The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-12-10


From many sources comes complaints OF
| the manner in which the President treated
| the star route cases in his late message.
| The proof that there had been enormous
stealings il the post office department is
undoubted, and everywhere comes up the
| demand that the thieves be punished, and
! as yet their prosecution has been a howl
| ing farce, Il matter lit emily for rfdicule,
were the subject less serious. Tt has been
the open boast of star route thieves that
no republican administration dared bring
| them to justice, and if we are to judge
anything from the pitiable failure of the
late attempt, they are fully justified in
their assertion. Then the servant of the
government, The prosecuting attorney. de-
liberately adjourned the grand jury to a
! date when he knew that it would be too
| late for them to act upon the most serious
| charges, and that action has not only not
been condemned by the administration, but
Mr.. Corkhill still holds his place and I'M
less removed will have charge of the further
prosecution when the cases come up
1 81
| again.
| In his message, President Arthur pays
but passing attention to these frauds, but
| dwells on the fact that great reductions
have been recently made in the expense of
the star route service, = which leads the
New York Times to remark that ..the state
| ment can only be justified on the theory
that the system which rendered these re
auctions necessary was both txtravagant
| and corrupt" and the Times rather sadly
4 adds: at weuld be q pity if the star route
eases should have no better result than to
furnish the democrats with a great deal OF
effective campaign literature" ~
| A Mr.. Gibson who is not the officer
whose duty it was to do it, but who prob
| ably thought that if he did not nobody
report clearly showing up the doings OF
| the ring and the operations by which they
| had stolen millions. This report was re-
ceived by the authorities in a very cold
manner, and Mr. Gibson has been as thor
| oughly snubbed as it was possible for high
officials to do it. A pretended quarrel
was attempted toc.be stanted with Mr..
Mac Veagh SO rs to shoulder on to him
the blame for the non prosecutions of the
criminals, and every means has been at
tempted whereby public attention could
be drawn from the real authors OF all this
[ inaction. s# lgfstz se. es- -
Geo. William Curtis gives his views on
the subject in the last number of Harpers
Weekly, discussing the matter in an editor
| ial he says: aT4sl
1T is to be hoped that the Star Route
| robbery prosecutions are not regarded by
anybody as a quarrel between the Admins
tration and Mr.. MacVeagh. But it is
evident that the friends of the robbers
| Command powerful influence. An elabor-
ate and thorough report by Mr.. Gibson
has been published, which tells in con
elusive detail the story Of the robbery, 1t
is as fatally damaging statement as
could be made, revealing system of
knavery by which the country has been
enormously defrauded. The publication
was immediately followed by letter from
the acting Attorney General complaining
that Mr.. Gibson had taken some title that
did not belong to him, and that his report
was brought to the office in some informal
or careless way. Under the circumstances
it was an extraordinary letter, for without
questioning the truth of a single statement
in Mr.. Gibson's report, the letter was
plainly intended to throw discredit
upon him by exciting prejudice against
him as an officious meddleT The question
at once presents itself, Why should the
prosecuting authority of the government
attempt to break the force of report so
strong and so useful to the government,
which is seeking to expose and punish pub
lie crimes? Taken with the two failures
to bring cases to trial, and with the loud
and truculent assertions of the Star Route
Ring that the proceedings were farce, and
meant TO fail, this letter is a very signif1-
cant incident
We trust that the Administration does
not misunderstood the feeling of the coun
try upon this subject. There is profound
CONVICTION among quiet and intelligent and
observant citizens that system of mon
strous frauds has been in operation for
long time to steal money from the. public |
Treasury. and that some persons are con
cerned in it who would withstand the ex-
posure of the truth at every cost. These
persons are plainly understood to init |
mate that they command influence |
which will prevent such exposures
1t is q part of the conviction that the alb
surd fuss about Attorney General Mac
Veagh's resignation is mere trick to di- |
vert attention from the frauds, and to pre- |
pare the public mind TO believe an aban-
donment or failure of the prosecution to
be the result of Mr.. MacVeagh's impracti- |
BILE conduct in insisting upon retiring. |
The great and intelligent body of citizens
who hold these opinions are watching these |
Star Route proceedings very narrowly
They will judge, and the country viii |
judge, the Administration by the result. /
Ii there is not the clearest evidence. that
the success of the prosecutions is desired,
and should fail the effect upon the Admin
istration and the Rupublican party would
be like that of the event of the Whiskey
Ring prosecutions IN 1856. The extra
ordinary performances of that prosecution
and the result went far to persuade the
country that it was about time to change
the party control of the government, and
If the influences that were gratifed by the
failure of some of those prosecutions had
not been defeated at Cincinnati in the Il
of President. the republican
party would have been overthrow.
The Star route prosecutions are not a
legacy frsm President Garfield nor quar-
rel with MI. MacVeagh. They are actions