The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-08-14
A SCANDAL, PROBABLY.


industriously circulated through tn
city. There are many reasons why w
hope 1t will prove false and scandaleus
and none why we should wish it were
true. The early part of the month I
letter by President Cleveland was pub
Iished in which he savsgely scored
prominent politician" upon whose
recommendation a man had been ap'
pointed to a judgeshlp il one OF the
Territories. The letter was called out
by one from the gentleman himself, who
expressed surprise and regret that the
President had made the appointment,
and said that he had recommended the
fellow merely to get rid of chronic
bore" but never with the thought
that the Office would be conferred on
him. The politician also said that the
new made judge was not a proper per-
son to be entrusted with the Office. In
his letter to the man who had deceived
him the President said:
There is one mitigation to the per-
fdity which your letter dlscloses, and
that is found in the fact that you con-
fess your share in it. do not know
whether you are a Democrat or not; but
if YOU are, the crime which you CONFESS
is more objectionable. The idea that
this administration, pledged to give to
the people a better government and
better officers, and engaged in hand
to-hand fight with the bad elements OF
both parties, should be betrayed by
those who ought to be worthy of i'm
plicIt trust is atrocious, and such trea-
son to the people and 70 the party ought
to be punished by imprisonment. Your
confession comes too late to be of i'm
mediate use to the public service, and
can only say that while this is not the
first time l have been deceived by lying
and treacherous representations, you
are the first one who has so frankly
owned his grievous fault. If any COM
tort is to be extracted from this assur-
ance you are welcome to it.
1t was given out that the gentleman
who had deceived the President was
citizen of OHIO, as was the "bore" who
had been made a judge in one of the
Territories; but it was afterwards said
that the parties were residents of an
other State, and that Ohio had been
named so as not to discover the real Of |
tenders to the public.
The story that is being spread
in Salt Lake is that it was
Michigan politician who de-
ceived the President IN order to
get rid of "bore," and that our new
district judge, o. w. Powers, is the
"bore" who was gotten rid of. Coupled
with this rumor is one that Judge
Powers, learning of the correspondence
concerning him, suddenly adjourned
his court and fastened east to "save
Mmself.'
The HERALD is not entirely overcome
by admiration for Judge Powers. He
has impressed neither the bar nor the
public as beingsan overwhelmingly and
great jurist. To be frank and
fair to Mr.. Powers as well as toithe Presi-
dent, we will say that lawyers and lay
men quite generally express disappoint-
ment and regret that Cleveland's first
to Utah should have been
of such light weight and small caliber
We have heard more than one Demo !;
crat say that if the new Judge is fair )
sample OF what we may expect, the '
over the old class of I
officials; wouldn't be so marked as to
overcome people with establishment.
But whatever may be our opinion of t
Judge Powers, we are not going to be- t
iieve that he is the person who has
called forth the Presidents vigorous o
letter until there is some better evidence p
of the fact than a street rumor or the o
assertions of persons who would like to :
have him struck by this blow. We have v
heard how the news of Judge Powers
appointment reached him. and the
story does not at all agree with the cir q
as related in the correspond
snee between the President and the Z
politician who wanted to get rid of a S
bore. We, also know that the Judge, ',
When he came to Utah, expected to go a
.ast about the 1st OF this month, hence a
be went to save himself he must have q q
.nown at first that he would need ''say- Ii
ng" about this time 9 Il