The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-03-23
Anderson Released.

aeOaro anu oil the New orleans Custom House
y released from prison. The Supreme Court
OF the State has reversed the judgment which
followed his conviction by the jury that tried
him. The decision Of the Chief Justice in his
case takes the ground that the document
which he was convicted of forging is not re.
CURED as the declaration of the result of an
election; and it is upon this legal technically
mat Anderson escapes from the punishment
OF his crime. The decision does not cast anv
doubt over the fact that Anderson was euilty
OF forgery. Anderson can now return 10 his
quarters In the New Orleans Custom House.
The Fraudulent President did not remove
him from Office when he was convicted of the
crime by which the Fraudulent President got
into the White House; and his release fur
nishes no new reason for his removal. Il is
terrible disgrace that such a man should
hold ofhce; but what can equal the disgrace
of Hayes holding Office ?-N Y. San.
The Philadelphia Ledger, an independent
journal with bearings towards the Admins.
tration, thinks that Anderson ought now to
be retired from office and 60 into private life.
The Philadelphia Times says This deci-
SION was given by q Conservative court. whose
members are IN hearty sympathy with Gov.
Nichols, and it can't be imputed to partisan
disregard of the law; but the belief will he
very general that the court could have decid-
ed the question the other way, without vio-
lence to either law or justice, had it been
deemed equally expedient TO do so. The IN.
Outstanding that seemed to fill the air about
New Orleans when the Nichols Legislature
was installed as the undisputed authority az
the State, and that has been pressed nnon
Governor Nichols with more zeal than dis
cretion as the ground for pardon, has evil
IDENTIFY permeated into the Supreme court, and
all doubts as to the law have been resolved
In favor OF an era Of general forgiveness and
peace Judges are but men after all, and
those who made the decision owe their pres
ent unquestioned titles to their places to the
atmosphere that was crowded with whispers
OF generally accepted agreements that Justice
should be suspended for season 10 bridge
the hideous chasm of crime and partisan ha-
tired; and what was the unwritten and unde-
clared law ofthe Hayes Commission, has been
affirmed by the Nichols Supreme court. We
may mistake the marrow of the case, but it
isn't worth while TO waste time looking into
political millstones, if the guess has missed
the truth.
The Philadelphia Times, of Wednesday
makes further reference TO the case Of An,
derson, as follows;-The one thing that should
not be overlooked in the consideration of the
end of the Anderson trial in Louisiana is that
the action of the Supreme Court in sustaining
an exception made by the defense, and there.
upon discharging the prisoner, in no way
affects the merits of the case against the Re-
turning Board. In the maze of technicalities
woven about the accused by the lawyers there
happened to be little opening, through
which, by lenient Interpretation Of the stat
ute under which the information was fled. he
was enabled TO crawl out. II was not that
the prosecution was characterized by auy of
fha ,lar 1esas sh.et L..
have laid to the account of Judge Whitaker
or the Attorney General 1t was not that the
selection of the jury did not meet all the re-
quIrements OF the law. 1t was not that any
undue influences were brought to bear upon
the colored jurors to secure the verdict of
guilty. 1t was not that the evidence did not
fully establish the commission of perjury and
forgery IN the ordinary acceptation of these
terms. 1t was simply that the record offered
IN evidence did not fully conform with that
mentioned In the information, the document
forged and uttered as forged being ''the CON
solldated statement" Of the Supervisor of
Registration instead of ''the original returns
OF the Commissioners of Election" from
which, according to the law, the Board of
returning Officers were bound to compiIe
their proclamation of the result. An instru-
ment was forged, but it did not happen 10 be
an instrument in the nature of public record
IN the eye of the law upon which the prose.
eutIon rested Its case. The crime must be
committed by public officer on a public re-
eords A public officer did forge, or utter as
forged, certain official paper, but he escapes
punishment because II is not clear that the
paper altered was really public record. The
moral delinquency of the offender is none the
less. Only rogue would accept an acquittal
thus secured without demanding a considera-
ton Of the case on its merits.
1t will be seen, therefore, that there is no
reason IN the chorus of rejoicing that arises
from the personal and political friends of Gen.
eral Anderson. Every good citizen might
well be pleased were his innocence establish
ed, and there may be some satisfaction in the
fact that bone of national contention is re-
moved even by such process. But the trial
that has thus ended has been attended by more
important consequences in putting on record
under the forms of law the true history
OF the Returning Board infamy. The tes-
timony now before the public and accessible
to the future historian fully confirms the
general belief that Anderson and his as
soclates maliciously conspired to pervert the
ballots cast by the people of Louisiana in
the late election, and in pursuance of that
conspiracy by forgery and perjury counted the
vote of the State for Packard instead of for
Nichols, for Hayes instead of for Tilden.
Whether the perpetrators of the outrage shall
suffer the penalty of their crimes, or through
the leniency of court or the clemency of a
Governor shall 90 scot free, as now seems
probable, this damned spot" willnot "out. /"
The wicked acts of the Returning Board are
now not merely matter of notoriety. They
are matter of record, and it is also of record
that when this man Anderson was arraigned
for his crime he could only offer in defense
the most himsy of technical pleas in rebuttal
OF the most positive testimony, direct and cir
cumstantial, laying it at his door, If Presi-
dent Hayes is much pleased as he is re-
ported to be with the page of history thus
made up by the discharge Of one of the con-
spirators to whom he owes his place at the
head OF the government, and the dismissal OF
proceedings against the rest through mere in
disposition of the people of Louisiana to
prosecute the offenders, in the face of charges
of persecution and bad faith, he is very easily
satisfied. The course of his administration in
this matter has not contributed greatly to
sustain the belief that it had only the ends OF
justice in view and was without fe,,r as to the
result OF going behind the returns,