The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-03-25
COMMUNICATED.


plains itself, and we very cheerfully
give Mr.. Phillips (as we will all gen.
temen who deem themselves aggrieved
by editorials or communications which
may apper in the Democrat) the benefit
Of an explanation
Editor Democrat
When absent from home, fortnight
since, friend handed me a copy of
your paper, in which was a communi-
cation indirectly charging me with
corruptly disposing of the cases, The
state rs. Nussbaum, in Feb. term go,
circuit court" The communication in
q uastion being signed by some friend
of mine, by hame " Justice"
The facts are, IN brief, as follows =
Maj. Calkins being unable to attend,
by reason of sickness, 1 reluctantly
consented to prosecute the pleas of the
state for him, as we'll as 1 could without
neglectlng my own business. There
had been many open violations of the
" license law" as my friend "Justice"
perhaps we'll knew. The attcn ton Of
the grand jury had been called to them
in general way, but as witnesses did
not come forward readily, but few per-
sons were prosecuted. Ia fact, there
were more charges preferred against
old Mr.. Nussbaum than all other viola
ters of the law in the county at that
term of court, when It was notorious
that Others had violated it with impu-
nifty in perhaps thousand instances
within the last year. l was told that
at the instance of Mr.. Vile, of La
Porte, Mr.. Nussbaum was induced to
go to court and acknow ledge his guilt
in few cases and throw himself, on the
presence of the court and prosecuting
attorney. Lambert Nuss baum and
Sigmund Mayer came to Inc and rep
resented that old Mr.. Nussbaum had
borne au excellent cha racter in the
" old country" was poor man, Ga fact
unpleasant for them to confess, that
he was quite sick, that lie had promis-
ed to sell no more liquor, and requested
me to let him off with two eases, "A
large number of the indictments charg-
ed the old gentleman with selling to
minors, who were old enough to and
did vote at the last election, and who's
personal appear ance would indicate
that they were of legal age. In srch
cases convictions are almost impossible,
as my friend Justice knows. /
mentioned the matter to Judge Osborn,
the clerk, and the sheriff, and freely
told them what 1 proposed doing with
the cases, and not one word Of obj Ct
ion was uttered. The defendant was
then informed by me that if there Were
any Indictments against linn for viola
ting the liquor law, if he would come
into the court he would be informed Of
the fact. lie appeared, was convicted
and fined in four cases, and the re-
mainder were noH pressed. My legal
fee was So in each case. l made no
bargain, directly or indirectly with any
person for any other fee or considera-
ton than the lawful fee named. and
have not even received any portion Of
that yet. When informed what the
legal fee was, Mr.. Nussbaum offered to
pay it at once, but l told him that l
could receive nothing until after he
was convicted, when he could pay SIS
in each case to me or to the clerk for
me. Everything done by me in the pre-
misses was done opeuly,withcut thought
Of wrong to any person. Had the
cases been continued he may never have
been convicted. The old gentleman
being quite sick, and faithfully prom
Using that he would violate the law no
more, then thought did right, and
have had no reason to change my
opinion since. The parties named will,
1 think, corroborate my statements.
ID. II. PHILLIPS,