New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-05-12
STOKES md HIS ZIG HTS.

Secretary Lamont has come forward with an
cxplanati. n of Mr. Clcvcaad'S action restoring
TO Edward s stokes the murderer Of James
Fisk, the right to vote and hold office. Mr..
Lamont denies that political bargain fur
nishel the IN tive of Mr.. ClcyCand'S perform
ance, and says, with the Indifference of one
bother is about. that such act, Of clemency are
Of common occurrence and that there is moth
ing in this case which gives it distinction. On
YES. there is Stokes gives il distinction. The
fact that he was convicted of murder i'll the first
degree and sentenced to be hanged gives it dis
tinc,ion. The fact that this judgment was re-
vcrsed, not on the question of the weight OF the
evidence but on Il collateral technical point
dealing with the trial courts admission OF tc>li-
lilcny as to tie alleged wrongGoing OF an UNI
important witne>S-thl> gives 1t distinction. IL
is dist nguished by the VIGOROUSLY cold-bloodcd
cha ac;cr of StJkeSs crime by the utter made
quacy of his punishment by his position ana
record as Il Tammany politician, by the fact
that the restoration writ was granted Just after
The Presidential election Of 1854, when Mr.
Cleveland was a candidate for the Presidency
and a sutton for Tammany support and par
only two days after Stokcss application reached
Albany. proving that there could have been
no proper investigation of the merits Of his APP
peal, and arguing that the whole thing had been
fixed up" in advance. 1t was not an ordinary
affair at all. nor are the snow-Whltc moldllslS
who maintain Mr.. Cleveland on pedestal as
the aichange of political righteousness the men
to poOh-p it,
1t was a great and immensely valuable act
of favor to a man who had already got far more
clancncy than he deserved. He killed his vie
tim with cold dcibcration. All that the law
imposed for such a decd lie earned. Mr.. La
mont says that if the person pardoned had been
John Doe or Richard Roe in>tcad of Edward :.
stokes. no notice would be given to il. Truly
ard If the person who shot Fisk had been John
Doe or Richard Roc instead of Edward ;.
stokes. he wouldn't have been on earth to de-
mand pldons and "nghts"-hc would have
been hanged. as the Does and the Hocs always
are. 1t was because he was Edward :. stokes.
with money and friends and a political pull
that he got three trials instead OF one and
term OF four years in prison instead OF halter.
1t was because he WAS Stokes that he returned
To fortune and politics no whit hunt by his
vrongdoing. Ii was because he was stokes
that he was able to serve Mr.. Cleveland in 1854
when such help as his had TO be obtained. and
it was because he was stokes that the rights
he had forfeit d were returned To him. Mr..
Lamont is blind to the very thing that decent
public rescntS.
MIR. Cleveland" says Mr.. Lamont, "ncver
made any bargains, nor thought of making
them He acted in this case lust as in
any other, on what he believed to be good
and proper grounds" OF course that is the
standing explanation Of all conduct which men
cannot Justify by reason and fact 1t does for
everything. II sounds well and costs nothing.
But if the rehabilitation of Stokes was not the
result Of bargain, the chronology of the case
makes it very queer. And the fact that stokes
is what he is and that Mr.. Cleveland has been
exaltc d as his precise opposite makes it queercr
still. In any case, il was public wrong.