The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-11-09

representative man among his neigh
bors, have no reason TO doubt, I'VE
tRct that he began life In the wilderness,
and began in poverty, and gathered
about him an estate that. ought TO have
satisfied the ambition of any of us, is evil
dence that he was possessed of charac-
ter 1t is in. evidence here, by the tes-
timony of his daughter, that she be-
Iieve him to be a christian. There has
nothing transpired in this testimony to
indicate anything to the contrary. /
am not going to forget t.what was sa.
l'cred maxim among even the pagans: to
say nothing of the dead except that
which may be true and good. If can
not speak anything good of them. ]
Will speak nothing of them atau. 1t is
Il IN evidence, by the testimony of his
il daughter, that this old man was
christian man, a conscientious man, q
just mani and have no reason in the
WoFldJto doubt it. Indeed there are
some very touching- evidences of it
j Whtch have fallen out In the progress OF
this trial. How then are you going to
account for this provision here Be-
cause II does excite suspicion. There is
no question about it, 1t is an extraordi-
nary provision. Why would man OF
common sense that possessed, for ex-
ample, four quarters of land, and has
born to him four children, the objects
Tor this bounty, each of whom has a like
claim to his consideration and regard,
1 When he comes to make his last will
and testament, giving A one quarter,
i d one, q one and d one,-what sense
lwould there be in saying A must re-
lease the other three before he can take
the grant made to himselfF No intel
Ingent man, sir, ever did that thing,
without he intended to accomplish a
| purpose byntt. 1t is a confession, on
the face of it, and there is no escaDe
| from 1t. that tho yE,a, \
these instructions knew there was an
ontstanding interest which might be
| enforced In equity against the estate of
Danle4 Steenrod, in some of his child
rem and hence this provision must be
put into this will, in order to extinguish
thae outstanding interest that was for
the time being in the hands of Daniel
4 SteenFod. The extraordinary provision
/ must be put in that every leRatee and
deYlsee under this will-Which includes
all the parties who take anything un-
DER this WILL personally or realty.
must release every interest he has to
SYecy Eve rS, ot9er .iieE particle Of property em-
Well, gentlemen, Mr.. Peck my coll
league, IN his argument here made a
remark that could not have fes-
capped your Observation-Disclosures it is
aceoEdtng to the experience of us all {;
/ ana am glad 1t iS-When he replied to
the learned gentleman who opened this
case and who asked stWhy did not
Judge Thompson, If he was engaged in
this fraudulent design, when he drew
up this swill for this old man and made
himself and his house the chief bene-
hciaries of that old mans bounty. cover
up his tracks ?" NV ooIleagTle veSv
well remarked that it SO happensi in the
providence of God that men cannot
coVe1. up their tracks! And it isi for this
simple reason, in the homely phrase Of
our mother tongue, which has come
down ito us from the centuries, that
'murder will out. t."fn They cannot cover
up their! tracks, When George w,
thompson was preparing these instrucz
tIons-and Youiwill observe, gentlemen.
that these instructions, the original
notes OF which are before You, and
which the old gentleman bore simply
as the instrument of George w. Thomp-
sonito his sertVener--contain the sub
stance OF this whole paper. There is
nothing in it worth talking about that
1stnot contained in the instructions OF
thompson. Why all that the old man
Jacob can remember in which it diff
iered fromIt tho instructions, was that
ne wanted George to have coal priVi-
lege-which is n very unirnportatlt,
matter. TTITIiEiT - =
Now why this releasef 1t is in evi-
dence here that i'm 1882, about which,
time Edward Steenrod, son of tDanIpIl
Steenrod, died, he conveyed to his fath-
err in trust for, his children. unnn tire
suggestion of his father, this very es-
tate known as the Carroll estate Z 10 he
sure, the gentleman may saw that the
deed. on the face EXPRESSES q money.
consideration Granted; it makes no
dtheIenoe.. 1tmay be proved, noEwith-
standing the fact that it expressas a
money consideration on its face, that. It
was received In trnst; and especially. It
may pc proved by the confession of the
grantee himself. There is, know, may,
it please, Your Honor, an old eand cher
1shed rule of the law which works es-,
toppel, so that under certain circum-
stances the party shall be estoppetl even
to say the truth; but that rule never
applied to the party who took the ban
ehtof the grant. 1t he hiInsel makes
confession that, he received the land ia
trust who is there to gainsay it, I
should like to knowPl WHO is therstoi
challenge it2 Daniel Stsenrod bei11. n
Just man, never sought to conceal it,.
Having no purpose of fraud on his
part, there was no occasion, however
futile that attempt might be-to tScoVer
up hisltraCks; ;" and hence he was free
to say to the widow of this lost soTIli
whom he did not forget even inllis old
age-for you remember his language
70 one OF his ueighbors who called upon
him a few weeks before he died was
that t'tpoor Edward;" he s'pftiedO him
although he had beensin fhis grave a
third of a century-this widow, wife of
Edward, he invites tenderly to o his.
house, asking her to come and spend
the winter with him. He had told her
before, he held this land in. trust for
her children. He had given her in cone
sideEation of 1t an annuity of fifty dol
lars, until by reason OF a change In her
circumstances 1t became UNNECESSARY
that change being that her son Daniel
who bore his name, resided with. him
and received some compensation, He
had been paying her the annuity and.
like an honest man, WConfsssing, UAlzl
though this deed is made to me abso-
lutely, / hold the land in trust for your
chtldren.n What more? AS Daniel
approaches his manhood, he says 70 this
daughter of hiss the widow of EEdvarC il
If Daniel is going to marry, he ought
to go and live on the Carroll farm; and
he oughtto buy out his sisters 20 Was
a-man capable of making q will SO stu
pldias to be talking about the oblipa-
ton OF man to buy out his sisters
when he himself owned the land, and
neither that man nor his sisters had
any title I'M 1t any way 3 The use 1
make of that statement, proved by his
daughter-in-lRW here, is that it Is in flat
contradiction of the notes from which
the. Will was prepared The, man that
had the 0ltntelligence to know that, his
grandson Daniel, If he would move ON
the Carroll estate, in order TO possess
himself of the whole of it, ought to buy
out his two sisters had the intelligence
at that time to know 1t was not neces-
sary to be procuring deyisesl from him
70 give Daniel a title. You cannot ex-
plain 1t any other wRysr1a9is ds-P
LIZ IEaRRI