The Portland daily press., 1874-01-05
The Kennebunk Disaster.
MIR. YEAToN's Defence OF SELF AND JURY.
To the Editor of the Press:

hhON, ohCii iCdSohS loA hoiuihS SCSlCo sCooiOhs
and my own for advising it. A coroner's jury
is, (as it has been judicially defined by an en-
minent modern English judge), "a court of in
CURRY to obtain evidence
That coroner holding inquest has power to
exclude all save the witness under examination
from the room, is absolutely settled by author
ity.
Vide Garnett " Ferrand, g. & c, Gil.
Gabb. Grim, Law. Vol. 2. p. So.
Nor is this AL; but that in cases where
criminal agency is suspected, he ought to exer-
else this power because by its exercise alone,
can he hope to effect the ends Of justice,is main
tanned and advised by the best approved text
writer on this subject
Jervis on Office and Duties of Coroners, PIP.
212-222.
And chief among the reasons assigned by
this author for this result of p somewhat elab-
crate discussion, Is that lnasmuch as the pro-
ceeding is analogous to that of a gil and jury
secret session tends to obvate ''tamperiDg
with witnesses Nor is this other than the
conclusion OF common sense as we'll Who, of
any experience in the investigation of facts
which may develope crime, can hesitate for an
instant between the public utility of q search
ins, yet calmly judicial examination of each
witness apart from all others, and away from
any counsel who is interested to procure any
particular result; and the utter futiliJy of an
attempted examination of witnesses in the
DTEStDce Oh edcI OIuer, anu OF IDOSe upUu
whose official will they may be dependent for
daily bread, while lured by the eyy and led by
the tongue Of counsel retained to effect par
Licular result only. That the former course is
UNNECESSARILY better adapted to eliciting trnth
and ferreting out fiction, seems too plain for
argument
The position of your editorial seemed to be
that only in cases of suspected murder"
should inquests DO seerst--Bs it SO; did it OCCUR
to you tfat our statute recognizes two degrees
f murdar. and far from M nos hp il
that so atrociously cruel 4 taking of human lite
with so fatal weapon, in the hands of reck-
less men, as a locomotive, without brake ca
pable of being set, Spurred down a ffty-tOot
grade, with the pressure of more than two hun
dred tons, beside its own fearful momentum,
might prove crime ranging within one of
these degrees?
Now, any competent chemist will tell us
that that only is a careful analysis of an I'M
known substance which contempiates and
provides for the preservation of whatever res
iduum the tests may finally disclose; surely,
no less can any investigation of given facts
prove thorough, only as it provides for all pos
Sible conclusions.
But is your position sound? 1t it should be
secret when murder is suspected, why not
where granddaughter" is suspected? But this
assumes that some crime, may have been COM
United Very true. and is this not the only hy-
p0theSiS upon which a cOroners inquest as to
cause of death is ever held? Does the statute
contemplate any other? Is not the language
explicit? The jury are to declare whether death
resulted from felony, mischance or accident
1T the jury find felony" manifestly they should
90 no further in attempt to snbdivide the felo-
ny into particular crime. This they could not
DO, without transcending their province and i'm
Dertinently forestalling the action of the grand
jury, which alone may make any specific
change OF particular crime against any person
or corporation. Now if before a grand jury
when specific charges are made and when, of
course, the rights of persons and corporations
may be largely affected no counsel, even in be-
half of such as may have been officially notified
that specific charges may be made against, can
be present. then q fOrtiori no such right can be
claimed before a coroner's jury where no rights
can be affected and no charges can be made, in
eehalf OF whomsoever may surmise, that, posi-
BILE charges at another time and in another
court, may originate.
But why exclude reporters? No legitimate
newspaper enterprise can seek the premature
exposure in public, and perhaps to the very
eyes of all Others, the interests of public justice
require to be kept for the time from seeing, such
facts as the too early disclosure of might pre-
vent the ascertainment of more important ones
Immediately connected.
Nor is this all would not the always to be
feared obstacle to successful investigations, "a
concerted plan-be encountered, however sepa-
rately witnesses were examined if each could
have his predecessors story reported to him?
