Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1877 — The Conviction of Robert L. Case. [ARTICLE]

The Conviction of Robert L. Case.

As we read the reports of Robert L. Case’s conviction yesterday on a charge of perjury, and see him in imagination as he enters the City Prison to await his sentence, an old man, long an honored merchant of this city, now bowed and broken under his crime and his conviction—as we see him thus our hearts are moved to pity, and truly we may give him some part of our pity as his dessert. We pity his condition and his sorrowful future; still more we pity him for his guilt, which is a heavier burden than any load of punishment can be. 'He is a wrecked fife, and worse still, it is a life wrecked in port after the voyage has been successfully made. It is a sad spectacle which wo see, in whatever way we may look at it. It is sad to think that so old and so long honored a man must go to prison and wear the livery of proved guilt, but it is infinitely sadder to know that this old man, after leading an honorable business life, passing safely through all the temptations which beset men in mid-career, and arriving at a time of life when the serence contemplation of the past ought to have brought the richest contentment, has deliberately fallen into sin and made himself a felon for gain which he did not need. His case is a tragical one, and we can well afford to pity him, but it will not do to forget that some pity is due also to the victims of his crime. It will not do to forget that to the sin of false swearing he has added an attempt, by false swearing, to delude men to the ruin of their wives and children, to induce men to place the money that they can lay aside for the support of their widows and orphan children in the keeping of a rotten and dishonestly managed corporation. lie has not only attested a false statement under oath; that only is the offense for which the law punishes him, but that is not all of his offense. He has betrayed one of the most sacred trusts- that it is possible for man to assume in business. He has lent himself to scheme to deprive widows and orphans of their substance. Hismoral crime is a crime against society, and his punishment is not only deserved, but necessary. In this matter of life insurance even more than in other business affairs, integrity, frankness and truthfulness are necessary to the well-being of the community; and in their steaa falsehood has been put forward so frequently of late that a rigorous enforcement of the law is peremptorily necessary. We are sorry for Robert L. Case because he must suffer; we are sorry that he has forfeited his reputation and his liberty; but we sorrow more for innocent women and children who must suffer through the wrong-doing of such men as he, and we rejoice to know that offenses like his can be sternly punished by the courts. —N. Y. Evening Post.