New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-04-09
MOSES IN EGYPT.

Ex-Governor Franklin j. Moses, Jr, may manage
TO avoid protracted Imprisonment, or he may get
ten years at hard labor morally he is beyond the
help of kabcas corpus. His political career seemed
long ago ended, but his arrest in this city has
settled its conclusion beyond peradventure de
will never leave the Egypt of his public fortunes
No State, however desperate or degraded its situa-
ton. will ever again make him Governor, or any
thing else. Whether the courts of South Carolina
may have an opportunity of cOnvicting him or not,
his ability TO swindle or to steal except upon scale
of notifying minuteneSS, has been utterly taken
away from him. There is an end Of all-the auda-
oiOus fOrgeries, the brazen perjures the enormous
frauds, the Consummate impudence and the impress
sivey grand larcenies! He has confessed them, and
they can never be repeated; with him all is now
dust and darkness and desoatOn. There is, after
ALL something like poetic justice even in the
meanest of our public affairs. The man who
was on Sunday locked up in the Tombs, upon
charge of felony, not carpet-bagger, but
came of an old and honored South Carolina family.
He enjoyed the singular honor of being sworn into
Office as Chief Magistrate of his native State by his
own father. who was at the time Chief Justice of
the State During the progress of an extraordinary
civil controversy, he has had the honor of being
upon both sides. With no opinions of his own
men thought him necessary to the support OF
theirs. As Speaker Of the General Assembly
of South Carolina he held that imbecle
and corrupt body in the hollow of his
own dirty hand He was tho friend and fellow of
all who had designs upon the public money. As
Governor he helped himself and everybody else who
had either his good will or his fear to the wealth
wrung by tenacious and remOrseless taxation from
a State no longer opuent. 1t was all a travesty of
the shames which Juvenal dashed and which the
stern pen of Tacitus rccOrded-it was Roman vo-
racty without Roman dignity. Wealth thus at
tanned was naturally sQuandered, aud the Cati-
line Of South Carolina became bankrupt
like his classical predecessor, who was, at least,
gentleman. Now too, he began to have relations
of delicate nature with Grand Jures, and to
achieve the honors of indictments. With his black
egmeuts about him, he held the authority OF law
at bay. Then his ambition took judicial
turn, and by the low arts Of which he
was a master he persuaded the sham Legis-
lature of South Carolina TO make him
Judge Of the Circuit Court. But the crmine es-
caped the shame of his wearing. He refused
his commission and afterwards fled TO this
city. where he has since lived in obscurity. II the
statements made in another column are true, he is
even denied the poor honor of returning to his state
as a political prisoner. The crime with which he is
charged is q vulgar forgery, committed for the
pleasure of a disreputable associate.
Whatever may be the future OF SOnth Carolina
the career of her spoilers is rapidly approaching an
end. We wish that some one holding pen equal
TO the task would write the strange cyentlul his
tory OF crime of folly of venality which the expert
encc5 Of that unfortunate State, since the conclu-
sion Of the civil war; would amply furnish
In some respects, it would be unique. We
have heard often enough of proctary obtaining
possession of n Government and playing all manner
of mad and mischIcyous antics. And we have heard
also of an aristocracy-un heartess and
yicious-whch remOrselessly ground the faces Of
the poor. South Carolina was delivered up to
the tough mercies of few white men
who managed an enormous number of black men
at Measure and employed the suIrages of the State
10 il their own Golfers NJ the expense Of its treas
urv. Honesty, responsibility, the pretence Of de-
cency. all were abandoned. There was
mad dance of unbridled license, and among
those who promoted at the head. and
led the most expensive figures Moses was
one of the meanest and the most nimble. There isa
kind of grim comedy in these transactions. Never
were pccuators hungrer, and never were they more
fantastic. They stopped at nothing. They would
have stolen the very soil Of the State and have run
away with it if they could. They would have
pocketed all the public buildings # 1t had been fca-
sible for them to do so. They would have converted
the body polite into something pecunary, If it had
been practicable Every branch OF the Government
was corrupted. and every exercise Of it, powers was
turned into a farce and liam. IL was the French
Revolution over again a small scale, and without
ITS horrors. Ii was the mob masquerading in the
robes OF Office.
It's not q matter of much consequence to the rest
of the country whether Moses is tried, convicted,
sentenced and imprisoned or not but South Caro-
lima ought clearly to have chance of getting even
with him. Most men in his situation would prefer 10
90 to prison for the rest of their natural lives hut
he, We suppose, would he quite willing to
remain at liberty to eat and To drink and TO improve
such chances of getting other peoples money a.
might from time to tune, present themselves, POlit
ically Mr. Moses is no longer Of Importance; but he
might still he personally to the police of such
towns or cities as he CHANGED to abide in. Where
fore if he is locked up permanently, we shall not
be sorry.