Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1882-09-22
ANOTYTER TRIAL.

rendered in the star route cases last week
without feelings of indignation. A more
Notifying and discreditable result OF pub
lie trial it has never been the duty Of the
press TO announce. Small wonder is ii in
view Of such a miscarriage of justice that
the popular mind should sometimes falter
in its belief that the system of trial by jury
is that best calculated TO achieve the ends
for which it was instituted.
Behind the issues of law and fact raised
by the indictment was the infinitely greater
issue involved in the struggle between the
administration of justice and the political
influences that had combined to defeat it.
The transcendent question related not to the
guilt or innocence of the accused, but to the
ability of corrupt and powerful league to
hamstring the law and render impotent the
instrumentalities provided for its enforce
ment 1t is the boast OF the American
people that their institutions recognize the
equality Of all men, and that neither fear nor
favor shall impair the rights of the inno-
cent or abate the deserved punishment of
the guilty. The defiant attitude assumed
by the defendants in the star route cases,
and the devices by which the legal proceed
ings were from time to time delayed, fur
nshed ground for reasonable apprehension
that the Vaccinations of justice would be
unable successfully to cope with criminals
intrenched in official favor and deriving
their confidence from the Partially Of the
very authorities upon whom the task of
prosecuting them devolved. 1t is unne.
cessary now to inquire whether they ac-
tually received the assurances of protection
which common rumor at the time assigned
as the reason for their swagger and inso-
lence. Certain ii is that if such assurances
were given the storm of public indignation
that those rumors provoked purged the tenn
pie OF justice of the presence and influence
Of the foul intrigue The new Attorney
General moved with determination and vigor
| against the thieves, and, compared with the
dilatory policy of his predecessor, his move
ment possessed the dash and celebrity of
cavalry charge. The result, SO far as it has
at present been reached, though it does not
commit Brady and Dorsey to the peniten-
tiary, vindicates the pride which the nation
has in its legal safeguards and gives warn
ing to all offenders, no matter how power.
fully fortified, that an aroused public opin-
ion never comes in vain 10 the support of
the sanctity OF the law.
fIha Innninnnc nd ,t;o al Il
Judge Wylie is at once an acknowledge
ment of the ability with which the counsel
for the Government presented their case,
clear exposition of the principles of law ap.
array of the salient points for the considera-
ton OF the jury.
The corrupt combinations charged in the
indictment was shown and could have only
been shown to be fact by the course of the
defendants taken in pursuance of it, If,
therefore, conspiracy was found, it fol-
lowed irresistbly that the accused was re-
sponsible to the law. That the minds of
the jurors were impressed by considerations
touching the relative degree of crminalty
of the different defendants may be assumed.
But the assumption only makes palmer the
rank absurdity Of the verdict. The whole
swindle pivoted on the Second Assistant
Postmaster General. He was at the very
centre of the gigantic scheme, and without
his consent or connivance not penny of
the swag could have been taken from the
treasury. Standing next TO and in close as
ISOLATION with him was Stephen w. Dorsey,
whose genius conceived and whose cxecu-
tive ability carried out the conspiracy
These two men were the master-spirits-
all the Others were mere tools and instlu-
ments. The evidence sharply portrayed
them rs the central figures of this drama
OF fraud. An honest and intelligent Jury
when they come TO discriminate between
the defendants and apportion the relative
degree OF guilt would, if they did not wish
to put all reason and justice to shame, have
singled out these two chief conspirators to
receive the heaviest blows of Judgment
That, indeed, was the view which eight
members of the jury took, but their four
colleagues were satisfied to let Brady and
Dorsey go, while they Joined in the con.
demnation of Rerdell and Minor. II is not
human nature to accept such monstrous
perversion OF common sense, such a fragrant
disregard of evidence and such deliberate
indifference to the simplest precepts of jus.
tice as the result of conscientious verdict
MIR. Dickson, the foreman, and the two
colored jurors who voted with him have
placed themselves ON trial at the bar of pub
lie opinion.
II is gratifying to learn, that upon the
heels OF all of this miserable business, this
miscarriage of justice, this triumph of cor
ruption, comes the intelligence that the
Government will proceed without delay TO
arrange for another trial of Brady and Dor.
sey. They are not to be permitted to enjoy
their triumph as men who have finally es-
capped the neshes Of the law The outrage
committed upon the honest sentiment of
the people, the vindication of right and the
speedy punishment of those who have SET
at defiance all law, demand that it be swift.
Announcer jury may see its way with clearer
and cleaner hands To the justice which the
former jury has utterly failed to do and
send the chief authors of the star route
iniquity to the penitentiary.
The tariff commission must have been dis
appointed in Iowa. On Friday last Henry
J. Philpot showed the commission that, ow-
ing TO the protective tariff, ten bushels of
Iowa wheat would buy as many goods in
Liverpool as forty-iive bushels will in Iowa,