The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-01
JUDGE WOODS CLAIM"

Otis said that it will be difficult for the
President TO overlook Judge WooDs' claim, q
reads a dispatch sent over the wires the
other day concerning the vacancy in the
supreme bench of the United States. The
President wants to appoint his law partner,
Attorney General MILLER, but WooDs'
claim to recognition stands in the way, and
HARRISON cannot overlook it. What is that
claim! WooDs is United States Judge OF
the Indiana district. Last fall Colonel w.
w. DUDLEY, distinguished Republican and
warm personal friend of the President, and
also Hoosier, wrote his famo Is blocks OF
five" letter, which was the most outrageous
violation of the eetion law which occurred
during the campaign. The whole nation
was scandalized by it, and there was pop
ular demand for the prosecution of the man
who openly urged the buying of votes for
his candidate. The grand jury met last
winter and Judge WOODS charged the
inquisitors in such way as to encourage
them to indict DUDLEY and those who pro
NOTED election frauds. The country
sounded the praises of WOODS, and the
grand jury went to work in earnest to bring
to justice the men who had bought and sold
the votes of Indiana in the interest of Ben
JAMTN HARRISON. Lawyers declared Judge
WooDs' charge sound, and the political
thieves and scoundrels trembled in their
boots. DUDLEY carefully avoided Indiana,
fearing arrest, and HARRISON himself was
nervous, not that he had had hand in the
vote-buying, but he was to profit by the
IL. j.. E =. r..
hundreds of indictments had been found,
Judge WOODS called the jury before him
and explained the law to it exactly con
trary to his previous Interpretation. There
was no explanation or excuse for this pro
ceeding, and everybody wondered what
had come over the judge who a little while
before had seemed so anxious that political
corruptionists should be brought to Justice
The grand jury was stopped by the ruling,
the arm of the vigorous prosecuting at
torney was paralyzed, and DUDLEY and
associate scoundrels were delighted.
Later, when it came to the trial of the
hundreds of vote buyers and sellers,
two-thirds of the indictments were dis
missed by the judge, and the other de
PENDANTS were promptly acquitted under
directions or in accordance with WOODS
rulings. There was but one conviction.
and that was of a miserable Democrat who
voted for CLEVELAND in the morning, and
being made drunk by Republicans voted
for HARRISON in the afternoon.
Does the claim" which the President
finds it so difficult to overlook dEte from
Judge WooDs' reversal of himself in the
Interpretation of the law! Because Judge
WooDs kept scores of prominent Republi-
cans out of the penitentiary, and threw the
protection of the law around the bride
givers, and the corruptors of elections,
is he to be deemed worthy of the
reward of place on the supreme bench !:
Having saved prominent Republicans from
states prison, and prevented a scandal or
reproach attaching to the HARRISON title,
does the Judge have a claim on the admins
tration which the President dare not ignore.
HARRISON has shown the courage to refuse
recognition of DUDLEY's claims which
ought to be as strong as those of WooDs,
but having yielded to the Judge perhaps the
President will next sucCumb TO DUDLEY,
and reward him also for the part which he
took in corrupting the Hoosier voters.