St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-25
lib a
- ! 81
Mr. Donnelly's Verdict Isn't
So Wide as a Church
Door,
Nor Is 1t Quite So Deep as
a Dakota Artesian
Well,
But 1t Is Something Of Vim
dication, and Will There
fore Do.
Judge FIandrau's Caustic Ref
erence to Mr.. Donnelly as
an Author,
And Maj. Cyrus Wellington's
Hot Shot at Col. William
S. King.
The Charge Of Judge Hooker
and the Verdict Of the
Jury.
And Maj. Cyrus Wellington's
Hot Shot at Col. William
S. King.
A verdict of 81.

~ ftIulCl vi 81.
So ends the most notable libel suit in
the legal annals of the state. The case
Of IgnatIus Donnelly against the Pho
neer Press company to recover 100000
for malicious defamation of character
will go down in history as an event
with few parallels i'll legal litigatiOns.
The case was given to the jury shortly
after o'clock last evening. and at 8 40
the verdict was made public. The re-
suit was a surprise even to the friends
of the paper. When the court adjourned
and the jury retired, the concensus of
opinion was that a verdict would be
rendered, away up in the thou
sands, and the gueSSerS-manY
of them lawyerS-varied in their
prOphesies from $50, 600 down to $1,000.
The opinion obtained that the jury
would naturally look upon few thou
sand dollars as an immense sum Of
money, but it is quite evident that no
such feeling influenced their delibera-
lions. one juror related that he had
voted for the nominal sum because he
felt that Il vndicatiOn pure and simple
was all that Mr.. DOnnelly cared for or
expected.
The day chronic!ed an event in libel
litigation that will become historic as
the beginning of the end of a most deS-
perate battle of intellectual gladiators.
Judge Flandrau, of st. Paul, advised by
his confreres-Capt. Hart, of Minneapo-
lis, and Mr.. Squires, of st. Paul-made
the effort of his life in address,
ing the jury, and his eXpoSi-
ton of legal conclusions. and as
sertions of proofsi presented, and
the rights of his client in the premises,
preceded Cyrus Wellington's address
which ended the trial save the formal
charge of the court. Neither attorney
overlooked a point, and each availed
himself OF every possible, vulnerable
feature of the trial Never has there
been such a contest and Jealous strug-
gle in the history of the old court house.
Mr.. Wellington presented briet to
the court prior to the beginning of the
arguments. He summarized the an
Hwer that had been filed by the defend
ant, showing that the plea was iustitica-
ton because all the defamatory charges
in the King letter were true; that Ig-
natius Donnelly had been guilty of all
the corrupt political and legislative
practices alleged in the letter. Mr..
Wellington urged that the defendant
had utterly failed to adduce reputable
able proof of such conditions, and asked
the court to so charge the jury, and also
to charge the jury that if they believed
the defense had failed to prove the
charges in the letter, as broad as they
were made, that the jury should find a
verdict for the plaintiff.
The court. in charging the jury, was
emiuently fair and conservative. The
whole thing hinged upon one point at
issue. If Mr.. Donnelly had given the
letter to the defendant for publication
eleven years ago, as alleged, the jury
must find for the defendant, but if, i'll
the minds of the jury, the defense had
failed to prove this, the verdict must be
for the plaintiff. There could be no
reasonable exceptions. seemingly, to lie
taken from this charge, although it wa
rumored that in the event of defeat
the defense would analyze every phase
to discover grounds for either moving
for a new trial or for an appeal to the
supreme court.