The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-04-27

turned a verdict. The fact that Dan
1els had been forced against a red hot
stove was held to have been extenuating
and he was convicted Of manslaughter
instead of murder.
The court sentenced him to pay a
fine of 81, 900 and to serve three years
of imprisonment. Dec. % he was re-
moved to the Madison county Jail at
Virginia City.
There the matter might well have
rested had Daniels not possessed a
number of influential friends. These
Immediately set forces in motion to OBJ
tain his release.
A petition to Acting Governor
Meagher asking pardon for the bad
man was circulated and the name of
Judge w. Y. Pemberton, defense coun-
sci, headed the list. Several jurors who
tried the Ease also signed.
Helena growled. The manslaughter
conviction and sentence had seemed
soft enough justice after the vigilante
way. Now, citizens asked angrily when
circulation Of the petition began, was
the killer to go scot free?
The petition was submitted to the
acting governor early in February.
General Meagher had assumed the
post of acting governor after Sidney
tired to the east.
Edgerron was appointed governor by
President Lincoln. He was a war
democrat" that is, a loyal member of
the party whose southern branch had
embraced secession. Secession was not
a popular cause in Montana, and, in
spite of his known loyalty to the union,
citizens were not as we'll disposed to-
wards their new governor as they might
have been.
AS for Edgerton, he soon found that,
in the language of a contemporary, "he
had made a dam'd bad purchase" His
territory was a wilderness and his cap
ital was a rude mining camp.
The treasury of the new born terri
tory was empty and the governors first
duty was to provide for the payment of
expenses, necessarily from his own
pocket.
Edgerton was an honest man and
fair minded to the point of timidity,
but perhaps he lacked the ruggedness
expected of a pioneer governor. He
suffered, too, from a legalistic turn of
mind, wholly incongruous with his sur
roundings.
The territorial legislature met for
the first time at Bannack in Deem
Der, 1864, as provided by its organic act.
It failed, in the opinion of the gov
ernor, to levy taxes sufficient for the
support of the government and it GER
tainly did not reimburse him for his
private outlay.
The legislature selected Virginia City
as the territorial capital, but, adding
further to Edgerton's discomfort, pro-
vided no means for its establishment.
When General Meagher arrived at
Bannack the following Sept. %, with
an appointment as territorial secretary
from President johnson, Edgertcn was
relieved, to say the least.
The governor remained at Bannack
only four days after his s%ecretary's ar
rival. Sept. q he left for Washington
ostensibly to recover money he had
spent in governing the territory. He
did not return and in June of the fol-
lowing year he resigned.
Hardly had Edgerton left Bannack,
"41C1A NACdS1lCA, OPtA VIC GAIAC Va
acting governor, solved N of his chiefs
most veXing difficulties. He stuffed
the entire mass" of government rec
ords in a coat pocket, mounted a horse
and moved the capital with his person
to Virginia City.
Probably the soldier did not even
recognize the legal bubble that had SO
disturbed Governor Edgerton. Politics
unless practiced with fixed bayonets
was distasteful to him.
Meagher was a soldier, first and last
AS a young man he struck a blow for
Irish liberty in the revolution of 1848
FREEDOM for Erin remained his most
cherished desire throughout his life
After the suppression of the rebn lion
Meagher was tried for treason to the
British crow and sentenced to ban
ishment in Australia. He escaped from
Van Dieman's land within a short time
and, through a thousand hardships
made his way to New York. His re-
ception there was an ovation, news
papers describing it as the greatest
tribute paid a foreigner since the land
ing of the Marquis de Lafayette.
One of the most popular figures in
New York, Meagher became an Ameri-
can citizen. At the outbreak Of the
Civil war. his sympathies were decid-
edly southern, but he later rallied to
the union cause and raised the famous
Irish brigade, which he commanded
with distinction.
Montana's frontier citizens did not
pretend to like the high handed mil
itary Of their governor. They
were Jealous of their newly acquired
political p~rerogatives and wanted all
ceremonies observed.
The press, which had hailed the gen.
eral as is a war hero's right, showed
distinct signs of disquietude. AS the
general continued to govern from the
saddle" a head of personal opposition
swiftly formed.
Then the Daniels petition was sub
mitted to the governor. OF the NUT
tering of the public and of his dimin-
ishing popularity, General Meagher ap-
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