Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-04-23
Secretary Sherman's Fraud.

New York journal of Commerce.
The result of the trial of the test case
between the sugar importers and the trea-
sury department shows cOnclusively that
it was Secretary Sherman, instead of our
merchants, who was guilty Of fraud. The
United States circuit Judge, doing all that
he conscicntiously could in behalf Of the
collector, who was the nominal defendant,
was compelled to declare that the govern
ment had not presented particle Of evil
deuce in defense of its claim, and he there
fore decided the case in favor of the im-
porter without even submitting it to the
jury.
The whole course of tho department in
reference to the sugar duties has been an
outrage from the very beginning. After
being defeated ut Baltimore. Secretary
Sherman tried to iudcce Congress to
change the law; and when this was re-
fused. he ordered the collectors to levy
upon the sugar impOrtations the duties
which Congress had declined to impose.
These exactiOns were paid under p, Otest,
and the importers brought suit for the re-
turn OF the illegal collections. The first
Of these suits brought by Messrs. Knowl-
ton & Co., against the collector was de-
layed in every possible way, until at last
the patience of the judge was exhausted,
and some months ago he appointed day
for the trial. On the pretense that they
were not yet ready to show up the fraud,
the officials who acted at Sherman's dicta-
ton withdrew their defense to KnOwltOn' 8
suit. and the collector was thus compelled
to refund to this house the money of which
they had been robbed.
The case Of Messrs. s. & W. Welsh, de-
cided yesterday, was held by Secretary
Sherman as the strongest of the multitude
depending on the issue, and all that the
resources of the United States could sup
ply by the use of money and official inf1u
ence was cast into the scale to vindicate
Secretary Sherman's infamous policy.
And we see the result There was not
enough presented to the court to make
even a question for the jury, and this
leaves MIR. Sherman without SO much as
the ghost of plea to sustain him in
his warfare upon great commercial In
terest.
All who have been the victims of the
late sccretary's attempt TO enact and en-
force a new tariff by the illegal exercise
of his own arbitrary will, ought to have a
remedy against the real culprit. Secretary,
now Senator, Sherman, ought TO be CON-
PEELED to pay the cost and damage of this
whole proceeding out of his own private
purse. OF course this cannot be done, and
nothing We suppose but taxed costs can be
recovered of the collector. We infer from
the tone Of Judge Wallace that he must
feel indignant at the attempt SO frequently
made during the trial to induce the court
to become party to the injustice and he
cannot of course grant the certificate that
would save the collector from the costs of
the litigation.
Some of our readers who are not famil.
lar with the history Of these wrongs, may
have been little surprised at the positive
language We have 50 often used concern
ing them. We point to the story Of this
trial for our complete vindication. If a
Judge Of the United States circuit court,
eminent for talent and judicial dignity,
could say as Judge Wallace did, after the
government had exhausted all its resources
to meet the claim I'm all my experience
have never known a case that was tried
more unprOfessiOnally than this one, l" we
may be sure there can be but one opinion
among decent men in regard to the nature
of the exactiOn that had so little to sup
port it. Governor WOodford (the United
States district attorney made the best de-
fense he could, but Judge Wallace IS re-
ported as saying that the defendaut's 3
counsel throughout this case had pre-
sented false issue, and he could not sit
there and allow that to be DONE"
The fact is that nothing but Secretary
Sherman's arbitrary will is behind the
whole oppressive proceeding. There is
nothing whatever i'm law or in equity to
sustain the course of the collector in going
behind the color of the sugar on which the
law levics the duty, and attempting to
exact new rate according to the quantity
of sacchariue matter contained in it. The
government could not produce an iota of
evidence that the color Of the sugar had
been changed after its manufacture, for
no such change had in fact been attempt
ed and the whole charge falls helplessly
to the gound, leaving Secretary Sherman
in the character of despOtic OppressOr
who attempted to blackmail or rob his
fellow citizens.
LANCASTER HOCSEhOLD MARKET.