Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-11
THE MoREY INVESTIGATION.

1t is greatly to be regretted that the full
examination of the Morey letter could not
have been made before the Presidential
election, for it is safe to assert that if that
had been possible no votes would have
been lest to General Garfield by that
crime. The evidence which we published
yesterday morning, and that which we
print to day, may be said to tear the mask
off the scoundrels who concocted the base
plot We have now the proofs that there
was no such person as H. L. Morey, but
that a man named Samuel Morey (now In
custody for perjury was bribed to testify
that he knew man named II. L. Morey,
while another person was bribed to
personate the mythical recipient of the
forged letter, and to write the name of
that myth upon hotel register. As the
case unfolds the abominable wickedness of
it becomes more apparent. Here was a
deliberate conspiracy, first to injure the
reputation of candidate by attributing to
him forged letter containing, as he him.
self has said, 'stupid and brutal senti-
ments, and then to fortify this atrocty
by hiring rogues to personate the imagin-
airy man to whom the forgery was addressed,
and 50 to keep up and perpetuate the popu-
lar belief in the reality of the thing. If
there is any crime in the calendar which
ought to entail more lasting disgrace upon
its perpetrators than this, we do not know
the name or nature of it. If there are in
the penitentiaries of the country any
villains who deserve incarceration better
than the men who arranged this deed, we
do not know where to look for them. Nor
is it possible to suppose that Barnum and
his adjutants were for moment ignorant
of the full rascality of the whole affair.
When they saw that Garfield's prompt and
indignant denial of the letter was likely
to endanger their plot, they at once pro-
ceeded to invent further circumstan-
tial evidence in its support, and
they did this with as little scruple
as any pickpocket or sneak thief
exhibits in the exercise of his business.
The miserable old man Samuel Morey, who
allowed himself to be bought and made a
tool of by the conspirators, and the sham
detective Lindsey or Barry, whichever his
name is, who played his dirty part in the
base business, will undoubtedly be pun
ished in an exemplary manner. It is not
enough, however, to have hunted down the
tools. 1t is the principals who are now
most wanted, and we trust that there will
be no relaxation in the pursuit until they,
too, are trapped. Of course the question
by the new evidence. Proof of the fact
thatno such man as Henry L. Morey existed,
and that somebody was hired to personate
him, is equivalent to proof that the let
ter was forged. Nevertheless, the forger
should be put behind the bars of the
prison, along with the employers of the
forger and all the rest of the agents in the
infamous transaction. The most humili.
ating circumstance in the whole affair, how
ever, is thefact that Californians should have
been found SO lacking in intelligence, SO
fulsomely credulous, as to allow themselves
to be influenced as to their votes by a
fabrication which ought not to have de-
ceived even child, it was SO clumsy and
inartistic, SO unnatural and unreasonable.