Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-01-12
Archer's Trial aud Some OF Its Les
sons

Wv sun 1A~ AA@AAthE EiN<Al An@NASSS.
The decision of the court holds
Archer's first bond liable for all the
States losses by defalcations and
embezzlements down to the time
when his second bond was filed and
approved, November Is, 1889. About
$4,000 is the amount which the
State will attempt to collect out Of
the first bond.
Attorney General Whyte, assisted
by Senator Poe, is making an able and
aggressive fight in the cases. On
Tuesday he ordered all the Baltimore
city bankers who had failed to re.
spond to the courts summons to be
brought into court by writ Of attach
ment, which the court subsequently
kindly quashed. The dereliction of
duty on the part of Governor Jack
son, in allowing Archer TO perform
the duties of treasurer for nearly the
entire second term, for which he was
elected, namely, from January, 1888,
to November 18th, 1889, without de-
handing or approving his bond, or
even knowing whether he had or had
not filed one, and subsequently on
November 18th, 1889, approving
said bond with a false entry in the
same, namely, antedated nearly two
years-with the date of January
2Sth, 1888, all this criminal miscon-
conduct on the part of Governor
jackson, was brought out with
startling distinctness by the cross
examination of Secretary LeCompte,
who generously sought to shield his
chief.
The great event of the week, in
these remarkable suits was the bring
ing into court by writ of habeas cor
pus of warden Weyler of the State
Penitentiary with Stevenson Archer
himself, called to testify by the coun-
sci for the State. To the amazement
and indignation of Governor Whyte
and Others, Archer refused to be
sworn. In the presence of the bonds
men he had wronged, and of the Off
GERS of the State whose laws he had
outraged and whose treasury he had
robbed, this outlaw again insult
cd and deiied the State in the person
Of its Attorney General, and its
Court, by refusing to let the light in
upon his dark and we'll covered
transactions which he alone could
be summoned to give. Public SYM
pathy with such defiant criminal
will henceforth cease. The effect of
Archer's conduct upon the Attorney
General is thus described by the
Sans reporter
'Mr. Whyte was indignantat the
way Archer acted. lie had expected,
he said, to see a thoroughly penitent
man, who would move every one to
tears by his sorrow for the wrongs
committed. Instead of this he saw
man, he said, who showed no COM
FUNCTIONS of conscience for his mis-
deeds, but was hardened in his way.
Archer's action, Mr.. Whyte said.
would cause a change of sentiment
generally. He had been regarded
with sympathy. but he would now
be thought of only with aversion"
1t may well be added that dark
suspicious, which have been floating
over the heads of Others high in pub
lie life, are given a deeper signif-
canoe, and the belief becomes more
positive that others have been
screened from infalny and shielded
from punishment, who should be
Archer's companions in the State
penitentiary, as they were sharers in
his crime and its fruits.
The bad, bold fact has been thrust
anew before the people and tax
payers Of this State, that the crea-
ture Of a corrupt political ring has
robbed their treasury, and nov, pro-
tected by light sentence of the law,
he and they defy the State and all
its courts to detect or punish their
conspiracy and combined iniquities.
The record is slowly accommodating.
and citizens Of Maryland have yet to
pass Judgment as to whether or not
they win longer tolerate corruption
in high places, or whether men who
have ruled the party to its eternal
disgrace, and robbed the tax payers
Of their rights and Of their money,
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