Year: 1877


Louisiana, and also to an article in the
Sunday Capital, of this city, edited by
Don Piatt, which was interpreted by the
Government officers as strongly advocat-
ing violence and defiance of law, and as
such was given very serious attention,
Subsequent TO the interview of the At
torney General with the President, Judge
Taft sent for United States Attorney
Wells, of this district, with whom he
was in long and earnest consultation
in reference to the same newspaper ar.
ticle.


President Grant to Prosecute Don Piatt for Libel


1t is mentioned this evening on highest
official authority that the President has
determined upon the prosecution of Don
Piatt, editor of the Capital, for libel, and
also for seditious writing, indictable un-
der both common and statutory law. Dis
trict Attorney Wells was this afternoon
directed to take necessary steps in the
matter, and the arrest will be made to-
morrow. The article in yesterdays Capt.
tai principally melted official action just
determined upon, but it is understood
that previous articles in the same paper,
regarded as libelous upon the President,
will be officially noticed in criminal
prosecution for libel on the President.


The Article that Raised the Row.


From Don Piatt's Capital Sunday.


The sickening apprehension felt by the
people, to which we referred last week,
that the Supreme Court would be found
as rotten as the other powers of our un-
happy Government, has been realized.
The swift decay that in the last ten years
has made our self.government sham
and mockery and in the Executive and
Legislative branches shamed us before
the world, has been silently working its
way through the Judiciary, until now, at
its first trial, it offends with its stencil the
nostris of all honest citizens.


The appeal made to the Judges Of the
Supreme Court from the people, sorely
distressed and perplexed, was to save
them from the wicked conspiracy of men
they had repudiated.a lat the polls. They
saw their faithless agents for years rob-
bing the Treasury Of their hard. earned
taxes, They saw the highest officials in
dicted for the meanest crimes. They
saw President coarse, brutal and igno
rant, and appointing sycophantic pimps
to the highest positions. They saw him
the associate of roughs and the commits
sioner of thieves. They saw carpet bag
gers, sustained by bayonets, manipulate
ing the polls, that ignorance and rascality
might tyrannize over the South. They
saw Rings organized in the lobby control
their Congress. They saw huge monopo-
lies created by their government eating
out their substance. They saw themselNe, !,
reduced to want, trade paralyzed, and
labor without employ and they made
desperate effort to right their wrongs
through the ballot.


With subsidized press against them,
with an army of hungry oficeholders
that-counting those of the General Gov
ernment with those ofthe States-made a
horde of Treasury eaters greater shan
any standing army in Europe; with all
the accumulated capital in the hands of
monopolies arrayed on the side of their
oppressors, they made one despairing ef-
fort and came up from the polls with a
majority of over half million in their
behalf And of what avail g? Through
dishonest Returning Board, made up of
criminals who have escaped conviction
and punishment under the protecting
arm of corrupt Government, enough
votes are thrown out to render all their
efforts vain, and saddle upon them the
old corruption and the old horde for an
other term of years, perhaps forever.


From this,appeal was taken to five JUS
tices of the Supreme Court. For that, no
more and no less, was the Commission
created. 1t was believed that by such
process the question at issue, being
charge of conspiracy against corrupt men
could be lifted from the political arena to
a tribunal of high-toned, impartial Judg-
es, who would decide in accordance with
law and justice. To the amazement and
disgust of all thoughtful minds these JUS
tices divided as the partisans had, on
political ine and three indecent old
men joined with the enemies of the peo.
pie in fixing corruption upon us, and de-
stroying all confidence in the very foun-
dation of our political structure the ballot
They decide that fraud does not vitiate,
and beyond this that they have nothing
to decide,and so send the question to the
people.


We have not the patience to argue
what the people, in their broad common
sense, will not considerable fne-spun
legal technicaliies under which these
aged scoundrels seek to hide their shame.
Their real grief is to be found in the ut
terance of one of their Commission, j James
A. Garfield, who said boastingly, you'll
have to grin and bear it. We hold the
cards and intend to play them" Poor
political gambler The stakes for which
he plays are the rights of 100000 of
people, the peace and prosperity of the
only republic known to humanity. For
all that freemen hold most dear, these
hands, stained with plumber, gamble
as the soldiers of PLATE severed in deris-
ion the garment Of the Crucifed Christ.
AS we said week since; "This is
not law, it is revolution and if the
people tamely submit, we may bid a
long farewell to Constitutional Govern
ment. Fraud no longer vitiates. A cor
rupt Administration has only by its bay.
onets to hold State usurpation long
enough in power for corrupt Returning
Board to do its vile task, and the work is
done. Ifa man thus returned to power