New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-03-09
rUE CASE or MR.. FIELD.

Mfr. David Dudley Field complained, IN ono
of his letters to Mr.. Samuel Bowles, that those
who charged him with professional miscon-
duct adduced no tangible facts in support OF
the accusation. We have already done some
fling to remedy this supposed omission. and
wo have now permitted well-known and re-
spected member of the New York bar, gentle
man who has had no connection with any of the
Erie suits, and who in different kind Of war
fare has earned the highest title to the public re-
gard to repeat in our columns with all necessary
minuteness the indictment to which the coun-
sci of the Erie managers is expected to plead.
The record is q long one, for Gen. Barlow has
supported it with a careful array of facts
taken from the sworn evidence in the Fisk
suits and lest some of our readers may have
been deferred by its length from giving it the
proper attention. we shall briefly recapitulate
the leading points.
1. The proceedings by which Mr.. Fisk
attempted, in 1869, to get possession OF the
Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, have been
denounced by Judge T.. Darwin Smith, from
the bench of the Supreme Court, as fraudu-
Client" The counsel in these proceedings was
Mr.. D. d. Field. One of the worst of the pro-
ceedings was an illegal er pdrte order from
Judge Barnard, selling 5000 shares of stock,
on ptetense that they had been Illegally issued,
and placing them in the hands of an ex-clerk
of Mr.. Field as r0ceiver-this receiver, at the
request of Mr.. Fields partner, Immediately
voting with them against the interests OF the
owners, although the only pretense for ap-
pointing a receiver was that the stock was not
stock at all.
Q. Mr.. Field was party to that hideous
burlesque of justice by which Judge Barnard
was brought down from Poughkeepsie to open
Chambers er tempOre at 1890 o'clock at night
in the house of Josephine Mansfield LawlOr,
in order to remove Ramsey from the Presi-
dency of the Albany and Susquehanna Rail-
road and appoint James Fisk. jr, receiver.
8. Mr.. Field was privy to tho extraordinary
abuse of law by which the control of the
Albany and Susquehanna suits was taken from
the courts to which it belonged and kept in
the hands of Judge Barnard.
4. Mr.. Field was responsible for the scan
dalous misuse of an injunction upon the RAM
sey inspectors in such a manner as to defeat
an election of Directors at Albany. He was
also responsible for the arrest Of Ramsey and
his counsel for similar unlawful purpose.
g. Mr.. Field was implicated in the outrage
of filling the Directors room at the time OF
the election with a mob of "roughs" in the
pay of James Fisk, jir, so as to render fair
vote impossible; and for his services on that
occasion he received fee of $4,000
6. In the case of Ramsey against Erie, Mr..
Field, by subterfuges and with the aid
of Judge Barnard, succeeded in first tying
the plaintiffs hands with an injunction so
that he could not take testimony, and then
forcing him to trial before court which he
had good reason to distrust. Instead of meet
ing the suit he procured hagitious order, vir-
tually forbidding Mr.. Ramsey to sue at all in
any part of the State or in any form, and thus
deprived him of a privilege which Is every
citizens right.
8. TO facilitate the execution of this scheme,
and especially to keep the whole case in the
hands of Judge Barnard Mr.. Field began an
uttcrerly groundless and unjust suit against
Ramsey, and kept it on for a year or more,
when, as it had served its purpose, it was
brought to trial, only to be instantly aban-
doned for want OF evidence.
TO- Finally, and this is perhaps the most
serious charge of all, Mr.. Field has made him
self an accomplice in the corruption of the
bench, by asking for Infamous and Illegal in
functions at the hands of a Judge whom he
knew to be devoted to the interests of his
clients, and by improperly and fraudulently
suits from courts in which they be-
longed to the tribunal Of George 6. Barnard,
whom he himself had denounced as dishonest.
These points must have escaped Mr.. Fields
memory when he wrote to Mr. Bowles:
was never consulted beforehand about any
" transaction whatever of these gentlemen { Fisk
" and Could to which. so far as l recollect,
" any exception has been taken"