The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-09-09
.BRADY'S BUCCANEERS
AND the ! g: FATE HANGING OVER THEM.
i II ~ - 4 N
Judge M,u.. Charge % fhs Jury In The star
Route cisr4Entrt of VI Tus,s,'. Logic aud
i'sttoil'a Ei,qusnrs-A Verdict that
WAS not a verdlet-Jury Sent Hack.

WAsliISGroS, d. e., September SIN
the circuit court this morning Judge
Wylie, utter some explanatory ,emurks 10
the jury, began his charge. lie said: ''By
the act Of March 3r,l, 1879. Congress appro-
priatcl s., 100000 for the maintenance OF
the Star Route service; that appropriation
was for the fiscal year 1880. The appro-
priation Was all that was asked for by the
department.. The records OF the Treasury
and tho postotlice departments showed
that for three previous years there was
IN! unexpsnded balance of,-nearly four
millions pi dollars tosu,e CT, dit Of ;thJ
Postotlicc department. s'rhere was In eyi.
.dencc statement showing that the POST
master General on, December, s, 1870, had
asked ior tic reaprroprhtion Of two mil.
lions OF dollars to 'l,eet deficiencies in The
appropriation for the Star Route service.
THIS US u statement calculated to arrest
the attention Of Conyn s., for il showed that
in five months after. the beginning Of the
fiscal year there was a deficiency OF $1,000.
900. That was II fact to alarm the country.
An. investigation followed ,and an addi.
tional appropriation was made with pro.
visions limiting the expenditure and the
increase Of service upon routes. That was
sfar US M act Of Congress ought to. have
gone. The other circumstances we're fit
subjects for judicial investigation. This
Investigation followed aud an indictment
was found against these alleged conspira.
tors. This indictment might be .s,iid to
have five features. Firas, historical; sec.
ond, describing the conspiracy; third, the
means; fourth, overt acts, and fifth IL purti-
ton OF the money. s2-
The historical part was well known. As
to the means used to carry out the con.
spiracy the jury need not trouble them
selves about that. Whether or not they
were Sufficiently described the inlici.
ment vas. not for them TO consider. The
division OF the money defended upon the
question OF the existeIiccof the Conspiracy
and that was really the only consideration
for the jury. Whether there was n con.
spiracy followed by theconmission OF overt
acts, the false papers and petitions
were the means used, and it had never
been held that the Government was re.
quired to accurately describe the means.
Whether the parties were mutually inter.
es.ed in the several contracts was Of no
cons. queuce. Their interest in the con.
spiracy must be considered. The parties
were, according TO the indictment, indi.
vidual owners OF contracts, and mutually
interested only tho conspiracy. Any
overt act under any one Of the contracts
was IN overt net under all OF them. ~
Referring-t to the prayers, Judge Wvlie
said: The conspirators were Jointly united
Tor the same purposes, several for other pur.
poses Each man stood Oh his own de-
fense. The jury could not convict two Of
the defendants. III there had been only
one overt act committed, and the jury nc.
quilted the party committing it. then
the defendants must NIL be acquitted. For
instauce,iif the jury, acquitted Brady, who
had been called the key, the master key to
the WHOLE, conspiracy, and no overt acts
wtreBhownto, have been committed by any
other defendant, then they must. all
be acquitted! The position taken
by the defense that all defendants must be
shown to have been interested in nil con.
tracts was false. II it had been shown
that they were criminaiv interested in
only one, that was sufficient, and the con.
spiracy was established Surplusage in
the indictment would not vi,iate it. The
indictment charged but one conspir.
cy. 1scould not compass two, conspiracies
Part OF tho ;ideiendants might be wholly
acquitted and part convicteti; butit the
Jury found two conspiracics. three OF the
parties guilty OF one, and the remaining
four guiltysofano;her, then tho indictment
failed. Now, MS to the proof. 4 conspiracy
is seldom reduced to. writing. They
are generally entered into! in a very
informal way. Parties might = re.
side in different parts OF the country,
but il by any means, even By dumb show
they entered into an agreement to defraud
the Government followed by an overt act
that was, u conspiracy. The law required Il
verdict of guilty only when the Jury enter
tained nc, reasonable doubt Of the guilt o.
the defendants. The doubt Ito be reason.
J, able must be based upon, evidence, moi
upon mere conjecture He would now
take up one jof the routes i,and see il il
could be connected with any rational
theory OF Innocence. 3 II it could the de-
PENDANTS were entitled to the benefit oil
that theory. He would select small route
the route from Eermillion ito Sioux Falls
The date OF the contract was March lllh
lS7S, to run four. years, John. w. Dorsey
the contractor. The trips, were sonce d
week, the, distance was fifty Mills, to which
two miles hall been added. The time. WIS
fourteen hours. There were nine ,postof
fees but no towns on the route. Soon ai
ter the service was put On it was dis
covered that the actual tlistance was seven
ty miles and that information had been
distinctly and repeatedly furnished to the
Second Post master General. On Decem
ber $50 ISIS the: number, OF trips was
doubled. On May 3rd,. 1879 the route was
practically assigned by n sub.contract te
,vaile. On July 10th 1870, the number O
trips was increasedtto to six,- and =the- ,timt
reduced to ten hour, increasing the com
pensa,ion to 6,l33. Deduc,ing M houl
: for delay at postoilices, the carrier was re
quired 10 travel the seventy miles in nine
hours. Petitions aud'let,ers had been seu
in, and It { did not absolutely follow
that this expedition was fraudulent
! II u = the Y jury could reconcile
1t with any theory Of innocence
they must do it. A Congressman Of ,ntlu
ence, Mr.. Bennett, had asked for itnnd thai
must be- considered. Soon after ever,
Postmaster on the route .united'in protes
to the Department saying tue tint, va.
impracticable, and asking 10 have the old
fourteen hour schedule. restored, and Mr.
Bennett enforced this protest, }and it wa:
sent to Brady. - Tis,i, "a. rs .;e
Just at this point this member Of pon
gress seems 10 have lost his influence, fol
!, he was informed il could not be done. AT
!, ter reading the law relative 10 productive
ness Judge Wylie inquired what produc
tivcpcps] ]ia,i there been in, this instance
Reading iiola the record, he said that. fol
one year it had been SOL. He had called
attention to this route because It had beer
: asserted that members OF Congress were re
: spousible ior the expedition, yet in hi,
case when it had been expedited at tho re-
quest Of . member OF Congress its reduc
ton hnd been, reilsea TO that, same mem
Der. - = ~ y stES,ig " - :. y