The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1879-01-08
New ORLEANS. 4
B Dec. 20, 1885,
To the Hon. w. r. Whitaker, Judge of.
the Superior Criminal Court:

III y NEW ORLEANS.
4. i hi Dec. 20, 1881
To the Hon. w. r. Whitaker, Judge of
the Superior Criminal Court:
SIR-The Grand Jury beg leave to re-
copy of account Of Geo. w. Dupre.
State Printer, hereto annexed, under
which our predecessors have made a
special report, having taken testimony
in regard to the same, are Of the .opin-
ion that the State has been defrauded,
and hereby request the District Attor-
ney to file an information. against the
said Geo. w. Dupre, State Printer, for
obtaining money, or warrants, under
false pretenses. WALTER PUGH,
Foreman.
The charges on which this report is
based were made In the newspapers of
this city, months ago, by Anonymous
correspondents who refused to reveal
themselves, aud whose names; the
defamatory sheets publishing their
ISLANDERS, refused to give. Hired bs
the Louisiana Lottery Company; these
disreputable and unprincipled scrlb-
blers went before grand jury, perpe-
trated heir perjury and obtained from,
that body special report damaging
to the State Printer, which was made
public. The official thus malignel
exerted every means in his power to
obtain q fair investigation into the
charges made against him, but in
vain. The machinery of justice was
amply sufficient to enable few hired
peUurers TO provoke an official report
from grand jury calculated and de-
signed to rain citizens character;
but it seems that there was no method
known to the law by which this
wronged, maligned and DETAINED citi-
zen could obtain speedy trial or an
Investigation, or even hearing. The.
report, terribly damaging, was rem :
dered and given to the press of the
State; tile courts aoou after closed, the
Governor smiled aud said he could do
nothing, aud the lnenopolies and rings
laughed and congratulated themselves
on the brave blow they had struck
througl the iustsunentality Of the
grand jury.
But Justice in time asserts itself,
though the machinery Of the law may
impede its course, A new grand jury
has investigated the charges against
the State Printer and requested the
District Attorney to file an informa-
ton against that official for obtaining
money on warrants nntier false pre-
lenses. Thus two grand juries have
Investigated these charges and neither
has venturel, on the evidence before
it, bound by solemn oath, to indict
the State Printer. One contented it.
self with listening to the one-sided
evidence in matter of which not one
of its members understood the first
principle and rendering report cal
calated to lpjure the reputation and
character of o. fellow-citizen and a.
public journal. The other, stimulated
by Che demands Of the State Printer
for an investigation or trial, not dar-
ing to do violence to their oaths by
iudicting the State Printer, shifted
the responsibility upon the shoulders
of the District Attorney by requesting
him to Gle an information, etc. These
two grand juries have thus acknowl-,
edged that the one sided, hired and
perjured evidence against the State
Printer was insufficient to warrant
them in indictipg him, though sufici-;
ent to justify them in rendering re-
ports calculated to injure his good
name and cast suspicion upon him.
Against this action the State Print
er aud his associates, who stand
sQuarely with him Ia this matter,
make no complaint. But they do de-
aland that the District Attorney shall
promptly comply with the solicita-
tions of the Grand Jury; aud that the
coart shall grant g speedy trial. We
L
have no complaint to make against the
Grond Juries which have done our
selves and our associate this cruel In,
jury. The fault is not with the Grand
Jaries SO much, perhaps, as with the
unjust star chamber system under
which they act. .5s
We have something to say, however,
of the administration OF justice in a |
State wherein public, official who has
done his simple duty, in accordance
with the laws of the State, is being
TINS peasecuted and bounded, while
real criminals and public plunderers,
whose ofenses against The laws are
notorious, have been neither prosecu-
ted by indictment nor information,
Since the Democratic State govern |
ment has been established, we have
time and again called the attention Of
tie law oficess Of the State and the
grand juries to the fact that, in VIOLA
zion OF the plainest and most unequiv-
ocal language of the Consultation, the
judges of the late Supreme Court, for
series of years, under fraudulent
act OF the Legislature, drew each SI2,-
SOo per anpQm more than they were