The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-26
THE DEFEAT OF JUSTICE.
Comments Upon the Decision in the
Mackin-Gallagher Election Case.
The Legal bubble Upon Which Judge Gresh-
ANS Order Is Based--Is 1t Worth While
to Try to Convict Grim inalS?
is 1t Worth the Cost /?
Chicago News.

Chicago News.
By the ruling of Judge Gresham, yesterday,
the laboring oar in the race for justice is again
put upon the community, while the convicted
perpetrators of the Eighteenth ward fraud have
been set ct liberty to assist in the work of de-
feating the popular will next April There was
not an honest man in Chicago yesterday who did
not breathe harder when he heard of the Judges
order 1t mattered not that this expressly dis
avowed any opinion as to whether the case would
be ruled out of court or a new trial granted 1t
set Mackin and Gallagher free. After over $15,
900 of private funds and an incalculable amount
of private and official zeal, energy and labor had
been expended in bringing them within the shad-
ow of the peniter tiary, it opens up the POSSIBLE
ty that the whole fight may have to be gone over
again. IT, it was asked yesterday, it costs $15 900
of money freely subscribed by the citizens to
bring such undoubted criminals to the threshold
of punishment how much will it cost to secure
their final incarceration
Let no reader mistake our view Of this cruel
victory for a technical law over costly triumph
for justice. The Daily News would not have
Mackin and Gallagher wrongfully convicted
But they have had their day in court and what
answer, what defense did they make to the over
whelmirg testimony of their guilt2 Engirdled
by chain of unimpeachable evidence their sole
and only defense was resort to perjury, which
lied itself out of court and left them worse of
than ever. Such spectacle of audacious in i.
fanny as that displayed in the production of such
witnesses as Sullivan, Gilmore, Titman, and
Simons should have consigned every defendant
and lawyer concerned in it to regions of dis
grace from which there could be no appeal.
In normal state of society," where justice
follows crime and punishment follows convic
ton through the proper prosecution and en-
forcement of the laws, Mackin and Gallagher
would have been lodged in prison without the
necessity of a citizens movement, and the ex
penditure Of private means to vindicate the in
volatility Of the ballot-box. But, through the
debasing efforts of the political power of which
they were members such thing as justice
against any of their class was openly ridiculed,
scoffed at and defied. 1t was this fact that
reused the respectable citizens of Chicago to the
work of convictng the perpetrators of the
Eighteenth ward fraud. 1t was mighty task
They had to employ every resource of money and
ability, first to discover the guilty
parties and then to secure the testi-
trial before Judge Blodgett the court
house was surrounded by Gordon of trusted
agents to prevent the jury from being tempered
with, and to detect and Illustrate the attempts of
desperate defendants to swear truth out Of the
case And all this to reach finally ''reasona-
BILE doubt" a writ of error, and release on bail
Even the protection of the community for the
next month from their liberty would have been
great jservice The encouragement of their
fellow-criminals by their Imprisonment during
the coming election would have been Of ad-
vantage to the cause of right. The granting of
stay of proceedings was hailed as a great
victory in all quarters where the election frauds
are arranged and will undoubtedly strengthen
the hands of vice and crime against decency and
honesty.
Well may citizens ask themselves fit is worth
the cost to attempt to punish crime in Chicago
or rescue the city from the hands of the Philis-
tines