St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-23
bribery,

The somewhat sensational proceed
ings in the legislature yesterday must
necessarily direct the attention of the
lawyers in that body to the technical
definitions of bribery. Of course every
one, whether lawyer or layman, under
stands very well that when person
gives his vote in exchange for money
consideration it is bribery. But there
are so many devices in modern politics
for evading the laws against bribery, it
takes Philadelphia lawyer to deter
mine when the law has been evaded or
violated. In this connection the dual
instructions given by Judge WOODS, of
Indiana, TO the grand jury in the DUD-
LEY case become of interest to our Min
nesota legislators. 1t will be remem-
bered that in his first instructions to the
grand jury Judge WOODS expounded
the law SO clearly and forcibly that not
only aperson who had given OF received
a bride was liable to an indictment, but
one who had made the attempt, or even
cOunseled another TO resort to bribery.
But pressure was brought to bear
upon the federal judge to have him
modify his instructions, because they
threatened sweeping Indictment of all
the Republican campaign managers
in Indiana. Judge WOODS succumbed
to the pressure and revised his
instructions SO as to leave an
avenue of escape for DUDLEY and
his political colleagues. In his re-
vised instructions to the grand jury
Judge WOODS says that "the mere
sending by one to another of letter or
document containing advice to bride
voter, however bold and reprehensible,
is not indictable, unless it be shown in
addition that there has been an attempt
to execute the scheme" AS Capt.
CUTIE would say. the value of the
opinion lies in the application of
it. Applied to the evidence pre-
sented by the investigating committee
to the legislature, there is very little
room to doubt that clear case of brib-
cry can be established. The efforts in
that direction were not confined to coun-
selling bribery on Il e part of others.
If the witnesses are to be believed, the
attempt to execute the scheme was
most energetic in every case; and,
while there is no positive evidence to
show it, there is but very little doubt
that in some instances the attempts
were successful.
The GLOBE deplores the situation as
it is now revealed to the public gaze.
When the charges of bribery and corrup-
ton in the senatorial contest were
bruited around we deliberately closed
our ears to them, because we could not
bear the thought that our state had
sunken so low in political corruption
that positions which are the synonym of
honor could only be secured by de-
bauching the ballot. We confess to the
sense of humiliation we feel, and which
must be joined in by all good citi-
zens, by reason of the reyela-
tions that were made in our
legislative halls yesterday. The house
of representatives, with due respect to
itself and to the people of the state,
promptly refused to proceed further in
the matter of senatorial election until
it had taken time to satisfy itself of the
truth or falsity of the charges. AS it
now stands. the situation is the most
serious one ever presented to legisla-
tive body in this state. If the charges
of bribery are false andwithout founda-
ton, the legislature owes it to the gen.
tlemen who have been implicated to
clear their names and regulations of the
stain that has been cast upon them. If
they are well founded, and the evidence
of bribery, or attempted bribery, is sus-
tanned, then the Legislature must pro-
tect the honor and dignity of the state
by probing the whole matter to the bot
tom, and exposing the crimes and the
criminals. No matter about the delay in
eleeting a senator. 1t would be better
never to have another senator from
Minnesota than that one with the faint
of bribery on his hands should receive
the formal Endorsement of the repre-
sentatives of the people. For the sake
of the good name of our state, and for
the reputation of our people, we sin
cerely hope that the charges will be dis
proved. Yet there must be no relaXa-
ton on the part of the legislature to
ascertain the truth. Let no guilty man
escape.