The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-06-16
THE STAR ROUTE FIAsCO.

! ne longest, anu IN many Respects IIi'
mos, disreputable proceeding IN which IN,
government Of this country was ever en-
gagged, terminated at Washington on Thurs
day. There has hardly been day for tive
years on which the daily papers had 10
Washington dispatch IN reference to The
trial of the star-rOute thieves. While tho
number who shared in the robbery of tho
government in the star route business may
have run into hundreds, but seven Of the
principal thieves were indicted, at the head
| of whom stood cN Assistant Postmaster
General Brady and cx-UmIed States Sena
tor Dorsey. That the whole seven were
guilty, that they had pcrslsientIy and sys-
tematically for years robbed the govern
ment and that these robberies amounted to
millions of dollars, was as clearly proved
as any tact ever established before a judi
cal tribunal III the worlds history.
But, fighting from the top of big pile,
the thieves were able to employ the most
adroit and skillful lawyers in the country,
who succeeded in surrounding the case
with such dense fog OF bubbles and
technicalties that from the beginning the
main question was forced out Of the issue.
For instance, the seven were included in
one indictment, and that indictment did
not present the simple question, Did they
steal but, Did they conspire together toI
steal? Though each one stole million,
they were not guilty unless they all agreed
together to the same act Of theft. TwoI
years ago the trial began, and after spend
ing six months over 1t ana quarter OF al
million OF dollars it ended by the jury
finding one or two Of the smaller fry guilty,
but disagreeing as 70 the head thieves. The
outraged court set the verdict aside. Ill
two were guilty all were guilty, and new
trial was ordered. 1t began last summer
and continued nearly year. A jury was
selected consisting of tour negroes, three
or four moderately decent white men, and
the rest bummers and sots. One of them
had several fits of delirum tremens during
the trial. That the verdict OF such jury,
no matter what the evidence might be, was
the sheerest guesswork was admitted from
the start Yet the lawyers, who were get
ing fifty dollars day each, kept 'pecking
away" They stretched out the trial, which
would have occupied the La Sale county
circuit court about q week, to 800 days, and
On Thursday as some Of the Jurors would
have gone crazy or died Of delirium ire
mems If it had continued longer, the trial
was allowed to end IL verdict of mot
guilty"
Brady, Dorsey, Reredcll, Miner, Vale
and the rest-Some Of them even contessing
heir guilt--arc pronounced innocent! IL
IS the most disgraceiul farce in the worlds
judicial history. But though Il jurymcn
pronounced them not guilty, 100000 of
people hold them otherwise; and though
hey cannot be compelled TO make rcstitu-
ion OF their stolen millions, the popular
verdict of guilty will stick to them and
ollow them TO their graves. No honest
man will ever trust them, and ifthey should
,ver again have the impotence to aspire
% places of honor or profit in the govern.
nent, they will find the people standing
between them and place as a contemporary
we'll puts 1t, like an impenetrable wall"
Justice may tail, but they are branded as
hieves by the unanimous verdict of fifty
millions OF people.