Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-02-05

49, ....a..s. -......l!
john =. OwtsssaO ana his -Dishener.
Didn't We tell the public on Saturday all
morning hast, that !" it took JouH T. OWNS
to do ! mean, dirty, snsaking, oowardly anu
dishonorabk action p"' ''',''& x, '' 20, 80
This observation was based on our nine MN OF
ten years intimate knowledge Of this present
editor Of the St. Paul Times; whom all tns
Old Settlers long since came to regard Is .
person most thoroughly ds0ased, and possess.
ing no one manly quality either 70 MAKE
friends respect or foes fear him.
This, our individual, - well IS this, the
general impression, in regard to him, were
alike wen proved by Aimss!f to b true to tas
Gerry letter, by his publication, In the Times OF
Saturday, Of what he alleges to have been .
private letter addressed to himself by Judge
DAVID COOPER when he was east, in April,
1855: addressed to him sssder the sacred zeal
Of an honorable confidence ~, - o.. o.. e. -
Four years he has kept this letter carefully
preserved for future uses-four years he has
been gloating over it ike niser over his gold,
as q means Of gaining an advantage for him.
self at some future day, by working upon
what he supposed might be Judge COOPER
fears when he should cause him to be inform
ed that it was preserved, and ready to " crush
him." unless he forked over money or posi-
tion-(a proposition whieh he did make out
soithout the srpeetsd success !)-for four years,
this man Owens, with rascality and bitter
ness and desperate meanness in his heart,
has been allowed social intercourse with Judge
CooPfR: has been tolerated in a. sociating with
him, pretending to be his friend: has begged
and obtained innumerable fayors from him,
and as, some return, praised him and COM
mended him in the paper then edited by him
all the while, however, as it now appears
laying in wait for him, intending to stab him
some day or other when it would subserve
his dirty purposes: all the while designing to
steal upon him like thief in. the night and
plant stietto in his unsuspecting bosom.
For four years, this ghoul in leprous human
shape who now tears up with his claws the
sacred grave of the buried past to rob it OF
honor's secrets, has been carefully nursing
and rnousing over in some dark hiding place,
this document which he obtained by his, beng
in an honorable and confidential position, and
which, il he had been worthy of the place and
possessing one spark of honor in his heart, he
would have destroyed the instant after read
ing, or else, after he had made the use Of it
in the mode requested, achich he did, or, at
all events, that he would, if imbued with the
ordinary feelings Of gentleman and editor,
rather have been torn with wild horses, limb
from limb, than have exposed it to the eye Of
the public, for whom it was never intended,
and before whom, it is doubly-dyed base
ness ever to have published it.
But one opinion, we are glad to find, ami.
mates the whole community in relation to this
matter, indicating their own honorable ieel.
ings and innate convictions of what's just
and fair and decent between man and man.
1t is, that this man Owens, the editor Of the
St. Paul Times, has proved himself by his own
deliberate and malicious act, utterly acorth.
less, enthusiastically in eoerytting! They do
not hesitate, with one voice, to express their
belief, that man who would do this would
steal, if he knew he would escape punishment
that he would break his oath if there were
no penalties for perjury-that the innate con-
science, the manly "selfrespect," the moral
sense of rectitude, usual restraints upon men
committing, base actions must IN him be TO-
tally soanting, or he would never have delibe-
rately done such an act that, in fact, the
fear of hell, the hangman's whip, the terrors
of the law, are plainly the only barriers in
his cowardly and base soul to the commission
of any crime in the decalogue: that the fra
ternity of thieves even would reject him from
membership in their body, for the adage is
quite old, that there is even "honor" amongst
them! Notwithstanding, we must say, we
pity the fellow on account Of the heavy pun
ishment which his own baseness will bring
upon him increasingly, to his dying day; in the
unutterable loathing and contempt with which
all Just and honorable men will ever regard
him; all decent people avoiding him as leper
whose moral touch was infectious and con-
Eliminating. Poor, miserable, lost OWENS
In Directing to this publication by the
editor of the Times of the private and conf
dental letter of Judge COOPER, it is not that
the letter amounts to anything, or at all at
taches disgrace or wrong to Mr.. COOPER.
Long fourished about the streets, and its
lawful disclosure" latterly frequently threat
ened by Owens and his mono-manical
friend" it is satisfaction to have it out at
last, and to know that it is only repetition
of the old fable of "the mountain laboring
and bringing forth mouse" The whole
thing simply amounts to this: Judge COOPER,
as Counsel and Attorney for Gov. RAMSEY in
the Sioux Investigation Case, went to Wash
ington in 1854, to finish up that business be:
fore the Special Committee of the United
States Senate. He was detained at Wash
ington longer than he expected, and his bust.
ness at home got into great deal of confu-
sion, and his clients. clamored at their inter-
ssts being neglected. In the spring of 1866,
just before his return, he wrote to OWENS, re
questing him to announce his arrival, and in
order to palliate his long absence, suggested
to Owens his mentioning in the MINNEsor1AN
his attention to certain Minnesota matters be-
fore Congress, particularly his aid in settling
the case of the Fort Smelling Reserve, for
which settlement, other persons were claim
ing an exclusive credit which did not belong
to them. He also requested him to announce,
that on his arrival he would resume his pro-
fession again: the whole tenor of the notice