The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-08-14
LETTER FROM SANS VALLEY.

To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
1 happened to be in Ashland at the
time of Mrs. Dunlway's visit there, and
heard her able lecture upon "Constitu-
tiOnal Liberty" Then l hunted up her
newspaper article which was claimed
by the ring-leaders OF the Jacksonville
riot as the pretext for their lawlessness,
and can say that, while 1 enjoyed the
general hits it contained, as a political
and personal friend to Judge Prim, at
first felt sorry that she had alluded to
the unpleasant episode in bis domestic
history, which we should all be glad to
forget But, when learned from Mrs.
DIS friends the provocation that had
induced it, my sorrow for the Judge
changed to admiration for the lady's
grit. Il has been ascertained with
sufficient certainty to proclaim as a fact
that the mob was at first a put-up job
among the Judges enemies, in order to
connect his name with a disgraeefuI
riot and bring him into public contempt.
and thus break down one Of the promi-
nent leaders OF dreaded political
enemy. And yet it is equally true that
his own personal aud political friends,
who did the most Of the blowing-and
all Of the effigy aud egging business
didn't have sense enough to see il till
several days after they were trapped!
Those incipient but blighted buds of
Blackstone we omit their names be-
cause they are not worth advertis-
ing.-ED.l ], whose bile was in such
fearful state Of ebullition during Mrs.
DIS sojourn in Southern Oregon, should
be presented by the Judges enemies
with a cheap chrome for the rare and
unparalleled combination Of egotism,
vulgarity, stupidity, mendacity and ig-
norance they so eminently embody.
Popular opinion, like the mills Of the
gods, grinds slow, but exceeding small,
and the universal disgust consequent
upon the misdirected ardor in the
Judges behalf over a simple matter Of
well-knOwn truth to which Mrs. d. may
have wisely or unwiseIy been provoked
to allude-ardor which eliminated in a
disgraeeful riot-will continue to rise
and spread and thicken in this county,
and from thence all over the State, un-
til the very atmosphere will be sur
charged with Indignation, ami the bare
mention Of the unfortunate circum-
stance will sting aud burn and blister /
like the poisoned trail Of the centipede. /
The reaction Of the influence of such .
friends as rallied in the defense Of the /
Judge will prove more rank aud deadly .
20 him than that Of the Upas, more
subtle than the viper's virus, and more
surely destructive than the grip of an
avengipg Nemesis. He may well in
woke the gods to spare his enemies and
save him from his friends, for steadily
but surely are they dragging him down,
down until their own low level shall
have been reached. He now owes it to
himself TO come forward and state
whether these bearded outlaws are his
bosom friends, as they claim to be, and.
II so, whether he endorses their lawless-
ness. y more cowardly and contempti-
BILE set Of toadies and rufIians could not
be found anywhere else outside the walls
1f penitentiary. II these men are
Judge Prim's friends-and we are cer-
-ainly justified in assuming that tbey
are, since the outrage was committed 10
bis name-then all decent men, as Dem
'crats, must repudiate him as voters,
we must denounce him and as friends
10 law and order, we must renounce
'urther affiliation with him or his kind.
LAW AND ORDER.
Sans Valley, August 3, 1879.