Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-14
Aanrastcr fntelLgenrer.

SATURDAY EVENING. NAY IL. 1881.
SHINING Investigation.
A despatch from Denver, Colorado,
states that the suit which had been COM
there against ex-senator Dorsey
by his agent Wilcox to recover compen-
sation for services rendered in securing
the petitions for expediting the service
on some of the star routes in Oregon for
which Dorsey was contractor, has been
settled, and the compromising telegrams
and letters sent by Dorsey to Wilcox
have been surrendered. This statement
is sufficient evidence of the desire Of
Dorsey not to have that investigation
into his connection with star route mat
ters that he SO boldly demanded of the
postmaster general. At an early stage
of this exposure Dorsey seems to have
thought that his best policy
was that which Brady adopted in the
investigation by Congress a few years
ago, and Brady was of the same opin-
ion. Brady then met his accusers with
great effrontery of denial, and insisted
upon his innocence and good faith in the
face of the strongest evidence OF his
guilt. This brazenness was compare
lively successful, as the storm blew over
and the star route business continued to
yield its rich profits to the conspirators.
BRADY and Dorsey each, little while
ago, favored the public with protesta-
tion of their innocence and demand for
an investigation. Neither has since
seized the abundant opportunities offer
ed them for securing the inquiry they
pretended TO ardently desire. They have
at their mercy all the most prominent
newspapers in the country if they are the
innocent men they claim to be ; and they
can realize more money in libel suits in
vindicatiOn of their characters, if they
can be vindicated, than all the postal
contracts could yield. They do not
seize this excellent opportunity to be-
come rich in purse and fame; and when
an agent offers Dorsey a chance to show
the honesty of his transactions he settles
his demand, though he but lately pro-
nounced it to bc i blackmailing scheme,
and buys the letters and kilograms which
he would have had US believe were base
forgeries.
lie might rs we'll have let the suit go
on so far as his good name is concerned,
for this confession of his surrender
leaves him no opportunity to pose any
longer before the world as an honest
mail contractor. His only aim now
must be to avoid the penitentiary, which
he surely will enter if the proofs of his
guilt are not made away with and sim
cere effort is made to bring him to
his deserts. There is a feeling
abroad that he and Brady have
too many influential partners and
too much damaging knowledge to
ever receive the punishment they de-
serve. Justice seems to he moving
against them with leaden heel. Some
small Philadelphia rascals have been
seized and the promise is thus given that
the big ones will not he suffered to es
cape for the one cannot decently be
followed while the others remain unmO-
lested. The attorney general has the
public confidence but the men whom
his duty calls upon him to follow are toe
strong for him, we greatly fear, and will
put him away before he can fire upon
them.
The correspondence of Dorsey with
Wilcox shows very plainly the simple
system of fraud upon which his raids
upon the treasury were founded. He
prepared form of petition asking, say
for IA daily mail instead of weekly ;
claiming that the interests of "a large
and rapidly increasing population de.
manded such increased facilities, the
population being, nevertheless, as im-
ayinary rs its demand. The business Of
Wilcox was to find enough population
to make Il respectable array of sigma
lures to the petitions and to secure the
names. Dorsey managed the Brady end
of the line ut Washington and obtained
the approval by the department of the
demand of the Oregon citizens. The
service was increased and the pay also,
and the enterprising Dorsey Ibid fair in a
short while to I've a very rich man. lie
was engaged in the business in the name
of others, while he WAS still senator,
and when his term expired his loss Of
his distinguished Office had its cOmpen-
satiOns for him, as it gave him a lOOser
foot and enabled him to appear rs prin-
cipal in his profitable pursuit of afford
ing increased mail facilities to suffering
bIckwSodsmen. Dorsey got a new part
ner after he left the Senate i'm the person
of the rich citizen Of our neighbOring
borough of Carlisle, Mr.. J. w. Bosler, to
whom he sold Il half interest in thirty
contracts for good price; and a num-
ber of these routes have since been ex-
pedited. to the great satisfaction of the
partners; who had good reason to think
that with Garfield's accession, for which
their labor and money was freely ex-
pended they would enter upon most
profitable season. Dorsey found it hard
to realize that he could come to grief in
mis- nefarious operations under an admin
istration that he had elevated to power
and which was indebted largely for its
success to star route money, which its
candidate had personally begged for.
He has not heen treated well bV those