Year: 1873

| CONhVHl JUUkClAh1s


The Mobile Register has the follow.
ing able editorial upon the most alarm.


ing feature in the general corruption o


our country:


The decentralization Of the times pre-.


sents itself in Its most melancholy and
dangerous aspect in the corruption OF


the Judiciary. When the wise and
learned, who are appointed by the laws
to hold the scales ofjustice even between
disputants who seek for right and de-
fend themselves against wrong, are no
[ longer to be trusted, the very founda-
tions Of social and public safety are
| broken up. 1t is n sight to make the
angels weep, when a President OF the
United States, twice elected, cannot be
relied upon to speak the truth. Wit
| ness the impeachment case of President
johnson, and the late message to Con-
gress on the Louisiana question. It is
grevious when two Vice Presidents,
and sevaral leading members Of Con-
gress, are convicted before the tribunal
of the public Of venalty and bribe-tak-
ing, and as an evidence Of how deep
and widespread the virus Of corruption
hus eaten its way into the body polite,
it is worse when we see tho Congress
itselfcondone and whitewash the crime,
and 80 stain its own honor III becoming
particeps crinainis. But nothing has so
startled the honest men Of the country
AS the inroads that have been made by
the public vices Of the era upon the in
tegrity and uprightness OF tho Bench.
Who will forget the wonder of honest
men, when that august tribunal, the
United States Supreme Court, in whose
stern incorruptibility all men believed,
quailed before the storm OF party vio-
lence, and first turning coward, ended
by turning traitor to the nleasureless
trusts that were confided to its courage
and integrity. When a question comes
before the Supreme Court Mt Washing
ton in which the interests of the party
in power are involved, who no,D ex-
poets q just decision from that body {?
What age OF the Republic, save this,
could have produced Durell and
allowed him to live in the triumph OF
his usurping villiunies: And now the
pernicious example comes home to us
in tho Supreme Court Of Alabama, and
we have two out OF three Of its men,
bers announcing a judgment which is
made up, web and woof, Of an unuttera-
bic lie. Justices Peck and Peters have
declared on their judgments as men
and oaths as magistrates, that n faction
Of Legislature, which never for one
instant contained a quorum OF lawfully
elected members, was the legal and
constitutional General Assembly OF the
State Of Alabama, and that its acts are
therefore valid laws of this Common
wealth. In other words, the Supreme
Court of Alabama, composed of Repub-
licans, has declared All unmitigated
and brazen falsehOod.


We can make no comment on deeds
like these to give poignancy and force
to the public sorrow, alarm and indig-
nation. Truly have the people of this
land fallen into den of official thieves.
Honor and truth are banished from high
places. Men cease to be surprised ut
the most hidcous moral enOrmities, and
blasphemy comes to crown the stolid
tool and embodimnnt OF all this seeth-
ing mass OF decentralization. What
atonement must a righteous Providence
exact for this national degradation: a
terrible one, surely, in some awful form
or another, for so docs tho Inscrutable
deal with, punish, and so purify the
vices Of nations.