Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-14
STARTLING REVELATIONS,

STARTLING REVELATIONS.
The revelations of Saturday in the trial
OF the Cronin suspects startled Chicago,
and may well shock the people of the en-
tire country. A young man who has the
courage to be at peace with himself, and
&c do right, even at the sacrifice of life
long friend, revealed to the States officers
that he had been approached by Deputy
Sheriff, one of the very officers set as
guards over the defendants, with an offer
Oh money to so reply as talesman, when
called, that he would be accepted on the
jury, and then to stand out for an acquit-
Eal. The man who made the offer was a
longtime friend, but duty and his resolu-
ton to serve the State led the young man
TO reveal the infamy of this friend Con-
fronted with the latter he repeated his
story, and the unfaithful official broke
down and confessed his crime. The con-
fession duplicates other officials as having
been engaged in the same sort of business.
and some of these are high in authority.
a special Grand Jury was summoned, and
within the day five indictments were
found for attempts to corrupt the jurors,
and one against juror who entered into
The conspiracy to procure false verdict.
The Grand Jury in its report to the Court
expresses the belief that the plot was far
more widespread than has yet developed.
AS it is, it is bad enough. 1t is positively
known that systematic attempt was made
10 corrupt jurors, and that six of the prin-
cipal conspirators are now under lock and
key. They should, without a single right
OF theirs to fair trial being invaded, be
railroaded into the State Prison with such
rapidity, and for such terms of confinement
as will strike terror to the souls of other
rascais who are tempted to foul the
sources of justice and trife with the Iiber-
ties OF the people by usurping, through the
means OF bribery, the functions of the
Courts Of the land.
1t viii be well to consider if this class os
offenders should not be met by the law
with far severer penalties than are now
provided. In some States the thief who
robs on the highway is sent to prison for
life. The jury briber is thousand fold
more despicable, and infinitely more dan
gerous to society. He strikes at the very
foundation of free institutions, and that
which insures men property, life and honor,
and stabs social organization in the vitals.
Why should not these infamous wretches.
tive of which class California has sent for
brief terms to her Penitentiary, be impris-
oned for life? Such men being more dan
gerous than the footpad and the cut-throat,
against whom men have some chance of
resistance, ought to be eternally seques-
tered from society is no place SO fit
Tor them as the cell, unless it be the scat
fold.
These are the creatures, behind them are
the masters; the men who employ the
tools of infamy the men who supply the
means. Let them also be searched out
indeed to drag them from their hiding
places, the Chicago authorities would be
justified by the people in setting the rat,
they have trapped at liberty, that the
larger game may be housed in prison. No
one who is not blinded by prejudice and
warped by clannishness will for an instant
believe that the attempt to bride jurors to
acquit the alleged murderers of DIR. Cronin
was not put afoot and engineered by the
men who procured the victim to be done TO
death. One cannot well resist the conclu-
sion that behind the infamous murder and
this equally infamous plot to throttle JUS
tice, there stands the Clan ma Gael. 1t
may pass resolutions denunciatory Of the
assassination of Cronin until the day of
doom, but the world of fair,judging men
will lay both these crimes at the door of
that organization, and will be justified in
charging that if the murder of Cronin was
not directly ordered by the Clan, it was
the legitimate outcome of It's eonspiracies,
Its quarrels and its leadership. Let the
people indulge the hope, now that there
are six more men under lock and key who
have profound interest in telling the
truth and revealing all there is of the con-
spiracy to murder and to bride the muir
derers free, that there will be such confess
sion and squealing" as will bring to
justice and to feel the halter draw, the real
criminals the masters, who are as yet in
the background, and masking behind the
form of organization.