The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-09-12
HAVE We A GOVERNMENT

For the third time in as many weeks
the United States mail pouches have
arrived in this city from the Black
Hills cut open by highway robbers and
p%ilfered of their contents. Robbing
the mails in all parts of the country,
excepting in this locality. as it seems,
is a high crime, punishable with many
years in the ~penitentiary, and every
where, excepting in Wyoming, the
whole power Of the government would
be exerted in the detection and capture
Of mail robbers. Here 1t seems to be
nobody's business to interfere. Ac-
cording to the late act of a democratic
congress the military power of the ma
ton cannot be employed in the capture
Of robbers; when Postmaster General
Key was applied to the other day for a
company of cavalry. to aid the civil
agents Of the government in the pro-
lection Of the mails, that officer de-
clared himself powerless in the prem
ises, as the law forbade the employment
Of the army for civil purposes. A re-
quest to the United States marshal to
organize a civil posse for this purpose,
has been met with the declaration that
the department of justice does not
authorize the expenditure of funds nee
essary for the organization Of such a
force. The civil authorities of the
county and territory are also unable or
unwilling to render aid In the premises,
and to-day we have the spectacle of a
few outlaws stopping and robbing the
United States mails, plundering United
States citizens and stealing the proper
ty of the stage company and our own
people, without the least attempt of the
authorities to detect and capture the
criminals, who of late have become so
bold as to ride in broad daylight along
or near the public highways. This
lawlessness, If permitted to continue,
will not only be a lasting disgrace to
this territory and the national govern
ment, but it will retard the progress
and development of this section, which
otherwise would have SO bright q
future before it. If no steps are taken
by our authorities to break up and cap
ture the bands who now make travel
unsafe through Wyoming and Dakota,
the trade to and from the Black Hills
will be turned into other channels, and
we shall be, so far as our material re-
eoureaa ara copoarpad In n xyorca oop-
dition than WI were before Col. Steele
secured the removal of the Indians
from northern Wyoming. If the north
ern country was only liberated from the
control Of the savages to be turned
over to white outlaws, it were far bet
ter it had remained the hunting ground
of the Sioux, for they were kept within
bounds by the United States army, and
their subsistence by the government
added annually to the of our
people.
The action of the democratic con-
gress In binding the hands Of the exec
utive officers Of the government, and
thus rendering the people powerless to
guard against crime and to protect life
and property, is in keeping with the
general course of the leading demo-
cratic politicians, who, under the pre-
tense that they are economizing the
public expenditures, perpetrate the
foulest wrongs upon the American peo-
pie. 1t is high time that these frauds
of political demagogues should be ex-
posed, and that good men and true,
who have some regard for the rights of
all American citizens, be chosen to
represent and enact laws for a free peo-
Pile; men, who will, instead of catering
to the selfish motives Of eastern capt.
~talists. legislate in accordance with the
broad principle Of our Constitution-to
establish justice, insure domestic tran
guilty, provide for the common de-
Tense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty and the
enjoyment of the rights and privileges
of American citizenship.