Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-03-08

NOW tnat GaiNcld rs dead there Is
little chan,o og c1nvicting the land
leagucrs."
This statement was made on the as
sumption that President Arthur was
friendly to the Grant element; but this
turned out to be an erroneous surmise.
In answer to it | said:
The republican party cannot afford
to stand sponsor for these men,"
Fully as | realized the strength of the
political movement in favor of the
criminals | was scarcely prepared for
the sudden turn which affairs took.
The cases had been brought in the
United States court. Suddenly it be-
came whispered about that the fed
eral law governing land patents had
been construed in such a way as to re-
lease the conspirators. This construc-
tion was to the following effect: That
land patent once issued was valid so
far as the government was concerned
without reference to the manner in
which it had been obtained-in other
words, if the fraud was not discovered
before the patent was issued it could not
Nv "oCd " bullllg JlLC potShl lOl puhlOu
the guilty.
Here was pretty how'd 'ye-do. After
years hard work had revealed crime
involving the clear theft of from 6,000,-
600 to 5000, 900 acres of valuable land
from the government and thousands of
individuals had been robbed, the pro-
moters of the plot were to be restored
Tn lihnrty hni nJo ::
society because judge claimed to have
discovered a possible construction of
the federal law that would attain this
result. There was no claim that the
land leaguers had not committed the
acts with which they stood charged, but
their friends claimed-and unfortunate
ly they found ready support among gov
ernment ofIicials-that the discovery of
this technicality justified the dismis-
sal of the cases.
My position was that merely of the Of
ficer who had been largely instrumental
in planning and carrying out the inves-
tigation at the orders of my supcriors
But | was determined that the criminals
should not escape if it was in my power
w piNNIiAl. Hdu SGtH dll lIlt august
power of government arrayed against
malefactors whose crimes had been in
finitesimal compared with that of these
Nd-gloved conspirators, and to me it
seemed violation of every tenet of
eternal right to allow these men to 90
free because they were strong in the
councils of tkeir political party.
| was also fODyippa1 bat Tho IN,
question was in error legally, and in
support of my view had letter written
by Assistant Secretary of State Bell to
John Sherman. secretary of the treas
ury, calling attention to section 5403 of
the statutes which provided that any
person stealing or destroying any pa
per, record or document from any fed
eral Office could be fined and imprisoned.
This section covered fully the thefts of
land patents. Besides, it had been held
by the supreme court that the actual de-
livery of patent, as with deed, was
necessary to pass title.
So far as the use of their tcchnicality
was concerned the defendants gained
their point. On the construction re-
ferred to the cases were allowed to die
in the federal court by the Judge who
had made the strange construction of
the law
There was but one recourse. In the
preparation of the big crime numerous
individual offenses against state laws
had been committed such as forgery.
perjury and obtaining money under
false pretenses. We might find Justice
in these state courts. This was sug-
gested. but my superiors in Washington
doubted the probability of our being
able to convict in the state courts on the
theory that they were even more sub
ject to influence than the federal courts.
Most fortunately there came to the
rescue of justice at this critical moment
a man with splendid fighting ability and
deep sense of duty-Circuit Attorney
Harris. of st. Louis. He possessed in n
marked degree the qualifications that
the federal prosecutors lacked. With
him went over the evidence. He leaped
into the breach with vim that was re-
freshing. He was invulnerable to DO
litical or other influences and soon
mastered and marshaled for use the
great mass of evidence.
In the meantime touch of romance
had been added to the drear details of
the case in Cleveland. In the office of
Orlando Van Hise there had been en-
ployed a clerk named Mary A. John
son. Her sister had married George
Linn, another member of the ring. She
was also a notary public, and had taken
many fraudulent Acknowledgements for
her employer. The government had in
tended to use Mary Johnson as witness
against Van Hise, but Cupid took hand
soon after the arrest and Van Hise and
the girl were married, thus giving the
government a serious setback in the
prosecution of Van Hise, for a wife could
not be used as witness against her hus-
Dand.
The dismissal of the cases in the fed
oral courts and tho iuctitutiop /, tI,n