Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-03-31


he has already undergone so much OF
his term of imprisonment, As to be sui
fciently punished for the crime Of
which he has been convicted. In the
present instance neither Of these rea-
I sons can be urged. -Four of the de-
PENDANTS have admitted guilt by plead
ing guilty and the other has been con-
victed by the verdict of a jury, after q
trial conducted so fairly that a motion
| for new trial was not even made.
There can be no doubt therefore, as to
guilt; and so far from it being true
that sufficient punishment has already
been undergone To atone for the crime,
the fact is, that not only have none of
the defendants yet been sentenced, but
they are attempting by the aid OF your
Board, and in defiance of the Court be-
| fore which they were tried, to relieve
themselves even Of the necessity of
submitting to sentence, and it seems to
be but mockerv of justice for de-
fendant to plead guilty of a great crime,
and then attempt to procure pardon
before the judgment of the Court has
been pronounced against him.
As reply to the special reasons al
legged in the applications for pardon, it
will he enough to say that, so far from
it being true either that disinterested
zeal on behalf of what were supposed
to be honest claims of Allegheny
county, led any of the defendants to
violate the law in his eagerncss to Sc
cure the passage Of the act of Assem-
bly,, or that, having violated it, he
| frankly admitted his ofiense before the
| committee of the admission by q
prompt plea of guilty before the Court
the indisputable facts are that one
of the defendants admitted on oath be-
fore the committee of the House of
Representative that he was employed
in the matter as the attorney for a
| railway corporation-that nearly all
of the parties denied under oath any
guilty knowledge or practices-that,
based upon this denial, bills of indict-
ment have been found against them
for perjury, and that for months every
technical defect was taken advantage
nf and every possible application for
DELAY made in the Court in order to
avoid or postpone trial, and the plea of
guilty was only entered at a time
when peremptory order had been
made that there should be no further
delay, and when the defendants were
about to be confronted with conclusive
and erwhelming evidence of guilt.
| Under such circumstances, to grant
Il pardon would imply that, in the
opinion of your honorable Board,
either the crime charged upon the de-
PENDANTS is not deserving of punish
ment, or that the defendants, them
selves, are to be treated as if they
possessed a license to commit crime
with impunity. 1t must, however, be
! admitted that the offense charged is
one of the most serious and aggravated
known to the law So heinous was it
| considered that it is prohibited by the
| Constitution, as well as by the statute
| law. We cannot but believe that your
Board will hesitate long, and weigh
well the consequences of your action,
|
Constitution and act of Assembly as
so much waste paper. But in the
particular case under consideration, the
crime heinous in itself was, if possible,
aggravated by the attempt to resort TO
it for the purpose of despoiling the
Treasury of the Commonwealth of
a very large amount of public money,
and if Immunity from punishment
should be granted to the self-confessed
agents of this attempted wrong, it
will be difficult to escape the conclu-
sion that those who constitute your
Board and who have been elected or
appointed to exalted public positions
to represent and defend the interests
of the people, do not consider it to be
a crime worthy of punishment for any
one TO debauch the Legislature as part
of an attempt to rob the public treas
ury.
As the parties are clearly guilty, as
they have not yet been sentenced, and
as their crime, serious in itself is, if
possible, aggravated by the purpose
for which it was resorted to, it follows
that if a pardon is granted it must be
out of some personal regard for, or
Difference to the defendants themselves,
which places them above and beyond
the Constitution and the law, and prac-
tically invests them with license to
commit crime.
The presence of criminal class, even
when amenable to the law, is at all
| times dangerous to the public welfare,
| but if there is to be thrown upon
| the community a class licensed to
commit crime, and protected in the en-
| joyment of this license by the highest
officers Of the State, it would indeed
seem that self-Government is failure,
and that the boasted safeguards of the
Constitution, the laws, and the judi
ciary are alike powerless for the pro-
| lection of society.
We cannot believe it to be possible
that the effort to secure a pardon will
be successful The prosecutions orig
inaIv directed to be instituted by an
order of the House of Representatives
have, so far as they depended upon
the action of those appointed to rep
resent the Commonwealth, been
brought to successful issue. Able
and fearless judges, with honest and
intelligent juries, have alike done their
part to sustain the tottering fabric of
society, and to yindicate the claims of
Justice The honor of the Common
wealth is now committed to the Gus
tody of the gentlemen composing your
Board, and we cannot but express the
feryent hope that they will preserve it
untarnished
HHRRIsBURG, March %, 1880.
Mr.. Hollinger presented petitions
demonstrating against the pardons
from Philadelphia, Mechanicsburg,
West Fairview, Pittsburgh, Washing
.n, vi nonntv NaTanr POnDtU