The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1901-10-18
Murder Is Murder.

The renewal of the efforts unSucceSS- /
fully made something over a year ago
to secure of the Indiana authorities the
extraditiOn of two persons indicted for
crime by the courts of Kentucky has
been elevated into occasion for such
an assault upon the people and the
moral being OF the latter, not the for
mer, state as to justify an earnest pro-
test from every right hearted and self
respecting Kentuckian.
In giving expression to this protest,
and asking for it the consideration of
the country at large, it is needful that
we recite the case as it was and as it is;
but we shall address ourselves to the
resume with as little prOlixity as posi-
BILE, writing no word which any honest
man can gainsay, nor setting down
aught in malice, of which, indeed, we
have none whatsoever. 81 do not know
the method" said Edmund Burke, ''Of
drawing up an indictment against a
whole people" Yet that which the
greatest of the political philosophers
of England confessed himself unable
to do has been done, is being daily
done, by the republican newspapers of
the United States, animated by party
spirit, the most T1ncorous and misad-
vised by representa- ions the most cal
luminous.
From frs to last the Kentucky cam
paign of 1899 was pitched upon the
lowest plane of political morality and
in the highest key of partisan passion.
Men do in the aggregate what no one
man would do in his own person. They
did in that campaign pretty much
everything which men should not do
and which even the men engaged would
in their cooler moments and better
judgments discOuntenance and disa-
vow. And this was, in the beginning,
as true of the one party as the other.
Ultimately, the inf1amed ambitions
and interests involved, precipitated a
struggle for corrupt advantage, and
thence it deepened into something
very like civil war, eliminating in an
actual reign of terror at the capital of
the state.
The i'll constructed and i'll starred
election law, which bore the name OF
the party leader whose tragic death it
foreshadOwed and procured, laid the
ground plan for these disorders, but
the act in question was neither con-
ceived, nor projected, nor prepared by
William Goebel. 1t did not meet the
sanction of his clearer discernment.
He was urged to reject it, and he came
very near rejecting it. He was young,
ambitious man. He was in the saddle.
He doubted, and, considering the wild
elements about him, he had reason to
doubt, whether his leadership would
bear the strain of his opposition to
this pet measure of the extremists of
his party. He finally accepted it, gave
it his name and identified himself with
the misadventures by which 1t was at
once envirOned.
At the end of a long and fierce con
test in his own party. William Goebel
the son of humble and plain German
} parentage, became the democratic
= nominee for governor of Kentucky. A
prOud position at all times aud under
all circumstances, it seemed to the
) poor lad, for but lad ne appeared to
, be with his beardless face and his shy
| studious ways, a very pinnacle from
which he could look into paradise. It
had been the dream of his childhood
his youthhOod, his manhood. To reach
it he had been eager to climb noun
tains, to traverse and to tread down
forests, to meet all corners. Is is claim
ed by his enemies that he got the nom
, inatiOn unfairly. AS a matter of fact.
he did nothing to his adversaries that
they we're not ready and trying to do to
him. 1t is claimed by his enemies that
be was not elected governor. As a
matter Of fact, both parties were doing
their uttermost to compel the election
the democrats through the machin-
cry of the GOebel law, the republicans
through the machinery Of the state
gOvernment-so that what might have
been the result had there been a per
fectly regular and orderly election no
body can say. But, from the day the
returning board met at Frankfort to
count the vote and declare the result,
the purpose Of the republicans to use
force if necessary to carry their point
became manifest; and, thereafter, a
reign Of terror in their favor was estab-
lished
Throughout this reign of terror the
democrats proceeded at least aceord-
ing to the terms and the forms Of law.
That they did SO is attested by both
the court Of appeals of the state and
the circuit and supreme courts of the
United States. Meanwhile, the re-
publican governor, Professionally in