The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-10-08
A CONSPICUOUS CASE OF PETTY SPITE.


If our city council is sincere in its apparen
aspiration for no higher honor than to pas
down IN history as the "meanest council Oua
wa ever had" its members can congratulat,
themselves on having made a big advance il
that direction in their action on Tuesday even
ing in the matter Of attorneys to attend to tn,
suit Of the city involving the validity of tn,
water power bonds. AS a sample of trowzy
malignity and petty spite, their treatment o.
cv.Mayor Nicholson IN the matter may vel
excite the envy OF a pismire The history Of
the case Is about this:
The suit to contest the validity Of "a portion
of these bonds was commenced in 1873 and
the case was decided IN favor Of the city in the
L. s. Circuit Court on demurrer to pleas set
ting up the defences up to that time discover
ed. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the
L. s., however, that judgment was reversed
and 1t was thought any further resistance OF
the payment of the bonds would be useless
Efforts were therefore instituted by the city
council to come to settlement with the hold
ers of the bonds, and they were made the more
earnestly because Judge Lawrence, who had
carried the case up to the Supreme Court, had
given it as his firm opinion that the decision
of Judge Harlan was conclusive of the case
The efforts Of the city council to settle with
the bond owners, however, were arrested by
an injunction prayed of the La Sale Coun.
ty Circuit Court by certain citizens of Ottawa
and granted by Judge Shpp; so that the city
council felt itself lmpelled to renew the lltiga.
ton. To this end they employed Mayor Rich
olson and the thea city attorney (Mr. Moloney,
we beleve) who were permitted TO associate
with themselves, (malnly to be placed In a
more favorable position before Judge Blodg.
ett, the former attorneys who had had charge
Of the case-Messrs. Lawrence, Campbell Il
Lawrence, of Chicago.
Our local attorneys therefore went to work
anew on the case, and though on correspond.
ing with their Chicago associates at the outset
they got little encouragement, they worked
with such effect roofing up new evidence and
new points of defense, that, month or two
later, when Mr.. Nicholson went to Chicago
and laid before Judge Lawrence the new
phase the case had assumed the latter at once
said he believed the new evidence and new
points thus raised were invincibe, and he
firmly believed the suit could be gained.
Thus encouraged, Mr. Nicholson returned
to Ottawa and prepared the case with great
care, presenting it, in connection with city at
torney Moloney aud Judge Lawrence, in Judge
Blodgett's court in February last, as our read
ers will remember; and although admonished
by the reversal of his former decision in favor
of the city by the Supreme Court of the US,
Judge Blodgett decided this SUIT against the
city, the new points the "local attorneys" had
hunted up and presented in the case wore so
strong and well taken, that Judge Blodgett's
decision against the city was regarded on all
sides as rather provisional, so to speak, for the
sake of having the case again taken up, than
because he really believed it was in accordance
with sound law.
OF course, under such circumstances, Mr.
Nicholson and his associates were instructed
to carry the case again up to the Supreme
Court of the u. s., and Mr.. Nicholson has
since then neglected no duty IN preparing the
case for that tribunal.
1t was exactly at this point, however, that
on Tuesday evening the city council stepped
in and ordered the dismissal OF Mr.. Nicholson
as one Of the attorneys in the case. The effort
was at first to dismiss both the local attorneys
who were characterized as merely ornament.
al" and to retain only Judge Lawrence but
the necessity OF retaining at least one local at
torney was soon made so apparent that it was
to retain the city attorney.
Now, to say nothing Of the thin disguise of
petty spite that is obviously at the bottom of
the movement the absurdity of Diminishing
Mr.. Nicholson consists in the fact that he IS
exactly the attorney who prepared every spe.
cial plea IN the case, presenting every new
question which was not raised at the former
trial, and upon the success of which the pres
ent case depends. The fact is, so far as pre-
pairing the case for the higher court is con.
cerned, the work has all been done already by
MIR. Nicholson. except the mere perfunctory
matter of preparing brief, which dozen of
lawyers in Ottawa can do as well as Judge
Lawrence can. The nonsense the petty spite
of the council has led them into Is in retaining
Judge Lawrence, who knows nothing about
the case except what he has learned from the
" local" attorneys, and dismissing the only
man who, from the hard work he has done IN
it, does know all about it, II the city council
were capable OF dong sensible thing, they
might employ Washington city lawyer Of
reputation and standing, like Mr.. Phillips, for
who knows the ins and outs of the
supreme court and might even &C. in an oral