Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-22
ATKINsoN,s GROWING FOLLY.


Taking his cue, perhaps, from that
class of Republican papers which ha-
bitually deplore the arrest, trail and
conviction of anybody for the foul as
sassination of William Goebel. and for
which stand they have justly earned the
characterization of organs of assassina-
ton, Governor George w. Atkinson, of
West Virginia. has gone to the extreme
point In the denunciation of the admin
istration of justice in Kentucky, and
asserted that the convictions secured
are all wrong, and that it amounts to
|, the hanging Of men without due pro-
cess of law" and couples this utterly
unfounded and ill-conditioned assertion
with the prediction that bloodshed will
follow.
This sort of rot does not become Gov
ernor Atkinson, although, perhaps, few
will be surprised at his expressions.
The Governor of State ought to be
above criticisms of Courts of Justice,
| working strictly within the narrow lin
its of the law, and ought not to use Ian
guage tending to breach of the peace
and the exciting Of passion in a State
where there has been over-mucn law
lessness and where it was high time the
forms of law and the administration
of justice took the place of terrorism
and the reign of the rifle and shot gun,
and in particular does he outStep the
| bounds of propriety and insult the dig
nifty of his high Office when he virtual
ly takes the stand that for the foul
crime of murder for political purposes
no one should be punished. 1t is a
fair presumption that had Howard,
Powers and Youtsey fed the State,
Governor Atkinson would have protect
ed them and refused to honor requisi-
tions, as Governor Mount, of Indiana,
did in the case of that persistent fugi-
tive, w. S. Taylor, and that these three
men, each and all of them convicted
by jury of their fellow citizens,
would have gone unwhipped of justice.
What would Governor Atkinson
have? Goebel was foully and deliber-
ately murdered by Republican assas-
sin, with the advice, consent and guilty
knowledge of other Republicans, some
of them in high office. Are these men
to go free, simply because they are Re-
publicans? Surely the Governor of
West Virginia cannot have taken this
stand deliberately, and yet it looks like
it. 90
He asserts that the three men whose
trials have taken place did not have
"due process of law" That is an as
sertion which cannot be maintained.
They had every opportunity before the
law, were represented by able counsel
and in each instance the verdict of the
jury was unanimous as to guilt, and the
only question at any time was that of
punishment. 1t is alleged, and truly,
that a majority of these juries were
Democrats. That is true; but one Re-
publican, had he been disposed to al
low his party feeling to overcome his
OATH could have made mistral. AS
matter of fact and of record this did
not happen. On the first jury there
were five anti-Goebelites, on the second
three and on the third one. all
were convinced of the guilt of the &C.
cused, and, as we have said, the only
question over which they deliberated
was that of punishment Politics has
cut no figure in either one of these
trials There is no ebulition of popular
excitement in the State of Kentucky
over the matter, nor yet about the
| court houses where the trials took place.
The people of the State generally recog-
nize that some Of the right people have
been caught, and it is only outside of
the State, in such papers as the Chicago
| Tribune the Wheeling Intelligencer and
the Parkersburg State Journal. and
from the lips of such men as Governor
George w. Atkinson, of West Virginia
that we hear condemnation of the re-
suits obtained by due procass of low