Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-08-18
1a,lcaster fntelllgenrer.
WEDNESDAY EVENING. AUG. 10 1880.

WEDNESDAY EVENING. AUG. ls,,lseo.
That Moral Spasm.
A Chicago newspaper claims that Judge
Mercur, of the Pennsylvania supreme
bench, declared to its reporter that when
he was in Congress she knew, and every
body else knew, that congressman were
holding stock in the Credit Mobiiier and
nothing was thought of it more than
would bc if they owned any other proper
ty. The whole trouble arose from the
lack of boldness in the men themselves
if they had come and declared that they
had the stock, and asked what of it,
nothing would have been thought of it.
But sort of moral spasm struck the
country at that time, and it was held to
he wrong for congressman to hold stock
of any kind"
The Philadelphia Ledger thinks that is
mischievous talk for a supreme court
justice of Pennsylvania. -Mischievous'
is emitting it very mildly. And that
Judge Mercur should talk thus only
shows how difficult it is for a man to
adapt his ideas to his situation when the
latter happens to he more exalted than
is naturally becoming to his mental con-
stitution. Judge Mercur is naturally a
politician with the ideas of the ordinary
grade of that class of men. He went
right to the bench out of the midst of
politics. He was nominated because
he was a politician, not because of his
repute as a judge.
He went from Congress to the bench.
The change of atmosphere was great,
and it is not surprising perhaps that the
judge has not yet got the better of the
politician. 1t is a severe struggle for
Judge Mercur, because he contends
against both nature and habit. Probably
he does not yet realize how improper the
language sounds that he used to that
Chicago reporter. The judge, no doubt,
was telling the truth as he recollected it,
and giving his ideas frankly as he enter
tanned them. Perhaps we ought not to
complain that he speaks freely what he
thinks but certainly we have right to
object to his thinking as he does, when
heis supreme judge of Pennsylvania.
We can reasonably object to his belief
that no harm was done when congress-
men held Credit Mobilier stock. Most
excellent reasonse existed why they should
not. TO say nothing of the dependence
of the company upon the favor of Con-
gress, it is admitted by Cakes Ames's
SONS that il was formed to avoid the law
which forbade the Pacific railroad COM
pany doing what the Credit Mobilier un-
dertOOk to do; and yet the one company
was but another name for the other. 1t
was 4 company formed to violate the. law,
and one which Congress could prosper or
wither. Therefore the people of Penn
sylvania will not patiently hear the dec
laration of 4 supreme judgeof their state
that no harm was done when congress-
men took stock in the Credit Mobilier.
And when Judge Mercur declares that
" the whole trouble arose from the lack
of boldness" of the implicated congress-
men, and that g nothing would have been
thought of it" if they had admitted and
defended their participation i'm the COM
pany, which only suffered from "moral
spasm" that ''struck the country ut that
time" the people may reasonably ques-
tion whether it is not nearly time for
Judge Mercur himself to become the OBJ
ject of 4 similar "moral spasm,'' that he
may determine by experiment whether
boldncss is the only thing needed to pro-
tect an official whose opinions are OBJ
noxious to the public sense. The moral
spasm that brought low the Credit MObi-
licr congressman was based upon the OBJ
lection of the people to being taxed to raise
a fund for thieves. Such they held to he
the men who asked public aid to build a
railroad to the Pacific as 4 beneficent
national enterprise, and then invented
scheme by which they defeated the law
which limited the amount of their posi-
BILE profits, and by contract with them
selves and the purchased favor of Con-
gress, got money enough from the nation
to build the road and took all its bonds
and stock as the profit of their br:.zen
ingenuity.
Judge Mercur needs to revise his no.
tion of this g moral spasm' if he wishes
to he held in esteem rs a judge. The SEN
timent of the people upon the Credit
Mobilier matter was emphatically and
promptly rendered. 1t is too strongly
founded and too stoutly held to be ever
reversed. 1t is but kicking against the
pricks to essay to do so, and Judge Mer-
cur forgot the role of the politician as
we'll as the judge if he rashly uttered
what the Chicago paper says he did about
that "mOral Spasm."
Garfield and the StalWarts.
Much more unlikely stories have turn
ell out to be true than that which the
a.,