Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1889 — Absolution for Dudley. [ARTICLE]

Absolution for Dudley.

[From the Chicago Herald.] The crimes of Dudley, whereby Indiana was carried for the Republicans, have not escaped punishment without seriously compromising the incoming administration. Through a direct exertion of the influence of the Presi-dent-elect the Judge of that district has reversed his opinion of the guilt of Dudley, and the Grand Jury has been instructed that it must have proof, not only that Dudley mapped out the campaign of bribery, as charged, but also that persons accepting his advice, aid, counsel and process, advanced to the concrete act and accomplished the debauchery of an electorate through the exploitation of five voters at a time. The organ of the President-elect, which is edited by the Private Secretary of Mr. Harrison, does not conceal its joy at this outcome, and the Chicago mouthpiece and financial agent of the Republican Committee of Indiana echoes the song of triumph. “The fears of a possible indictment have all disappeared,” quoth the happy editors, who, at the last day, were so in fear that Huston was short in funds owing to the advanced views of sellers. The Herald, from the first, has maintained that a sniveling hypocrisy would be the outer garment of the new regime. Under so much saintly apparel, all the skullduggeri?s of politics and jobbery would hide. The escape of Dudley is like the recent escape of Gould. Naught but the scandalous interference, by a Judge, with the logic of judicial procedure, would shield the object of legal inquiry. After the failure of otheic expedients, that intervention went remorselessly on record. That the Indianapolis coterie, with Gen. Harrison at their head, did not dare' to let the law take its course, is an acceptance of Dudley’s service of notice" on the administration that he is in no mood to be patient with his debtors. Not only must the beneficiaries of his bribery protect him from the ordinary consequences of notorious guilt, but they must give him his share of the pelf of office. The new President is in the hands of the political blackmailers who ran his campaign, and this may be fearlessly alleged by every citizen who had hoped to see Dudley go to jail.