The Van Buren press., 1874-03-31


Francis term Of the court his conduct
was such as to make me believe and know
that Judge Fox was suffering his personal
feelings to influence his judicial action
toward me He continued to omit call
ing ny name in the order in which it was
on the roll, and, in referring to some pa
pers which had been lost, accused me,
from the bench, in rather direct terms of
falsehood. replied with some feeling,
and stated to members lof-the profession
that Judge Fox owed me an apology.
This was told to him, but he never apol-
Togized on the contrary. his conduct on
the bench became more threatening to
me next met Judge Fox at the Crit
tcndcn county circuit court. On the first
day of the term, Hammett's case was
called for trial To aquestion from the
court, | stated that was not ready and
exhibited to him summonses for wit
nesses, some OF which had been executed
and others not, and asked for a continu
ance. He replied that the case had to be
tried then, and that the defense were try
| ing to avoid trial stated that if the
case was delayed till the last week Of the
term would bear the trouble and eX
pense to secure the witnesses. He re-
fused the delay still, but after reflection,
and after the attorney for the State ex.
pressed his entire willingness that delay
should be granted he agreed. When,
finally, the trial came on it progressed
! pleasantly while the witnesses for the
| State were being examined. But as the
witnesses for the defense were introduced
the court made fierce attacks on them,
and asked numerous questions Of little
relevancy, and with the spirit Of annoy
ance-all of which questions | protested
against. When propounding questions
for defendant the court would say, "that
may be law, but you cant put up such a
| job on this court On conclusion of
he testimony the court asked if counsel
had any instructions prepared. The
counsel for the State said iie had not |
stated that could not prepare any appli-
cable to the law in the case until had
heard the evidence, and asked of the
court time to prepare some, whereupon
the court presented Instructions he had
prepared to the jury as the law in the
case. When | heard them stated | had
no objections to them but would be glad
to prepare additional ones, which would
present in thirty minutes. The cour
would not grant the time He also re
fused to have noted upon the record my
request 1t was now after five o'clock
and we were informed that the argum.n
in the case should close by six, as the
court would not.come back after supper
| said " If the court please have, un-
der the circumstances, no argument to
make. The argument then proceeded
on the part of the State, and the case was
given to the jury, who retired to consider
the case. Being unable to agree, the jury
asked for instructions, and the court re-
sponded "You have my instructions
and there is the law of the case. " They
desired to know if threats, as sworn to,
were any justification, and the court said
they amounted to nothing. then said
that had some instructions prepared
and desired his honor to pass upon them
He said 60 shall refuse to hear any sug
gestions from you on your trumped-up
evidence " stated | thought it very
unfair that the court should make such
remarks before. the jury, and denied that
tho evidence was frnmped up Next
morning in reading the record the clerk
had it entered up properly, but the court
ordered that the record should read so as
to show that the counsel for the defense
as well as the State had made an argu
ment. said, "If the court please, I'd
prefer the record to speak the truth, "
and appealed to the bar that there was
no argument for the defense. The cour,
remarked, Judge Aldridge, ifyou make
any further attempts to corrupt the pro
ceedirgs Of the court you'll be punished, y
While proceeding to state that his honor
certainly misunderstood me, he per.
emptoriy ordered me to sit down. and
then ordered the sheriff to Immediately
take to Jail AS the sheriff laid his hand
on my shoulder said; 81 wish to say
this to you, John w Fox: know you
Of " | then turned to the sheriff and
told him was ready to go After re-
naming in Jail fifteen or twenty minutes,
the court, through the solicitations Of the
bar, ordered me to be released, but on
condition that | should not return to the
court at that time. After hearing Of the
action Of tho bar | addressed note to
the Judge stating that while appreciated
the kindness of the bar, il he had been
induced to release me by any apology
made by the bar | would say their action
was Unauthorized, and | would prefer re
ming TO Jail, if such were the case, On
receiving the note he fined me fifty dol
lars and recommitted me to Jail for ten
days The bar visited me the same even
ing at the jail and induced me to apollo
gize for contempt offered to the court.
which | did by letter, whereupon | was
released and the fine remitted.
For the truth and verifcation Of all the
statements have made to you, Mr. Re.
porter, | confidently appeal TO all the
members of the bar then present There
are other circumstances growing out Of
the affair which desire to withhold un
til called before a jury ofmy countrymen
circumstance which led to the unfor.
,unatc difficulty between Judge Fox and
myself which ended in his death. As to
the statement of the reporter in Mondays
Republican, about my low social and
moral character, ! have only this to say ::
that was the candidate of the democrat
ic party for the representative district
| ~. g 4