Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 291, 25 August 1893 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

I Mr. W.O. Smith should resign from the AtU)rney-Generalship. The blunder comraitted by him lhroogh ihe arreet of Messrs Crick. Waiker and Sinclair eniphas;zes his iuability to be at the head of the prc9ecuting department in ihe 1 nd Never hns a more frivoiuus and absurd charge been preferred bef*re an intelligent jury against frllo;v-citizen8. Never has raore raanufactured and foolish evidtnce heen given frora the wit-ne99-b >x in a Hawaiian court room than was the case in the late eon8piracy trial. It is tn the credit of the jury that it only took tbem tweuty uiiuulea to acquit tbe aecustd men, and it is to be boped that it will be the last tirae that sucb a scand:ilous case ie presented in our courts. As Ioug as W. O Sraith remaiDs in office with the poner with whieh he has been invested by the P. G. no man is *afe in the community. Every man ean be deprived of his liberty by Mr. Sraith on the fvider.ee of borsethieves, criminals and scalawags. lt is a very aenoua matler iodeed. Not «lone serious to the treasury 01 Wie country whieh uodoubiediy will have to pay heavily for havmg xept Walker and Sinclair Iocked up in jail for mouths, but the precedent whieh has heen established w of far more serious moment. )a Mr. W, 0 Smith going to be ailowed to *add!e the a!ready dep!eted treasury with damage-suita. simply bec*use he sees spooks while he iistecs to tbe thrilling tales of General Tōo Topaz of *triped-suit fame, or Mr. Detective (!) Marmoot—who. by the way even Smitb was ash*med to pot on tbe stand at tbe trial before tbe jury. After the conspiracy-ciae was finished there «as only ooe opinion among tbe eiiiieoi of our communitj imapeo»

tiv£ of polilieal party. or pyupa* j this<?r?, and ihat wu? that Mr. W . j O. Saiith shou!d re?igti. Mr. S"nich in his address t» the jurv 'vas very aiuusing when e »ached by (lamaliel Hartwell. The learne<J Att..rney-Gen-eral has s * auieh to g;ty about Satu Nowleiu and li»'wler. aiul school-mast*-r \Vhite, that it waa a surpri«e not to tind the mentioned genllemeii in ihe dt>ck loi>g 8g-’. He fina!ly g*>t in the namee of Spreckels and Oanpheil, and expressed hi» surprioe why they were not called on ihe staiid. At this point. though, hia mentor pulled his coat, and whispered sorae warning words upon whieh the learmd put in a a*.ving elauue and siid that of course, nob<Hly ever believed that Spreckels and Campbell had anythmg to do wilh the matter, nor did the government ever believe lhat \V alker bad any men. Why then in the name of HoIy Mosea did the At-torney-General ever start the case, aud beaides covering himself with ridicule saddle the country with damage suits, and commit an injustice and an outrage against tltree citizena and their f.imilies.

Judge Whiting sum:ned up as mueh ngainst the itri3oners as the law aliows a judge to do and snread himself considerably over the ‘“individuai” c«»nspiracy theory. It is to be regretted that neilher the judge nor the learned AttorneyGeiural nor his :i8sistant Mr. Hartwell ever fnrnished a fr\v autborities on *‘individ lal conspiracies.” With a11 due respcct for Ihe three learned jurists. we are afraid that they attempted to eonetitute themselves authorities on that newly inveuted term —but the resuit sbows that tiiey failed utterly. The defense wus raost ably eonducted by Messrs. C. Creigliton and A. P. Peterson, who were higbly compIimented upon the briliiant i manner in whieh they haridled the case. It was generally expected that a defense would bave heen prfsented, but the Attorneys realized fully the weakness uf the prosecution and did not propoee to lose the time and try the palienee of the jury more than necessary. Mr. Creighton's lengthy address to the jury was masterly and engagvd the tntense inttrest of ihe jurymen from first till last. The noted eonspiracy eaae is finished and Ihe goverument has heen routed. May we now get a rest on dyuamite for a little while.