The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-02-22
u LAST RESORT.

legislature. The House of Representa-
tives is largely composed of men who
are in real sympathy with the people at
large, men who have some regard for
the popular will, and who are not so
far beyond the reach of the popular
voice a S to wholly disregard the
petitions and respectful representations
of American citizens, eve of they are
residents of a Territory.
The law providing for the reorgani-
cation of Crook and Pease counties
establishing the courts therein, and as
signing the judges to the several dis
tricts in the Territory, we claim,
should not be repealed, and for the fol-
lowing reasons: The subject is a fright
full subject of legislation" in accord
ance with the Organic Act of the Ter
ritory, which act provides that the
Legislature shall assign the judges APP
pointed by the government to the dis
tricts in which they are to hold court.
The argument advanced in the Senate
that Judge Peek had been assigned to
4 district inhabited only by Indians is
untenable and based upon misrepresen-
tation. There are no Indinns in this
district, and these new counties are
being rapidly populated by miners and
| stock-raisers. who, but for this act,
would be deprived Of the facilities of
%transacting legal business, now enjoyed
by the other counties of Wyoming Ter
ritory. 1t should be known in Com
grcss that these counties adjOin the
mining towns in the Black Hills of Da-
kota, that many of the richest leads of
that a%uriferOus region extend from Da-
kota into Crook county, and that ere
long the courts Of this district will be
kept busy by mining litigation, which
now wholly absorbs the time of the
Dakota courts in the adjacent settle
ments.
1t is claimed by the friends of Judge
Peck that the legislation of which he
complains was brought about by n ring
of government and county officials, who
had some grievance against the Judge.
This is also groundless; there is not a
government or county officer who, for
mere personal reasons, favored the pas
sage of this law. Only in so far as they
were interested in the welfare of the
people of the district where Judge
Peck formerly presided, did they favor
the passage of the act.
The people of Judge Peck's former
district are peaceable, law-abiding citi-
zens they form Il community known
and respected for its enterprise, public
spirit and intelligence. They have re-
claimed from the great American
wilderness Il section of country
which had not been supposed to be
habitable they have labored hard in
past years, %prospered as they deserved,
and to-day their towns and villages are
numbered with the most thriving and
peaceable communities of the West.
1t is claimed by Judge Peck that he
found in his district, when he arrived
there with Il government commission,
Il class of people, whom he classed as
outlaws, gamblers, etc; that he o n
sidered it his duty to inaugurate an en-
ergetic reform, and that, for this rea-
son, he had been sent away. If all be
true that has been reported to us from
New York, or even if only II small por-
ton of these rumors should be based
on facts, reform, as in the majority of
cases, should have been commenced at
home. 1t is rather presuming, to say
the least, for a newly-imported official
to set himself up at once as Il model of
propriety, and to attempt to make n
western community conform to his no.
tions, imbibed under the ancient blue
laws of New England. Instead of adj
ministering the laws rs he found them
on our statute books, he considered it
to be his sphere to introduce and en-
force a code of morals of his own con-
struction. Was he a missionary sent
by Uncle Sam to his heather subjects?
Or vas lie II judicial officer, commits
l'INu W thLlIlliolCl law anu JuSllCt,
and preside over the courts of law es-
tablished by Congress for free Ameri-
can citiZensP
1t is somewhat remarkable that Judge
Peck's predecessors on the bench failed
to discover the many erring ways of the
people of Uinta and Sweetwater coun-
ties; these Judges were western men,
however, of broad and liberal views,
not whining hypocrites nor eccentric
reformers. Law and justice has pre-
vailed in these two counties for the
past ten years; the records of the court
show less crime and litigation in that
district than in any other in this Terri
tory; and it was left to Judge Peck to
discover ut this late day the many sins
of these people, and to launch out on n
course of fanatical crusade against
these western barbarians, as he calls
these people.
While his labors have not been very
successful. while he has failed to re-
form anybody; he has accomplished
wonders in the formerly quiet and
peaceful communities of Sweetwater
and Uinta. He has organized cliques
and classes; set enc portion of the peo-
Pile AGAINST the other; encouraged strife
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