Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-04-10
Aanraster fntelligrnrer.
EVENING. APRIL 10, 1880.
A Disgusting spectacle.

Somebody in Philadelphia has gone to
the trouble to prepare petition to Gov
ernor Hoyt, asking him to remove Secre-
tary of State Quay, upon the ground that
he was shown by the testimony taken be-
fore the legislative committee of inquiry
into the riot bill bribery matter, to
have been one of the chief lobby agents
engaged in that nefarious business. The
petition assumes that such a man should
not be secretary of the state Of Pennsyl-
vania and a member of the pardOning
board which decides upon the application
of his convicted fellow criminals for par
don. The petition further asks the gov
ernor to resist the effort that is being
made to remove from office the attorney
general because he will not assent to
Kemble's pardon.
This petition has not been prepared,
as we assume, with any idea that it will
avail to present it to Governor Hoyt,
but with the intent to expose in
this shape the association of Secre-
tary Quay with the convicted criminals
and to invite the attention Of the people
to the abominable fact that the secretary
of state, member of the pardon board
was a confederate of criminals whom he
has voted to pardon. No one probably
is foolish enough to think that Governor
Hoyt is capable of eXpelling Quay, who
is his master. In all the discussion that
has taken place about the pardon of
Kemble it has occurred to no one to Sug-
gest that Gov. Hoyt would disregard a
recommendation of the pardoning board
in Kemble's behalf. 1t is known that
there is none of the Roman virtue about
him that would lead him to give his
friend over to justice, and the only sur
prising thing about his connection with
the matter has been the fact that he
stumbled upon an attorney general who
had SO much self-respect rs to refuse to
he the instrument of these self-confessed
criminals and to decline the heavy bribe
with which they would have seduced him
from his plain duty.
If Pennsylvania had not been before
now SO deeply disgraced by the evil char,
acter of her officials, the fact that such a
scoundrel as Quay filled the secretary
ship of state would he very mortifying.
but we have got SO used to the sensation
that it has lost the power to disturb us.
With the fatalists of the East we eN-
claim, 1T is the will of God.' And
we resign ourselves to the contempt of
the world, knowing that we deserve it
and feeling powerless to avoid it. Just
how long the people of the state will en-.
dure that it should be such a spectacle
among its sisters we dare not say. They
have endured So much villainy in high
places that it is not easy to say what
quantity or degree of it will disgust
them. They may not be moved even by
the scandal of the contempt cast by the
bribery cOnvicts upon the courts of jus.
tice, and the horrible revelation that
they plead guilty because they were
promised an immediate pardon before
entering the walls Of the Jail.
All these cOnvicts tell this story. g Dc
v~,l think" saws one, ''tllat we would
not have taken the chance of escape
offered 10y trial, if we had not been prom
ised a pardon?'' And it appears that they
could not have lost more by a trial than
they now lose if they are not pardoned
But there We're others that would have
suffered. Among them was Quay. The
pardon offered needed the concurrence
of the governor and of Quay, Palmer
and Dunkel; all were anxious to give il
but Palmer. They counted too surely
on bulldozing him. Knowing the intlu
ence they commanded they did not think
that he would dare to resist. They prom
isel Kemble and deceived him. HI
declines to take any more chances ant
proposes to escape Jail by staying on
of the state until Palmer can be got Ou
of the attorney generalship after th'
election. This is the spectacle offered tt
the people. Will it disgust them