St. Paul daily globe., 1891-10-25

llOli lie cOulu DC SueQ IOr liDel
and could recover according to how well
he subStantiated his charge. The duty
of the citizen now in this free country
is to expose wrong and show up mans
character. The newspaper of to-day is
an indispensable institution of to-day.
| If all the papers of this city were sud-
| denly stopped. they would resemble
| lot of electric cars sleeping on the street
without power. 1t is the bounden duty
| of the paper to be the guardian of the
public purity and the ballot box"
Judge Flandrau commenced his story
| of the case by a high tribute to the
| Washburn family, who were the sturdy
| Republicans and anti-slavery men of
| years age.
Nov Mr.. WaShburn In this state was
elected congressman over Mr. Donnelly
1908 majority, and you know, gentle
| men, there is no place where fairer cleo
tions occur than in this country. | say
| that after residence Of forty
years in this place. Mr.. Donnelly
contested Mr.. Washburn's election.
There must have been an awful lot of
corruption in it. This Mr.. Donnelly
evidently went down to Washington
| posing as red-hot Democrat, and said:
| Here, the Democrats IN my section
have elected me and l want the place.
| On the investigating committee there
| were nine Democrats and three Repub-
| licans, among them being Daniel
| Manning, one of the red-hot slavery
men in the country. Then this man.
| Sniveling, comes on the stand here and
says he was anti-saveryi Why, if Dan
| Manning had known that, he'd have
| put him out. | say to him: What were
| your politics." 'Anti-slavery. this man
says, sniveling. Mr.. Donnellv is grand
actor. He can take all characters. He
| can pump up tear and utter vehe-
ment oath. | don't object to a good TO-
bust lie. but this contemplate Sniveling
makes me tired"
Mr.. Wellington objected to some of
| the judges remarks, and he answered,
Il don't care. About that letter, /
claim that Donnelly instigated that let
have not much faith in human words.
Circumstances are demonstratiye proof,
and it is demonstrated that this is one
| of the plainest facts in the case"
Wellington argued to keep the COM
ments out, and the judge insisted that
| the King letter showed it as fact. The
King letter grew out of it. The court
thought it had been shown, and as long
as the counsel didn't misquote testimony
he had right to 90 on. This was lit
tleknock-out against Donnelly.
That letter to Springer was the out
put of the brilliant head of Donnelly
and the blockhead of Finley. This let
ter asked the Springers to vote for
Washburn, knowing that it would turn
them against Washburn. Wellington
objected, but the line of argument was
allowed. That was the position they
put Springer in, but they were
too sharp. The Springers knew
that it didn't come from Wash
burn. All the insignia of the Washburn
was honesty. Hence they presented it
before the house of representatives, and
demanded an investigation. A COM
mittee was instituted and it met, result
ing in printed book of some four mum
dred pages.
He didn't think they were allowed to
introduce parts of that book. The court
had not allowed them to prove who
wrote that letter, but one thing
they did know and that was that
Donnelly didn't get the seat. If
Washburn's side had been convicted of
it, WaShburn would have been ousted
at once. The matter died there, which
proved that the Donnelly side was the
author of the letter. Donnelly shut up
as soon as the report was through with.
''What better evidence of fact do you
want?" cried he.
The moment the investigation was
started, Donnelly, in order to show his
teeth, immediately says that the letter
was either written by Bill King or Char
ley Johnson, intimate friends of Wash
burn. This was to more bitterly fur
ther his villainouS scheme.
He could have found all the hand
writing of King he wanted, right there
in Washington. The provocation,
therefore, for King to write that letter
was immense. Then he wrote that let
ter in which he called him all Internal
scoundrel from the ground UP. That
letter was sent to Mr.. Donnelly, and he
got it. The publication was privileged
publication because Mr.. Donnelly him
self published it and gave it to the
world. He could have torn it up if he'd
have wanted, and no one would have
been the wiser Now, l might sit down
and write what | think of Mr.. Donnelly,
and it would be grave libel in itself, |
have no donbt, but il is only SANDER.
1t is the publication that makes it
libel.
He claimed that when man gave
letter of that'kind to the public prints,
then anybody codld publish it. Dom
nelly had said that he had shown it to
several people, but had held it in his
possession until he had put it in evil
dence on May 4. Then he was
letter in evidence without any
restrictions. They were going to come
and tell the jury that he only put it
there for the purpose of comparisons of
handwriting, but nevertheless 1t be-
came a public record. They had all seen
in the public prints their own beautiful
faces. Mr.. Wellington's pretty features
had been pictured in different attitudes.
That was libel.
He had put that letter in evidence
May 4, 1887. Now to my point. He put
that letter in Oh that day, but as rule
those committees do not meet until 10
O'Clock a. m. Yet on the same morning,
at 8 O'Clock, it was i'll the paper, so it
must have been sent the day be-
fore. Now. where did we get
it?" he asked. Bill King said
that he didn't keep any copy.
Where did 1t come from, then? 1t must
have been from Donnelly. He gave
copy of that letter to the Pioneer agent
in Washington. They had heard
enough testimony in the case to make
of men. If man could come and
swear that he saw water run UP hill
you would say that he lied.
Now l show you facts to
prove that water was running
down hill. We got copy of that letter
on the Sd of May. How could we get l.?
1t was in Donnelly's strong box at h
house. He must have given it. What
his motive had been he didn't know. 1t
was one of the 10000 wheels in Donnel-
ly's head. If that was the case it was
certainly privileged. first. because it
was record; secondly, because it was
given by Donnelly.
The case had settled itself down to
one point, who were to be believed
Mr.. Donnelly or Mr.. King and Mr.. lie
Due. All knew Donnelly. His face is
as familiar and looked a good deal like
the man in the moon. He was every
thing to everybody. There couldn't be
a man brought there who wouldn't say
but what he had been friendly
with him at some time, but
he was so grossly selfish and ego