The daily gazette., 1879-03-31
The story Of n Crime.

1 From tile ALBANY Argus.
! The Jurors test oath bill requires juries
in Federal courts to be selected only from
those who can swear that they never aid
ed or sympathized with the South in the
war between the States. Packed juries
are the result. They are selected of ne
cessity from the criminal and the igno-
rant classes, inasmuch as the intelligent
and the honest clemens in the South
made common cause with her. 1t Is hard
, TO characterize such an evil as this systom
Is. 1t Is indescribable. 1t fatigues the
imagination. The miscarriage OF justice
which results Is woful. Verdicts are sold
for money. The jurors regard it as in
cuinbent on them to convict all who will
not bribe them aud TO clear all who will.
The obligations Of oath, honor and evil
dence are secuted. Money only will Sc
cure results and money always will Sc
cure any result requested.
There is, if possible, greater abuse in
connection with this bill than the bill it
self The bill was repealed once. How,
then, the reader will ask, was II restored
The answer to this question involves a
statement of facts not outdone for wick
edness in the history of any law-making
body. The many bills Congress passes,
like the many our own Leg islature passes,
are committed to persons who are to
} work them ino what are called revised
Is atutes. The revision comprises the duty
of taking all the acts passed of arrang-
ing them under the principles aud SUBJ
jects with which they deal Of looping
off all needless veibiage; of carefully
noting what parts Of former laws have
. been repealed, modified or revived by
;; later ones, and of putting the whole re-
suits into volumes, which are called the
revised statutes. When these volumes
are complete Congress accepts thom as a
! perfected edition of its own prior work
and formally re-enacts them into laws,
the books being the "authorties" refer
red to in courts and trials.
1, It will be seen the position of Revisers
; is one of great honor and responsibl lty.
Congress always felt able to trust the in
, tegrity and Intelligence of the Revisers !;
the matter of the jurors test oath bill,
. however, shows that confidence misplace
ed. The Revisers, Instead Of putting in
. the repeal bill, left it out the omission
would not have been hu'tful of itself !;
enough evidence would have skown the
bill was repealed. But to show that their
action was deliberate, the Revisers elab-
! orately edited into the volumes they is
sued the provisions of the act which had
been repealed. Congress, relying on the
good faith of the Revlsrrs and of the
judiciary committee Of the Senate Cor
0 rather OF its chairman, MIR. Edmunds)
formerly re-enacted the matter in the
9 volumes and voted that they be publish
ed. declared and accepted as the laws o;
the United States. In other words, Con-
} Igress was actually tricked into pass ng
. again a law 1t had repealed, without
knowing it was passing it, and its act of
repeal was made of none effect by the
. knavsh course of those who imposed on
lit.
All the persons to this rascality are not
:, known. George f. Boutwell,, of NJ ,ssa-
lchusetts, is the chief reviser. George +.
= Edmunds, Senator of Vermont, is chair
man of the judiciary committee of the
: Senate. The former is responsible
for the rascality being done. The latter
is responsible + suppressing the knowl-
edge of it until Congress had accepted
his assurance that the volumes Were all
right and had voted them into laws. The
Others in the conspiracy have not been
lclearly or fully a>certaned but The inef-
fable yillany of the proceeding has led
to the suspicion that John Sherman and
Joseph p. Bradley would feel gravely
wionged if they We're denied partcipa-
ton in It. That Boutwell, or Edmunds
should do such thing consists with all
that is known of their charac e.. Bout
well is capable of prostitutine any posi-
ton if, thereby, he could injure that halt
of his countrymen whom he hates. He
would think himself doing God service il
he could poison the sacramental wine in
a Southern church. Edmunds' part in
the plot seems to have comprised the dis
, covery that if it succeeded there was nc
, remedy for II, except a new repeal bill,
which could be made a"party question, y
and no punishment for the crime in law
, because the oflelse had never peen I'M
agined possible and, therefore, no penal
ty had been provided for anything of the
kind he, of course, had to keep the mat
ter a secret from his committee aud from
Congress, and to get the volumes refer
red to him by consent for examination
! so that when he said they were all right
the would go through without suspicion
or inquiry. Mr.. Edmunds did his part
thoroughly, and vindicated his right tc
. be regarded as the ablest practitioner o.
trickery and falsehood in public life any
! where.
At the first of the present session Sen
5 ator Beck of Kentucky, offered a bill tt
: cure this wrong, by which the will o
. Congress had been made of no effect and
: the exact opposite TO IT'S will decreed. IL,
: desert bed the trick that had been resort
to and the woful results of IL to the course
: of Justice and TO the interests and honol
2 of the country. His statement of tht
) trick was admitted to be true. 1t was 8
trick In which forgery, perjury and i'm
position on Congress were involved
,, The Senate was asked to right the wrong
5 and vindicate its own voted will. The
; usages of that body forbade any refiec
D tlon on its members, of course so Mr.
: Edmunds could not be referred to as ht
deserved. BY the same usage the SAINT
: bill to remedy his rascality was referred
= to the committee OF which he rs chair
4 man. The Senate has not yet II is need
' less TO say, been let reach a vote on Mr.
. Beck's bill by Edmunds. The onse ha'
to ., made Mr.. Beck's bill ga rider" on tbt
sas legislative appropriation bill. To thu
9,f honor of that body, the vote was non
e. partisan.
Il When that bill shall reach the Senate
to to Mr.. Beck's measure will come up in spite
cd of Mr.. Edmund's ttfotts to prevent II