Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-05-06
The Last Chapter in the Bribery
Gases.

the Riot.bill bribers had been SEN
fenced to one years Imprisonment in
the penitentiary and to the payment
of fine Of $1,000 each. This week
we have the further announcement TO
make that the Pardon Board was called
by the Governor on last Friday, who
recommended that pardon be grant
cd by the Governor, and the prisoners
are again at large TO receive the con-
graduation of their friends. The rea-
sons given for this hasty, if not indecent
action, is, that the sentence was ex.
cessively severe and not warranted by
the law-that the law in these cases
did not justify imprisonment in the pen
itentiary. 1t is the lot of all men to
err, but the great experience and en-
inent ability of the judge who passed
the sentence is entitled to quite rs
much weight with the public as the
board of politicians who have under
taken to review him in this hasty
manner. If he erred, there was
remedy of higher jurisdiction to re-
view and pass upon and stamp the er-
ror in legal form. Now, they are
mere pdrdoned conricts who were SEN
fenced to the penitentiary by stern
justice, but released through the sym.
pathy of political friends. This is
their status. While the action of the
Board saves their heads from being
shaved, it does not savetheir reputation
or the degradation of the sentence.
Surely if their legal advisers or the
Board of Pardons had full faith in
the reasons given for their release,
they would have sought n full vindi-
cation by reversal in the Supreme
Court.
The release of these men does not
detach single feather from tho ju-
diciai cap Of the brave old Judge, who,
regardless of the public prominence
they have heretofore held, vindicated
the law, and stamped the seal of crime
upon the base practices which have
made the Legislature of our State a
byword and reproach, and filled our
statute books with fiction and fraud.
The lesson he teaches is one of warn.
ing to the venal, and gives some hope
in the future that the people will not
be entirely at the mercy of rascals
within and corruptors without our
Legislative assemblies.
The last turn in the cases has been
reached. BY the action of the Board
of Pardons and the Governor of the
State, in thus overruling the sentence
of the Court. the prison doors have
been unbolted and the convicted per-
sons are to-day ut liberty, and in so
far as the representatives of political
parties have been compelled to show
n hand in the various stages Of the
disreputable affair, now is a good time
for passing review. Assuming that
there can be no doubt of the guilt of
these men, made 30 in the case of one
of them by the verdict of a jury after
trial in the court and in the cases of
the others by voluntary confession, it
is only fair that the action of officials,
whether Democrats or Republicans,
who had to deal with them should be
placed in a proper light before the
public. In this respect, how does the
record stand? OF these five crimi-
mails, one Of them, Crawford, was
Democrat. lie held, under Demo-
cratic appointment, a subordinate
place in the force employed upon the
public grounds at Harrisburg. No
sooner was the report of the commit
tee of the legislature, that showed the
part this man had played in this
game of legislative corruption, made
public than he was at once removed
from the position that had been con-
ferred upon him by Democratic power.
Thus promptly did a Democratic
Auditor General and Democratic
State Treasurer act in vindication of
themselves and in Difference to the de,