Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-02-09
KENTUCKY POLITICS.

in civilization. He was given the office
of governor on the face of the returns,
and he was sworn in without objection
on tue part of the Democrats. But
from the beginning Goebel announced
that he would contest his, Taylor's,
right to the seat. This Goebel had a
legal right to do. Candidates for Con
gress do 1T every election, and in their
cases majorities cut no figure, and
right and wrong are not dignified az
factors, when the contestant is a Re-
publican and a Republican majority
hold power. Any nan who becomes a
candidate for any Office in the State or
Nation has the right of contest,so that
Goebel exercised only a legitimate
right. Whether be would have sue
ceeded in his contest had nothing to
do with his right to contest. That
was a question of a purely different
character.
Scarcely was the election over, and
long before Taylor's installation, his
predecessor, Bradley, began forming
Republicans into military companies
and arn,ing them, with the avowed
purpose of enforcing T'aylor's claims,
whether right Or wrong. Before Tay-
lor was sworn in armed bandits and
cut-throats from the Republican noun
tain counties of Kentucky swarmed
into Frankfort, and were housed there
at State expense, and after Taylor's
induction to office were actually
housed in the building whe re he had
his Offices. On Tuesday, January
S0th, as MI. Goebel, who was presi-
dent of the Senate, was pass
ing from his hotel to the capitol build
ing to attend to his official duties, one
of the outlaws whom Taylor had armed
and secreted in the State building
occupied by him, fired at Goebel from
an upper window when his (Goebel'sl
back was turned, and he was thus
slain.
AS the sequel shows Taylor would
not allow any officer Of the law to
search that building for the assassin,
and while lie himself has expressed re-
greet, all know the expression carried
the lie on its face, and while be has
personally, not as governor, offered
$500 reward for the capture of the
assassin, he prevented his capture when
such capture might have been posi-
BILE, and the offer is only for effect.
But this assassination, which a just
and dispassionate public now charges
to him, is not the only unprecedented
outrage charged to Taylor, the person
exercising the powers of a governor Of
one of the great commemorative of
America.
Usually men in such positions have
some decency and respect for law, and
order. This man has none. No gov
ernor, save a coward or a bandit,
would have had his person guarded
by such thugs and highwaymen. This
is the first case of the KIND on record.
But certainly no man save Taylor
would have caused a condition to arise
which he has chosen to term an lin
surrection' and then use it as all ex-
cuse for acts of anarchy and lawless-
ness. Taylor would not allow a writ to
be served on him, he would not obey an
order of court, he would not permit a
prisoner to be brought betore a court
on a writ of habeas corpus. This is
one of the greatest of all writs. This
writ is a part of magma charter and was
wrung from King John at Runnymede,
and SO near and dear has it always
been to a free people that in the con-
stitution Of the United States is en-
grated these words: "Ihe pri0alege
Of the Urit of Habe0s Corpus shall
not be suspended unless When in cases
of Rebellion and Msurrection the
public safety may require it,"
1t has possibly only been suspended
once or twice in one hundred years,
and then only after due notice and
proclamation by the President, and in
most of the States its Suspension is
prohibited. We presume it is SO in
Kentucky. Yet this mar suspends it
and without writ, or public accusation,
i-ncarcerates prisoners and denies them
a hearing on h0be0S corpus. He
laughs at courts, he shuts the State
house and denies the Legislature the
right to meet. He closes private prop
erty and dictates who shall and who
shall not be admitted to it. He seeks to
end a contest by instigating the death
of his opponent, and when the man
whose assassination he has caused dies,
his minions shout with joy at the con-
summation of their crime. 1t is TOO
horrible to write, and yet it all ema
mates from the party of great moral
IDEAS" 1t is the work of one branch
of that great body politic which so
loudly breaches it's own virtues, shouts
its own magnificence, lauds it's own
philanthrophy, and has now gone out
teaching advanced civilization to the
heather.
Probably it might be unjust under
certain circumstances to charge the
crimes of this particular outlaw to the
Republican party, but under the pres.
circumstances this is not so. The
Republican party has been the father
of trusts, it has made them, and is
their champion. The Louisville and
Railroad, which it now be-
comes known has dictated all the gov
errors of Kentucky for years, found it
could not control Goebel, hence it
itself with the worst element
of Rspublicanism in that State that it
might continue its brigandage. 1t
subscribed 500, 900 to the Republican