Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-09-09
Star Route Cases.


large audience assembled to hear the
proceedlngsin the Star Route cases.
A large attendance of prominent
members of the bar attests the IN
terest taken In this last stage OF the
trial. All of the defendants were
present with the exception OF ote~
phen w. Dorsey. Judge Wyhe be-
gan his charge. to the jury with an
explanation of the difficulties attend
ing the summing up of case OF
such magnitude as this. He said he
would not undertake to deliver pro
fessional lecture upon law, but it
world be his endeavOr to travel
over the case from one point
to another SO far as it
was necessary to do, SO taking care
not to trespass upon the province of
the Jury, the law made the jury the
ultimate final power, even upon the
law itself. At the same time the
tradition and practice of law author
ized the Court to talk to the jury
with regard to facts. The opinion
of the Court was not, however, to be
taken as obligatory upon the jury as
to questions Of fact, nor should he
insist upon their accepting his con>
struction of the law : he wished
them to be guarded by their con-
sciences He wished 1t understood
that he was wholly uncommltted AS
to the guilt or innocence OF
the defendants. Some Of the
reporters the newspapers had
evidently misunderstood mis- utter>
ances during the trial, for the jury
must be aware that he had carefully
abstained from expressing any opln-
ion upon that subject. Wnen
Walsh's testimony had been offered
the Court had said that, III his judg-
ment, there was enough evidence ot
conspiracy to be submitted to the
Jury, and 1t was upon that ground
that his testimony had been ad
mltted. That was as far as the
Court had gone. The judge gave a
brief history of the evenCs out OF
which grew this prosecution, and
Uutu dNlNll Co6CNl A4Al1i0C41 w OLO 4A"
Referring to the prayers Judge
Wyie said that the cOnspiratOrs
We're Jointly united for some purpose
and several for others. + ach man
stood ON MS own defence. The jury
could not convict one man OF com
splracy, but they could convict two
of the defendants. If there had
been only one overt act committed,
and the jury acquitted the party
committing II, then the defendants
must ali be acquitted. For
instance: Ii the jury acquitted
Brady, who had been
called the key, the master key to the
whole conspiracy, and no overt acls
were shown to have been commit, d
by any other defendant, then they
must all be acquitted. The
position taken by the defensv
that all of the defendants must be
shown TO have been interested III all
the contracts, was false. Ii it had
been shown that they were criminally
Interested IN only Que, that was sui
fcient, and tie conspiracy was estab.
hshed- surplusage IN All Indictment
would not vitiate it. This indicte
ment charged but one offense, one
conspiracy. 1t could not comprise
two conspiracies. Part Of the de
PENDANTS might be wholly acquitted
and part convicted, but If the jury
found two conspiracies, three of the
parties guilty of one and the re"
naming four guilty Of another, there
the Indictment failed. So much for
the frame of the indictment. Now
as to the proof, A conspiracy is
seldom reduced to writing. 1t is
generally entered into in a very in
formal way. The parties might re.
side IN different parts of the country,
but If by any means we show
that they entered into an agree>
ment to defraud the government,
followed by an overt acC, that was
conspiracy. The law required a
verdict OF guilty only when the jury
entertained no reasonable doubt OF
the guilt of tie defendants. A
doubt, to be reasonable, must be
based upon evidence-Dot upon
mere conjecture. The axiom was,
that it Is better for SO guilty men to
escape than for l innocent man to
suffer. 1t would be a very happy
condition Of affairs ii l lnnocent
man could be protected and SO gully
men punished. An old Lalln pro,
verb sald 1T was the fault of the
Judge II the wicked escape, and that
Was true. He would now take up
one Of the Ioutes and see ii
1t could be connected with
any rational theory OF
innocence. II it could the Defend
ants were entitled to the benefit of
that theory. He would select a small
route-the route from Vermilllon to
Sioux Fails, Dakota. The date of
the contract was March Is, 1878, to
run four years John w. Dorsey was
the contractor. The trips were once
week, distance so miles, to which 2
miles had been added; the time was
Ia hours. There were 9 post>offices
put no town on the route. Soon
after the service was put on it was
discovered that the actual distance
was about 10 miles, and that iafor-
nation had been distinctly and re-
peatedIy furnished to the Second
Assistant Postmaster General. Or
December %, 1678f the number o.
trips was doubled. On May 81
10, theroute was practically assigned
by sub-contract to Vale. On Jul.
lO, 1879, the number of trips wa'
increased to six and the time reduced
10 ten hours, increasing the compen'
Satlon to S96, 1880, deducting al
hour Tor delays at post offices, ane
the courier Was required to ttaye