New-York tribune., 1879-05-10
vR. CORNISH POINTS 4 WORAE.

New-Jersey jury has just found Joseph b.
Cornish guilty of conspiracy 10 defraud the County
OF Warren, winch for three years he had repre-
sented in the State Senate. There was time
when the State would have been startled II a
pubIic man who had been signally honored
and trusted was formally pronounced felon.
But 10 one now expresses the slightest surprise.
Convictions of Warren County officials for the
crimes of forgery, larceny and conspiracy have
been so numerous of late that they have come
TO be looked upon as inevitable matters OF current
history at each session OF Chiel-Justice
Beaseley's Court IN Belvidere. Unfortunately,
too. Mr. Cornish has not succeeded in convincing
people who have watched him that this is an inap-
proprate or unnatural finish for the kind of career
he has been running. The most dscouraging
feature Of the case is that the people Of
his county and of his Congressional District have
known for years what manner of man he was as
well as they do now when they accept the verdict
of ms fellow-citzens AS a righteous one. And yet
they selected him to fill the most honorable and re-
sponsible position in the legislative councils Of the
State He once barely failed Of getting TO Congress,
and the Hon. Avah Clark is there to-day not be-
cause he was suspected of being purer man, but
because it seemed best for Mr. Cornish to wait aud
take his turn next time, IN natural order.
Cf course. the people of Warren County are not
altogether responsible for Mr.. Cornish as gifted
corrupt0nist. But they cannot escape from the
blame of placing him where he could put his
varied political accomplishments to remuneratiye
use. Every man who ever voted for him, knowing
what he was as every voter had an opportunity to
know, to-day shares in his disgrace and
ought to help him bear the burden of his
punishment. For they not only offered him the
opportunity to scandalze his county and his State,
but they helped to blunt his moral sense. already
dull by their encouragement and approval, and by
giving him to understand by their conduct In con-
ventiOn and at the polls thai with them character
counted for nothing. And yet Warren County is
NOT inhabited by a population of rascas. No more
honest men, as a class, can be found than these
same steady going farmers who have been
sending Cornish and his kind to Trenton
to make laws for them and filing their local offices
with smaller statesmen who have since been elected
to the State Prison. But it is the same sickening
story SO often told. Warren County has been for
years Democratic by a dense and apparently ire
ducible majority, and the majority has boen COM
posed of the most bigo,ed and refractory
type. The ono crime not to De for
given there was to bolt the regular ticket And
therefore when a confederacy of pmnderers had
captured the party machinery that they could
nominate creatures of their own, the people were
pledged By the first and most binding article Of
their political faith TO vote for them, and in this
way. TO furnish crowbars 10 the burglars who, as
they we'll knew, were trying to pry open the safe
which held their treasures.
Warren County has learned wisdom. as recent
elections have proved. 1t might be well for other
communities to accept the results OF this expert
euce at second hand instead of taking such an ex-
pensiye course of instruction for themselves.