Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-06-16

army and consider anything that can be stolen
| from the government a. % much Legitimate
plumber
The Popular Verdict says Gursy.
From the Chicago Tribune
The verdict which has been found win satisfy
the star route gang, but will satisfy no one
else. There is not person OF intelligence In
| the country who has not believed them TO b
| guilty from the beginning and there IL not Q
person OF intelligence who does not believe
them guilty. nov, notwithstanding the declara-
tion Of the miserable jury to the contrary The
| popular verdict says guilty. IL Ia unwritten IN
| the records Of courts II is based not upon loua
harangues OF cunning counsel. but upon the
testimony that bears upon the plain charge. n
| has not been affected by the Quibbles. pretenses
and delays OF the law.
The Csneago .sTimes,s Thinks the Gov.
ernmens Never Convtcss Its Greas
ROgues.
The Chicago Times says, In regard to the YER
dict In the star route trial that 1t takes nobody
by surprise. There is probably not one intelli-
gent American citizen who has given any atten.
ton to the proofs In the case who has anyfioubt
that the defendants are guilty as chsfged in
the Indictment" But, between universal con-
vction OF their guilt and even a very limited
| expectation that their guilt would be formally
declared by the verdict OF q jury under the forms
| OF law there is the widest Imaginable margin
Though Carlyle held that the chief end Of gov
\ eminent Is to eXpedViousy exterminate the
great rogues, IL is not for such an end that gov
eminent In this country is administered
AFarce and n Burle.qus.
| From the Boston Herald.
The verdict must be accepted a. one OF the In.
applicable riddles which the jury system fire.
Gaently produces and which are doing 40 much
to bring that venerable palladium OF civil
rights" into contempt. or the actual moral
guilt Of the accused there can be and is no
doubt. But, clear as the moral guilt NAV be.
there are many persons who have doubted
from the first whether the fact OF conspiracy
| could be legally established Enough consider
alton has not been given to the point TO which
We have often called attention, that Congress
has purposely left the law SO loose and placed
| such wide discretion In the hands OF the con-
| tract officer OF the department, that there
might be robbery which was not stealing. The
| acquittal Is, on some accounts. better than
disagreement would have been. II is at least a
hnality. After farce and burlesque there is
no call for an extravaganza.
Easy English for Practical Uses.
From the Philadelphia Ledser.
1t was evident i'm the question asked by that
Washington jury Of the court, pending their
deliberations. that they had got into hopeless
fog over the meaning of words. The term
conspiracy" applied to men In dark cloaks
and Spanish sombrcros on the theater stage.
cut-throats or dynamiters, has clearness but
when the judge instructs that ''overacts" must
be proved upon well-to-do-citizens In plain
clothes and apparently on good terms with go
ciety, no doubt the instructions carried chaos
into the minds Of those already wearied indi-
viduas. Put in easy English the inquiry. do
you think Dorsey, Brady q Co.. one or all OF
them swindled the government through the
star route contracts, and how and who helped
them4" the way would not have seemed an
impdsse or blind alley. The only way to get
through blind alley is to back out. and that
Is precisely what this Jury did. Finding the
whole phraseOl0gy beyond them. and fearing to
of mot guilty."
Justice Defeated.
From the New York Times
The verdict of the star route jury is one that
will give comfort and encouragement to all who
think 1t is no sin to steal from the Treasury OF
the United States. To the honest people Of the
nation it is result unexpected and undeslred.
a grievous disappointment, and fresh revela.
tion of the power Of wealthy and INSCRIPTIONS
graduates of the school of practical politics."
when confronted In the courts of Washington
by the proofs OF their villany
Now that the defendants In what has been re-
garded as the first or q series of prosecutions
against the members of great ring have been
acquitted, although the strength of the govern
ments evidence was generally admitted from
one end OF the country to the other, the people
will very naturally recall the history of the ex-
posure and prosecution of these men with the
purpose OF finding some causes which NAV serve
to account for this failure of Justice
They will recall the almost mex pcable DELAYS
which caused the postponement of proceedings
pvid0nno hoA hauon
| by Postmaster General James and his subordi-
| mates; the mysterious adjournments Of grand
juries, and the retention In office of men who
were believed to be the allies of the ring. These
delays were or great service to all of the defend
ants for the statute OF limitations was inexora.
bly, encroaching, day by day, upon the field In
| which the government must work, II it Intended
| TO work at all And 80 it happened, because of
these delays, because OF an unsuccessful proceed.
ing by Information, and because of blunders
which vitiated the first Indictment that the gov
eminent was at last forced to rely for conviction
| upon evidence relating to acts done after Nav
~, 1879, although the contract term In which
| the frauds had been committed began on July 1,
| 1873. The evidence not affected by the statute
of limitations was sufficient but these DELAYS SO
divided the whole body of proof that some ofthe
jurors seem to have been puzzled by the rulings
| OF the. court upon this point
| If the government had been per-
| son, guarding his own interests, the prosecution
| OF the ring would probably have been conducted
more effectively. Itwas unwise to select as the
| first In a series Of cases one that required SO
| long trial. The case against Brady and Price
was fully as strong. and ii could have been tried
| in less than q month. In some respects IL was
a stronger case. The Prescott and Santa Fe
| case. in the prosecution Of which the govern
| ment took one step, was more compact. The
| statute now bars proceedings I'm that direction.
| The case against the Dorsey group, having been
| selected, might have been condensed, so to
speak. by using only fve or only three, of the
nineteen routes. III this course had been pur-
sued the trial would have been short, and ju-
| rOrs would not have become weary and be-
logged. A case Of conspiracy is difficult one
to try, and it should be made as simple as pos
| sible.
"A DisYraceful vcrdict.0
From the New York World.