Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-01-18
SERPENTlNE SrAR RIOTERS
The Diilculty Which Must Ever Exist In Securing
a Conviction Of These Dubious
rharssfarx

atonEiction Of These Dubious
Characters.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Jan. 8, 1888
The galleries of the Senate were crowd
ed daily during the delivery OF senator
Logan's speech on the Fitz-John Porter
case. For four or five hours o. three
successive days the earnest Iilinoi Sena-
tor held his audiences until compelled
from sheer exhaustion to conclude OF
course much Of his speech was a repeti-
ton of the oft related details of the aght
Of those three August days at Run
in 1862, but General Logan show ] that
he is familiar as no one else on tbs floor
of Congress is with the inner alHi true
history Of that occasion down TO the
minutest detail of all the movements Of
troops connected with it. That Senator
Logan is thoroughly honest in his con-
vietion that Porter deserved his punish
ment is as evident as that he convinced
most Of his hearers that he is right,
General Grants change of mind TO the
contrary Notwithstanding.
Not much is said about the Star-route
trial now in progress, because as yet
there has been no specially exciting
episode, and the evidence being taken
at this stage is of a routine character.
Nothing can be arrived at rs to the pro-
bable result of the trial except a judg-
ment based on general principles and a
putting OF this and that together. | sat
for an hour yesterday studying the pro-
ceedings and the jurors. AS the twelve
men in the juror box, supposed to be
good and true citizens are to be the
final judges of both the law and the
facts in this important trial, public in
terest naturally turns to them. They
are, with but few exceptions, men of
very moderate intelligence, and some
of them evidently far below mediocrity.
Eight Of the jurors are white and four
are colored, the colored jurors having
been accepted from the regular panel,
while four of the white are talesmen,
summoned to the %ungracious tasG by
Marshal McMichael. The jury as a
whole, looks to be quite below the aver
age, and it lacks what is usually notice.
able in inrles-seyeral apparent intelli-
gent and controlling minds. 1t may
seem harsh to PREJUDICE the new Star
reuter- jury, but | must record that to
me they do not appear to be men suited
to the work-mcn capable of trying
such a case where all the appliances OF
money, influence and legal accumen are
to be employed to defeat justice.
70 me it seems That under all the
circumstances we must look for little
less than a miracle to compass a CON
%viction of Dorsey and Brady. The Star
route combination ramities everywhere
in this city. 1t has its fingers and toes
in the departments, in the hotels, and
its feelers extend to BARRIERS, coarhmen.
servants, bootblacks and every hannel
where men of any grade can b. made
useful. The colored jurors, all q. whom
are in Strengthened circumstan 5. and
n of whom earns a precariou living
by day labor, viii be reached and tempt
ed in a hundred ways, and wIlen such
men, who had never owned $500 in
their lives, and who have lao great
amount of reputation to lose, can be
tempted with tens of thousands. is il
reasonable to expect any conviction?
They may prove stronger than the
wealth they never dreamed of possess
ing, or they may be inundated by the
fear Of punishment; but it will be a
marvel. indeed, if a jury with little in
telligence to guide them and little char
acter to lose, as a rule, shall be able to
maintain the majesty of justice in her
own sanctuary.
President Arthur is tne first President
since Mr.. Buchanan to return TO what
has been known for generations as the
Presidents church-St. Johns Episco-
pal. He walks across Lafayette Park
to the church, and goes in ut a side
door, while his fellow parishioners are
making all the hullabaloo they can at
the front entrance with liyeried servants
champing horses, all the paraphernalia
that delight children of 4 younger
growth. The church is always crowded
nowadays, and is the most aristocratic
place of worship in the city. 1t is a
small, quaint and delightfully."- shabby
structure, and has not a suspicion of
being a fashionable church on the out
side, although mammon is tolerable
well represented inside. 1t is painted
brown, and the paint has peeled off.
1t has old-fashioned blinds that once
were green, ana the side entrance has
a little platform by way OF a porch,
which has been repaired with Imprinted
pine. and there are plenty Of trees and
shrubs around. Itlooks to be the taber-
nacle Of transformations piety. But 80
inside! See all the women c~raning their
necks to get a look at the President; see
how every member of the congregation
who owns a carriage dashes up to the
door Sunday morning in great style; see
what passport to good society it is to
own a pew there. 1t is one Of the fay-
orite lies Of the newly rich of Wash
ington to represent themselves rs hav-
ing been pew owners at St. Johns since
it was first built. They tell this ridi-
culous tale with the straightest faces,
and take quiescense for acquieseence in