Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1901-08-22
Paul corcoran a Free Man.

the series of wrongs In the Occur G
! Alenes country perpetrated unde
o bull-pen rule, YVES done last weel
in the granting of an unconditional
pardon to Paul Corcoran, the sec
retarv of the allied miners unions
of Shoshone county, and his restor
alton to his civil rights.
While we do not now and never
did sanction such destruction O
property as was done by the dyna
hitting of the Bunker Hill mill ir
1899, yet our sympathy has beer
for Corcoran, because we never con
Tdered his guilt clearly proven
sihere was good. sufficient evidence
offered in his behalf, at his trial, &c
show that at the time of the blow
ing up of the mill Corcoran was al
home in Burke. The circumstan-
ces surrounding his trial were very
unusual. He was tried before a
Judge sent from Boise city to Sho-
shone county for the occasion. The
county attorney, whose duty it was
to appear in this trial on behalf of
the state, and who was willing to
do his duty, was barred out Of the
court for the occasion, and was su-
perceded by attorney general Hays
with Borah and Hawley as assist
ants. Sheriff Young, the choice of
the people, was also displaced un-
der martial law regime, and Angus
Sutherland, noted hater of union
labor, was foisted into position, and
Cd him devolved the task of finding
jury to cinch Corcoran, and he
succeeded admirably.
From the evidence before the
board of pardons it would appear
that the verdict against Corcoran
was agreed upon before the trial
had begun. 1t was shown that ju-
rors on their way to Wallace openly
expressed their intentions to con-
vict their man, before they were
even empanelled. From the state
ments of the janitor of the Shoshone
county court house, the jury dur
ing their deliberations were, con-
trary to law, honor and decency,
kept in state of intoxication of
various degrees, at least three gal
Ions of whisky being carried in to
them, and in addition to this al
most score of empty whisky TASKS
were gathered up by him in the
jury room after the jury retired.
From the fact that over 5000
good citizens of our state 1851 of
whom reside in Elmore) petitioned
for his pardon, that nine of the
jury that convicted him did like
wise, and that less than 400
signed protests against a pardon,
we do not see how the Board could |
do otherwise than grant the wish Of
the people.
All honor to Governor Hunt for
the stand he has taken in rightlng
the wrongs perpetrated under sane
ton of law in Shoshone county.
Under his short administration the
infamous permit system went down,
the letters of martial law were
broken and the people of that
county leaped from the darkness of
oppression by black brutes in blue
into the light of freedom. One
more act was necessary to be done
Corcoran, the ictim of plu-
tocratic hate and bull-pen tyranny,
is now free man and restored to
his suffering family, which he will
gladly support by again welding
the miners pick and shovel.
"out of the bars Of the dungeon
out of Gehenna's gate,
Out OF the grip Of oppression,
Out from the jaws of hate
Out from the fellons bondage,
Out from the prison pen,
Out from the vale OF the shadow
He has come into freedom again"
Governor Hunts brief statement,
as follows, covers the entire ground
of this matter clearly and fairly:
''This is the first case acted npon by
the board of pardons where its decis.
ion has not been unanimous. That
the board failed to reach united de.
cision in this case is due to honest diff
fereuces upon the merits Of the ques--
ton. Politics has at no time entered
into the deliberations of the board,
and never will with my consent.
"Corcoran is the only man who was
convicted out of a thousand who Join
ed in the acts OF destruction and vio-
lence in the Occur d'Alenes in 1890.
Every ring-leader in that mob should
have received equal punishment.
In my opinion, the punishment he
has had is sufficient to satisfy the de-
mands of justice. and to convince /
those who advocate violence and ar
son that the law sill not tolerate such |
practice, and / believe that bis further |
will only continue to en-
bitter the feeling existing in the Occur
d'Alenes.
"The object of penal confinement is
not only to cause wholesome respect
for the law and fear among the
criminal class, but its most beneficial
exercise is to make better man of
the person suffering such punishment.
"The board is fully convinced in the
belief that Corcoran will rather aid in
enforcing and observing the law here.
after than in defying it.
"Nearly 5000 citizens in various
parts of the state petitioned for Cor