Such plainly being the general rule as to the
nit course to be followed to find the TRUTH cause
should be shown before any particular inquest
should be withdrawn from its operation and
made exceptional But at the inquest in ques-
ton very many causes combined to render more
imperatively binding, the rule itself. Space
permits me to give but few facts. which
are simple, and l think no intelligent
man can misunderstood their consequence.
A very manifest attempt in newspapers
by SOMEONE in somebody's interest, was
apparent, to perform the functions of the jury
in advance, and following hard in the footsteps
of cowardice in all ages, to superadd to the
suffering of death itself a responsibility resting
npon the living; and meanly to attack the vic
tim whose tongue was forever fettered into
silence, to divert attention from those whose
thread the fates had not yet seen fit to cut.
Bisbee was dead, and could retain no attorney
with facile pen and fertile brain to write him
up,
to appear for the Eastern Railroad, had handed
to the Coroner list in writing of gentlemen
whom he thought good and true meu" to in
vestigate calamity caused by some one of his
clients employees; and arroganty assumed to
exercise right of challenge in the formation
of the jury, and IN fact did by his stout protests
exclude from the jury one of the most widely
known and irreproachabe citizeus of Biddeford.
Nor did the CouusePs assumption end here
hut in the presence of the Jury, after witness
him toy and his testimony taken by the clerk
carefully read again to him, the counsel pro-
claimed Il shall not allow the witness to sign
until am satisfied with it,"
rhe foregoing facts were reported to the writer
of this on his arrival next day, by members of
the jury; and he was asked if 1.-THE counsel
FOR the Eastern Railroad ,ould not be excluded
from the room" and the opinions of said jurors
expressed that six months of such taking
testimony as they had the day before, would
never get at the truth strained through the
counsel for the Eastern Railroad" With the
views of the Jurors the coroner concurred.
Should have informed them that they We're
without remedy, and that the law of this State
mad dwiudled to such subservience to the
oh lrlatanry of any corporation counsel? L did
not, gave them the law as then and still
believe it to be, substantially as herein set
forth, ard moved for the exclusion of counsel,
and as it was ungracious to exclude him alone,
for the double reason therefore, reporters also.
Since them in the published reports of evidence
have appeared very many utter perversons of
the evidehce actually given, direct msrepre-
sensations of both questions and answers, and
false statements OF pretended occurrences at
the inquest So many, indeed, and tso harmo-
NOUS in condemnation of the dead and ex-
culpaton of the living, that design is about
as apparent as in Paley's celebrated watch
1t cannot be denied that the one source from
whence this pretended evidence has gone into
print is publicly known.
Now if our statute could contemplate so SOL
emn a proceeding as Coroner's inquest unpro-
tected from such influences and in subordina-
ton to such design, its language must be
changed and its spirit annihlated; and if the
public would be pleased to see such, then must
jurors be selected by lists furnished by the
counsel for interested parties, and widely diff
ferent class of Curoners from those now in com
mission in Maine provided.
fhe tippant insnuation that, because the
County Attorney was also counsel for the B. &
NJ. r, R., the Eastern Railroad was TO be at
tackled, was hardly ''born of the sunshine" and
is too INDUSTRIOUS to contemplate without hor-
ror. The officers of the B. & NJ. r. r. would
scarcely thank an Attorney of theirs for grovel
ling so low as to make so sad calamity as the
terrible deaths Of those three men the pitIful
pretext for unnatural attack. And surely a
man who could prostitute official position TO so
base purpose, would be by them even thought
unworthy ever to misrepresent that Corpora
ton again.
Nor, to do the justice 1 believe due, do I
think, the responsible managers of the E. r. R.
ever entertained such suspicion. 1t had no
paternity then-of base birth. But what an
impurtation upon the intelligence of a jury of
more than ordinary acumen and whom even
the Machiavellian schemes of the versatile coun-
sci himself had failed to crcumvent.
Well might they say to me, after surviving
his shafts
"Contempsi Catiina gladios
Non tuos pertimescam"
The verdict has been rendered. All the evil
dence as taken is open to the public. Let any
e h.