The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-08-24
This paper Is Democratic IN principles
and Is Independent IN its 9ie0s ON Gu
local questions.
The Pardon of ogilby.

We doubt if the pardon granted to
Arthur g. Ogilby, the thieving cashier
of the New Brunswick Dime Savings
Bank, will give much satisfaction to
any persons except his most imme-
diate friends. There seems to us to be
altogether too much sentimental lie
niency for menof his character. 1t is
hard to conceive Of any crime more
wicked than the robbery of thousands
of poor people, at one fell swoop, to
crafty the luxurious longings of some
one polished villain. We know of no
crime more subversive of public
morals.
1t is not alone in the material in
jury, wrought by the robbery, that
the wrong to the community consists.
The impoverishment of the poor and
the weak is heartrending, the oblitera-
ton OF the carefully boarded re-
sources of old age and. sickness is
appalling; but the moral consequences
of these things are infinitely worse,
and affect an infinitely larger circle.
The wreck of public confidence, the
destruction of faith in human honesty,
the awakening of cynical distrust in
the minds of the ignorant, and its sub
stitution for that spirit of good faith
which is the binding force of all soci-
ETY., these are the consequences which
,,,ncf farrihIu offaof thn oo1tTpT1aitxy
which retard progress, which nourish
fallacious principles of the nihilistic
or anarchistic kind, which tend to
drag us back towards medieval bar
barism. 1t is towards the counter
action of this moral effect that the
operation OF the law should be chiefly
directed. Severity will not bring back
the lost dollars, it will not reform the
rascal on whom it is inflicted; but it
will, if exercised in earnest, go a long
way towards restoring public conf
dence among the ignorant, the unin-
telligent, and the weak, who are chiefly
swayed in their opinions and preju-
dices by physical things and condi-
tions such as they are capable of APP
%preciating.
But, of late, severity towards a GER
tain class of refined malefactors has
come to be a mockery, and it is largely
so regarded by the general public.
Heavy sentences are sneered at, since
the pardoning power began to be
commonly exercised in favor of every
convict who had belonged to a GER
tain social grade, and who stole his
''swag" without the aid of a Jimmy"
and dark lantern. There was a time
when the sentence of the law had an
awful import, chilling to the guilty
soul. and inspiring confidence in
those who depend upon the law for
protection. But now the most afro
cious swindler hears his doom pro
nounced with the solemn conviction
that its severity is purely Pickwickian,
and the people learn of it with a bitter
certainty that as soon as the pressure
of public anger is removed, some
tribunal will be found to weakly re-
verse the decree.
In our State, it seems to us, we are
peculiarly unfortunate in theconstitu-
tional manner of exercising the par
doning power. The division of re-
sponsibility in that, as in all other
things, means the division of fear Of
consequences. and the division of the
condemnation of error. The Governor
does not live, we believe, who
would have outraged public sen
timent by pardoning this man,
Ogilby, but, of course, the
members of the Court OF Pardons,
being practically Irresponsible, have
got out Of the thing the easiest posi-
BILE way. They have bowed to the