand pile into which he thrust his head
It was made to reconsider the case, os
tensibly to decide whether the sentence
should be Comnuted to imprisonment
for life-iust what had been decided be-
fore and for three months the Board
PLAYED Hartranft's part, by delay on va
rious pretexts, until September, when Q
tie vote again decided to refuse recon-
menGation for Clemency. Secretary
@ lay having retired from the Cabinet tc
become Recorder of Philadelphia, Sec,
retary Linn had succeeded him, and
Linn, being undrilled in running sharp
curves, he refused to follow Qlay and
favor Kehoe. But as one of Hartranfes
Cabinet had fallen out of line, he had
Attorney General Lear, of little use be-
yond playing political jumpingjack in a
beer pot, and Lear was made to reverse
Lear and favor the reprieve he had op
posed before. Lear and Latta voted to
save Kehoe in September, and Linn and
McCandless voted to execute the judg
ment of the law. Since then unit now,
the case has rested with Hartranft, and
the votes of Luzsrne and LaCkawanna
(where the Mole Maguires, although
formally discarded by the Ancient Or
der of Hibernians, have recognized as a
local institution), at the late election con-
Clusively speak the Interpretation put
upon Governor Hartranft's refusal to ex.
ecute Kehoe by the criminal classes OF
that region. Now afoer having deliber'
ately allowed his friends "to make polit-
ical capital out of the case" he grudging-
ly and pstulantly and trembling bows to
the law, apologies to crime for his COM
uelled respect for justice, and pours out
disiointed railing against others to escape
from his own infrmities.
The statement made by Governor
Hartranft that there has been "uncom'
mon anxiety to push technicalities to ex-
tremes to secure his (Kehoe's) ConVic.
tion aud execution for crime of fifteen
years standing" laCEs the substantial at
tribute of truth. The Supreme Court, to
which the case was appealed and ably ar.
gued on all points, directly confront the
reckless assumption Of the Executive by
the unanimous Judgment of the ] ldges.
The opinion, delivered by Judge Sterret,
says
"The body of the ofFense was clearly
established. Tnere could be no doubt
that Langdon was murdered, and the ev
idence was amply suficientto Justify the
iury in finding that the prisoner was one
of the guilty parties, and that the grade
of his off1nse was murder in the first de-
gree. A careful review of the evidence
satisfies us that "all the Ingredients nee
essary to constitute murder in the first |
degree were proved to exist"
Did the seven judges of the Supreme |
Court not understand the law? Did they |
not comprehend the evidence upon |
which they passed by careful review?" |
Either they do not understand the tech
nicaites of the law and the merits the |
case as presented by the evidence, or
Hartranft does not, and which is it p
The only other hypothesis that can pos
sibly explain the dispute between the
Executive aud Supreme Court is that Ell
ther the Court or the Executive must be
corrupt, or that the Executive deliber.
ately discards the truth. If he believes
what he asserts he is not the first citizen
of the State who has differed from the
judgments of the highest Courts, but
Governors are not the class from which
the people expect expressions of con.
tempt for the DEGREES of the law.
The insolent partisan declarations of
Governor Hartranft about his refusal ito
erect the gallows in a political cam,
paign," and that "whatever political ad. {
vantage could be gotten from making the
pardon or execution of criminal a po- {
litical question, desired the opposition
to wholly enjoy" might be deemed not
in rounder ward meeting
by a small beer Campaigner, but they
will CRATE harshly upon the ears of dis
passionate citizsns, coming from the EX.
ecutiVe of the State in an utteranCe re-
lating to the gravest duty the law can ,
impose upon public officer. They are
sadly tuneless as declarations in behalf I
of the majesty of public authority. and /
they elevate condemned crime, even {
when the highest judgment of the law
has been pronounced against it, to de-
batable plane with justice and with JUS I
tice at the disadvantage. They invoke
the searching criticism of the administra- I
tion that thus sulks at the altar of Justice
when murder by the potential partisan
is to be punished. They recall how the I
prison doors swung open for Mara and
D )ugherty to give Hartranft the support C
of corrupt adverse elements in 1872; how r
ran riot in this city and |
fraud held high carnival to make him 6
Governor; how Dougherty was killed by ;
his murderous associates within a few g
months thereafter; how Mara was speed '
ily returned to prison for a murderous C
attempt upon the life of one of his bene- '
factors who had contracted for his deliv- b
erance, and how Hartranft pardoned S
Mara for his second illustration of his p
murderous purposes, which met and a
Justice by political power h
They remember how the partisan Or S
gans of the Governor in the coal regions, Il
have been compelled to denounce his a
prostitution of the pardoning power g.
In fulfllment of political contracts; how
Beamish mocks the law and defes
Justice because he is stronger than the
law itself, and how ballot suffers and y
embezzlers have found ready barter for q
,lemency in exchange for political de. =
mbnvy bnur nnI, "