New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-05-30
DETECTING TO MURDER.

The President SUITS up norheto h0oo " VIZ
removal of Meade. Strictly speaking the man
| has not been removed: he has been invited 10
| resign. Facts not known when he was APP
nointed are given as a reason; put MI. baiks-
dale and Others who urged his selection knew
| nerfectly well that Meade had been chairman
| of the Democratic County Committee in Coplah
County, Mississippi, at the time Matthew's was
murdered. They knew that he organized the
| lawless rebellion against freedom OF elect'ohs
| by which that county was captured; ne us
tributed the arms, and laid the plans, ana aiter-
ward presided at the meeting which Justiheo
and applauded the murder. Ii these facts were
not known to the President, they must nave
been to Mr. Lamar, the Cabinet oihcer ironi
| that State The politicians who urged Meade
appointment did so because his exalted services
| in leading this lawless revolution merlted re-
ward Are these men, Messrs. Lamar Barks-
dale and the other men who recommended
Meade. to be told that the Administration VIII
NOT reward the crimes by which Mr.. Cleveland
was lifted to the Presidency But for such
revolutions and murders, Mr.. Lamar wouiu
never have reached Congress again, or the
Senate, and would never have had chance, as
Secretary of the Interior. to honor the reoei
thief, Jacob Thompson or to seiect as wa'ch-
man in his department q man wholly unknown
except as the mes senger of Jefferson Davis and
afterward of Jacob Thompson. But for such
revolutions and murders, Mr.. Cleveland him
self would never have had power to decide
whether recent murder is more hideous than
older treason.
Is it7 Mr.. Cleveland's supporters at the
Soutb will insist upon knowing whether he
honors the armed rebellion by which half a
million men we're done to death, and only OBJ :
iects to the later rebellion by which he was
elected, on the ground that it has not yet been
sanctified by distance. Resistance to law is the
same crime whether committed by State or
by the Democratic Committee of a county.
The law providing for equal suffrage and free
dom of elections is rs sacred as the laws which
Davis and Thompson, Lamar and Garland
violated by their participation in rebellion.
The killing of men, iii the course OF resistance
to law, is simply murder, whether committed
by regiment or brigade under MIR. Lamar
orders. or by a Democratic league under the
orders of Mr.. Meade. Where does the Presi-
dent draw the linei Are we to infer that ne
only objects 10 those crimes which are recent
and fresh III mind !
The worst remains. Inc fresldehV HIS AZ
ready appointed and honored many men who
had no other claim to consideration than that
they had done just what Meade did. lie will
have instances not a few brought TO his knowl-
edge. when the Senate meets, If he Is as igno-
rant in other cases as he appears to have been In
the case of Meade. He will find that most OF
the men who have been recommended to him
from the south, and particularly from Virginia,
Mississippi and other States i'll which the ma
iority of the people have been overcome by
armed violence and massacre, are persons who
have become distinguished among their Demo
cratic associates. not by learning or ability,
honor or patriotism, but by activity in the
bloody revolution which finally gave Mr.. Cleve-
land the electoral votes of such States, and
made hun Pre- sident. He will find that the
same reason which exists for asking Meade TO
resign, and even greater reason, exists In the
case of other men whom he has lifted to office.
If he is going to object to Democrats because
they had counsellcd or justified murder, or par
ticipated IN the awless violence by which the
election of Democratic President was secured,
he may as well count upon the malignant ana
merclless hostility of the Solid South, from this
time to the end of his term.