The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-05-01
WEDNESDAY. MAY l.
Judicial Knavery in Indiana.

With the trial of BINGHAM, the great
Fountain county boodier, the judicial
farce in the federal court is at an end, for
the present, at least. As the record
stands, the only man convicted. out OF
over one hundred and fifty defendants,
was democrat who voted for CLEVELAND
In the forenoon and, having been paid
money and made drunk by republican
"Pharisees, was voted in the afternoon
for HARRISON. Juries in two cases dis
agreed; ten or twelve defendants were
acquitted under the instructions OF the
court, and over one hundred and thirty
alleged offenders evaded trial through the
most disgraceful partisan rulings ever
promulgated by any court in this country.
Beginning with the time when there
was a fair prospect of the L. S. grand
Jury indicting WILLIAM WADE DUDLEY,
treasurer of the national republican COM
mittee, and the intimate personal friend
of BENJAMIN HARRISON, for organizing
wholesale system of bribery in his in
terest, the whole machinery of this court
has been employed, with the most reckless
disregard of propriety, precedent, law,
Justice and decency, to protect him from
the consequences of his crime, and to save
from punishment the scoundrels who car
RED out his infamous instructions in
nearly every voting precinct in the state
atthe November election. That election was
the most corrupt ever witnessed in Indiana;
but fragrant as was the villainy which
made IT an everlasting reproach to the
good name of Indiana, it has been sur
passed by the villainy which has been
employed to cover up the rottenness and
keep from the world a knowledge of the
methods by which the electoral vote
of Indiana was obtained for HARRI-
son and MORTON. We measure our words
carefully, and keep entirely within
bounds. when we say that a more wicked
and damnable conspiracy was never
formed than that which has eliminated in
the wholesale Jail delivery of perjured
scoundrels-"our best citizens" as Mr..
CHAMBERs terms them-through the
Inonstrous perversions OF the instrument
talities Of justice that have just been wit
messed in this town.
The shame and the scandal of it all is
the liberation which is accorded by the
public, or a large portion thereof, to the
chief offenders. Corrupt elections mean
corrupt administration, and betoken a
deadened public conscience. We will
never have honest elections nor good gov
eminent in Indiana so long as party organs
and ministers of the gospel and the lead
ing representatives of the professional and
business class defend knaves OF their own
sect who are detected in the commission
of crimes against the ballot box. Judge
WOODS and the officials of his court have
put premium upon bribery and fraud at
elections but the evil they have wrought
would have been but temporary if there
had been virtue and manliness and de-
cency enough in the republican party to
have rebuked, as they deserved, their
outrageous offenses againt good morals
and the public safety. But with the
whole republican party standing at their
back they have been enabled TO deal
such blows at our institutions as they
will not soon recover from. They
have all but destroyed popular
confidence in the integrity OF the Judicial
~, and have sown seeds from which this
commonwealth will reap a harvest of cor
ruption and misgovernment, OF shame and
dishonor. in the years that are TO come.
The democratic party of Indiana is
practically unit in denouncing the out
RACES in the federal court All over the
state deep feeling of indignation exists
which we think ought to find expression
in some suitable manner. The democ-
racy OF the state should put on
record, while the hour is new,
an emphatic condemnation of the
proceedings which have made Indiana
justice laughing stock and a by-word
throughout the republic. The Evansville
Courier and other leading papers have
urged the holding of a mass meeting of
Indiana democrats in this city to take
proper action in this matter Has not the
time arrived for such demonstration?