Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-01-28
A Peculiar American Tendency.


A Peculiar American Tendency.
Still, like a wounded snake, the Star
Route trials drag their slow length
along, The facility with which rogues
who have robbed the government Of
millions Of dollars are permitted to es-
cape Justice raises two questions, tl) as
to the sincerity Of the administration in
carrying on the prosecution, and ~
how far the mere forms of legal pro-
cedure have extinguished justice. The
man who is sanguine enough to believe
that President Arthur, after presiding at
the banquet given to Dorsey in New
York, after the last Presidential cleo
ton, and having spoken with post
prandial frankness about Dorsey's hav-
ing carried Indiana by the use OF
''soap," would throw himself with any
energy into the work of bringing Dorsey
to the gates of a prison, is too unsophis-
ticated for these later days. The gen
eral public are too agn ostic for any such
confiding trust. Very little more de-
pendence can be placed in the anti
quated beau, Brewster, who administers
the Attorney Generals office. Very
largely as a consequence, we have been
treated to great deal of cry and very
little wool. Ii we shall admit, for the
sake Of argument, that the administra-
ton has done its duty in the premises,
the result OF these trials, SO far, forces
the further admission that the law has
become so top heavy and cumbrous that
it Of late years only ayails TO defeat
Justice. 1t is impossible to deny the
fact that the law has become, in our
modern life, tho handmaiden of the
criminal. Given malefactor who has
money and friends, and trial is pro-
tracted for months, in nearly every
instance, with the result that the
prisoner hears tho glad sound Of
the prison bolts drawn back,
to be greeted, when he reaches the free
air of heaven, by the hearty congratu-
lations Of his friends. 1t is only when
the culprit is poor that the law deigns to
realize its old function of redresser Of
wrong. When the poor wretch who has
stolen sheep comes before the modern
tribunal now, as in the old days, the
law shows something of its traditional
sternness. Chicane and finesse have SO
multiplied, of late years, that II has
come to be popularly accepted axiom
that man needs only to have money to
be able, to employ o'Connells phrase,
to drive coach and six through the
law. This tendency has been increas.
ing in this country, during the past
twenty years, in M arithmetical ratio
1t is somewhat singular that il
should be distinctively character
istic of the United States. In
France, il man is guilty of rogue.
ry, no matter what his rank, he
encounters the most inflexibe and i'm
partial justice. Prince and beggar there
stand on precisely the Same footing.
When Baron lie Boileau was accused of
having endorsed some statements about
the Memphis & FL Paso Railroad of his
brother-in.law, John G. Fremont, which
afterwards proved to be untrue, he was
convicted and sent to prison. So with
myriads of others, from Pereire to Bon.
tout, who, il they lived in this country,
would suffer no Inconvenience whatever.
The same is the ease, though in lesser
degree, in the courts of England. A
nobleman who has turned rogue is held
r.gidly to the axiom aoblesse obiige, and
his rank rather intensiiies his offence
than mitigates it. 1t certainly never
results in immunity. When Sir Morton
Peto's wildcat railway schemes came to
naught, as they had been OF question
able character, Sir Morton retired to
his bath, opened his veins and was a
corpse when sought by the officers of
the law. The law is equally rigid in the
Teutonic and in all Latin races. Why,
in nominal Republic, these Unequal.
titles should be found to exist puzzles the
observer. 1t is a bad sign-a threaten
ing augury. 1t may rightfully dispirit
those who desire to take the most hope.
full view of our future. OF course, we
are not debarred from hoping that the
very excess OF this evil will prove its
own corrective. 1t is like one of those
sloughing sores which either kill or cure
the patient-which leave him either
annihilated or rejuvenated.