The daily gazette., 1879-04-30
Hayes Following Grants Sean
00lOsls Course.
THE PREsIDENTIAL PARDON MILL.
F.om the PhiiA. telegraph. Rep.

THE PRESIDENTIAL PARDON MILL.
F.om the Phia. Telegraph. Rep.
President Hayes, after the invariable
manner of Presidents, OH Saturday par
doned another counterfeiter, and he had
previously pardsned SO many Of this class
Of criminals that it is extremely doubtful
If there are many more Of fthem left to be
pardoned. Of course he had an excuse
for doing it, excuses in such cases being
rather more plentiful than blackberries in
July or leaves IN Nallombrosa. Presi-
dent Grant apparently had the most NOR
bid sort Of objection 10 any offender
against United States statute languish-
ing in "a dungeon cell, ''and as for coun-
terftiter, the tenderest sensibilities of his
nature seemed to yearn towards him, and
his fingers to itch for a chance to write
his pardon. But President Grant did not
assume to have the least bit of the ras-
cally virtue Of reform in his composition
and In connection with the administra-
tion Of his Office he fairly despised reform
of all sorts. He would not permit Belk-
nap and Babcock to 60 TO jail under any
circumstances, and whenever Federal
Couit convicted and sentenced crimi-
nal Of any kind, President Grant hasten
ed at once 20 his relief; and he did it in
q manly sort of way, too, never giving
'the why or wherefore" but just throw
ing open the prison doors to embezzler or
counterfeiter, telling him to go and en-
bezzle or counterfeit more, at the peril of
another immediate pardon In the event
of bis conviction.
There was no reform nonsense about
President Grant at all, but there is evi-
IDENTIFY a good deal of 1t about President
Hayes; for If he is not reformer he is
nothing, and his administration is fail
ure. How then can he reconcile pardon
ing the most notorious and dangerous
criminals with his professional 1t is not
that now and again he let's loose upon
society prematurely Federal prisoner
whose case invites and warrants Execu-
tive cleme. ICY, but that he is pardoning
c0unterfeiteTs constantly, and without
any reason that is accepted as adequate
by Others of equal intelligence. 1t may
not be known to gentleman in his ele-
vated position that cOunterfeiters are of
all other criminals the most difficult to
obtain convicting evidence against, and
yet 1t should be known, even to the Pres
ident, that his Secretary of the Treasury
keeps constantly employed a special force
part of whose duty it is 60 ferret out and
bring to punishment offenders of that
sort. The arrests, the procuring of evi-
dence, the trials, and all hat,involve the
expenditure ofa great deal of money
but what is the use of spending it, or Of
taking up the time OF the Federal Courts
in convicting counterfeiters, If they are
TO be set free and relieved of the penalty
of their crime by Presidential pardon
Ifit be right for special Treasury Off
GERS to arrest, for juries to convict and
judges to sentence them, what makes il
right for the President to pardon them
Psychologists up to this time have failed
to poi mt out the particular tS forces which ls
existing, or Presidents would not be per-
perpetually rushing to counterfeiters' cell
doors to let them out. Nobody was sur
prised at anything Prerident Grant did,
because it was pOssib bly, his nature to do
the things he should not do and not do
the things he should do; but President
Hayes has 80 very frequently and en-
phatically informed his conntryinen that
Grants ways were not his ways, as to
lead us to believe that he and his illus
trious predece sOr were not altogether in
accord in regard to counterfeiters but it
is doubtful if Hayes has not pardOned
more of them than Grant.
President Hayes may not know 1t, but
the country knows, that his frequent ex-
tension of the clemency of the Executive
justice and great wrong to the COM
sunuitv