National Republican., 1882-01-09
Maladministration of Justice.

duty OF prosecuting public offenders to
arrest certain citizens of previous good
repute upon the charge of having signed
as sureties bonds of mail bidders in
amounts for which they were not able TO
respond. The proper oath having been
made by special agent of the Post
Office Department, the police judge issued
the warrants for the persons so accused.
The proceeding is legal on its face.
When crime is believed TO have been
committed any man who so believes may
make oath TO that effect, and may also
make oath that he has cause to believe
that such or such a person (naming HIM
is guilty of the oflcnse. The committing
magistrate then issues warrant
for the arrest of the person, and imme-
diately proccedsto hear the evidence
against him and also that in his defense.
If there is sufficient cause, he then holds
the person to bail, to answer to any in
dictment that may be found by the
grand jury. Of course, when the grand
jury is in session, as it now is, no accused
person should be summarily arrested for
preliminary examination, unless he is a
thief or other criminal likely to flee from
justice. On the contrary, the witnesses
are taken before the grand jury and an
indictment precedes arrest.
On Friday night, too late for men to
give bail, sundry orderly and dwell-known
persons were ar rested in this city upon
the charge of being sureties worthless
l hpnlc Of ,,,nH lN;1Jnr n,1
spring to defraud the Government. They
were taken to the police station and
dealt with as though they had been
old and well-known Offenders passing
| through the city, and who must
thus be taken on the wing
There was smack of tyranny about
this which reflects disCredit on its pro-
moters. The mere accusation of one man
| by another raises no presumption of the
formers guilt, and is no ground upon
which needlessly to subject q citizen to
the degradation of imprisonment. The
truth of the accusation must of course be
ascertained but what man is safe from
disgrace if any one man can dictate his
arrest, and magistrate and lawyer can
then arrange it to snatch him late ut night
expressly to make bail impossible before
the following day. Tombs-shysters in New
| York resort to such tricks in order to
extort money; but wherever decent meth
odsprevail it should be impossible Judge
Smell greatly abused his authority by the
arrests of last Friday night. Neither he
nor the Government prosecuting officers
could have had any fear that the accused
persons were going to run away. The
warrants should not have been issued
until the next morning, and then the ex-
animation should haye Immediately pro-
ceeded. But instead of this the arrests
were made late at night, for the obvious
purpose of haIassing and oppress-
ing the parties. Then, the next day
they were denied Il hearing, because
one lawyer had gone to New York.
Then excessive bail was eXucted. One
man who was on bidders bond for 5000
was required to give $1,000 bail. The
large bail was demanded, Judge Smell
said, at the instance of prosecuting at.
torney. This is of the Jetlries order OF
judicial proceeding. That judge became
infamous because he allowed himself to
be made an instrument of oppression by
the Government.
The worst feature about the whole bust
ness is that it is admitted to have beer
done to prevent man named Boone from
bidding for mail contracts the next day
Who was benefited? Who would have
been benefited if Boone had been thus
prevented from competing with others
We know nothing of the merits o
these cases. We hope to see bogus mail
bidders and bogus sureties, wherever
they can be found, convicted and pun
ished. But let not the machinery o
justice be used for private ends, no
in a tyrannical and arbitrary manner
Courts convict and punish after trial
Every man is presumed to be innocen
until found guilty by q jury, The Gov
ernment cannot afford to tolerate, in thosC
/, who are intrusted with the power t.
, prosecute oilenses, any spirit of persecu
tion, or any contempt for the rights an,
liberties of citizens.
| THERE is more truth than poetry in tn
} article published on the first page rela
tive to the Marine Corps A radca
, change should be made by Congress il
= the method ofappointments, The coun
= try is too big and the people too liberal
y minded to allow an exclusive aristocrati
@ institution to flourish in our midst. Civ
- the boys in the ranks Il chance.
, --~---
The beautiful verses "Gone Home, o.
Christmas Morning" which appeared il
. THE REPUBLICAN of last Saturday, wer
read at the funeral Of the lamented Joh
3 o. Evans at Fayetteville, N. Y, VIII
- died, it will be remembered, on Chris
y mas morning.