The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-09-27
THE RANCROFr CASE.

THE BANCROFT CASE.
The trial of E. p Bancroft, of this
city, found guilty on the 18th of defraud-
ing the State Normal School fund, closed
on Monday last, the court Overruling the
motion for new trial, and sentencing
Mr.. Bancroft to five years Imprisonment
at hard labor in the state penitentiary,
and to pay the costs of the prosecution.
We have devoted large part of our
space for two issues to reporting the
trial, in order that our readers might
see for themselves what the evidence is
on both sides. We have, at the same
time, refrained from editorial comment
for or against the defendant, preferring
to wait for all the evidence before form
ing and expressing opinions as to the de-
gree of guilt which his acknowledged
embezzlement involved. A careful pc
rusal of the evidence, and especially Mr..
Bancroft's own testimony, in the light of
the cross-examination which followed ii,
and the very clear and instructive charge
delivered by the court TO the jury, has
brought us to the conclusion that an
honest jury and an upright judge could
not have rendered any other verdict and
sentence than those which have been pro-
nOunced. And we need hardly add that
this is the almost unanimous opinion of
the community.
A newspaper, like public officer, Of
ten has duty to perform from which it
must not shrink, however much it may
regret the necessity of performing that
duty. We can honestly express our deep
regret at Mr.. Bancroft's downfall with
out false and misplaced sympathy for
him. Our sympathy must go rather to
the poor and industrious settlers whose
hard-earned money Mr.. Bancroft took
and kept, after his authority to act as
agent had been revoked, and who must
either pay their money over again or
lose the homes they are striving to make
on the broad prairies TO which the real
estate and other newspapers of Kansas so
cordially invite immigration. We re-
greet that the state officers were not able
to sooner begin the prosecution which
these poor men could not afford to carry
on, and which has saved them and others
further loss. We do not wish to refer to
many other well known cases of the past
seven or eight years in which Mr.. Ban
croft has been called upon to disgorge,
but the fact is that not only the pro-
lection of the public school fund, but
the public welfare in other ways, has of
late years required that Mr.. Bancroft be
brought to account, and the Normal
School board of directors, Attorney Gen
eral Davis, and Gillett s. FOrde, the coun-
sci for the state, have performed very
evident and useful public duty in prose
cutting Mr.. Bancroft, and their ability
and success should meet with the out
spoken approval Of every honest citizen
and newspaper.
The law should know no distinction
of persons. 1t should be applied alike
to the rich and to the poor man, to the
high and the humble. To screen any
offender from legal punishment on the
plea that he stood high in the communi-
ty, and was a man of ability and influ-
ence, would be to annul the statute, to
rebuke jury for regarding its oath, to
censure judge for upright decisions
To set an embezzler at large in derision
of the verdict and sentence pronounced
upon him, after fair and thorough trial
by jury, would be violation of justice
that no plea of sympathy could excuse.
Every week the telegraph brings us ac-
counts of men who have been honored
and trusted being brought to trial for
this or that form of embezzlement, to the
sorrow of innocent relatives and friends
who are in no way responsible for the
missdeeds that infiict grief too deep for
expression upon them. Such grief, how
ever much it is entitled to respect and
sympathy, should not permit guilty par
ties to defy or escape the law. Other
wise there would be no public or private
security, and no defaulter could be held
to account.
The case is at once lesson and a warn
ing to all who may feel tempted to make
an unauthorized use of money or other
property entrusted to their keeping.
Loose notions of moral and legal re-
sponsibility are too prevalent, and no
one can read the details of this import
ant case without being strengthened in
the conviction that after all honesty is
the best policy.