Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1893-11-02
HON. W. f, CARTER,
Of PlatteYille,
REPLIES TO GEO. MILLS.
FACTS AND STATISTICS ABOUT
GOLD AND SILVER FROM EAR
LY TINES To THE PRESENT.


have gone thus fully into the his
tory of the act of 1873, because it
seems to be the chief stock in trade of
a certain class of our fellow citizens
to assert that that act was ..clandes-
timely enacted, and they attempt to
bolster up that falsehood by ALLEGED
quotations from the Globe and
the Record which it is not within
the power of the average reader to
verify or contradict, for want either
of the necessary volumes, or the time
to examine them. Having, in conse-
quence of the implied challenge of Mr..
Mills to do so. carefully examined
them, | deemed it my duty, not to
publish simply '.bald' denial of the
statements of those persons, but, in
stead, to quote from those volumes
themselves, and publish the quota
tions which demonstrate the utter
want of any foundation for those
statements.
| beg to say at this point, that
acquit Mr.. Mills of knowingly making
those unfounded statements. and of
himself making those garbled quota
tions. 1t is my full conviction that
/ he never saw the Globe or the
Record, from which he assumed to
quote, but took the statements and
alleged quotations from the speech or
other production Of some silver
statesman, or other person, who made
the statements, suppressed the truth
and garbled the quotations, with the
deliberate intention to deceive.
cannot seriously believe that, when
Mr.. Mills implicitly challenged me to
compare his statements with the
Globe. he did not suppose and
believe, that, upon such examination
| would find his statements verified.
His fault was in publishing as true,
and without investigating, what he
did not know to be true, and in apply
ing epithets to such as dared to eX-
press a doubt of those statements.
So far ! acquit Mr.. Mills. But,
cannot acquit him Of trifiing with his
''old friends in Grant County, and
endeayor;ng to deceive such of them
as do not happen to be acquainted
with the rules of evidence, when, in
reply to my challenge to produce what
he designated in his first letter as
/ reasonable evidence of corrupt use
of British gold to procure the passage
OF the act Of 1873, he produces the So
called affidavit of Mr.. Luckenbach
In doing that he was certainly play
ing to the gallery" He cannot be so
/ ignorant as not to know, that such a
paper is no more evidence than
would be the same story told by
Mr.. Luckenbach in a contest for a
prize to the most successful
prevaricator. i he support
to the story which is supposed to be
involved in the oath which purports
to have been administered is no sup
port at all. The immortality of a
falsehood is just rs great when told
without oath as with. The 'Deca-
logue' makes no distinction. The
command there is, Thou shalt not
bear false Witness" &c One who
viii deliberately tell falsehoods when
not under oath, will do so just as
| quickly under oath, if no legal human
penalty is attached to the act. Such
! an 'toath" as Mr.. Luckenbach IS
alleged to have taken, involves no
such penalty, no matter how false the
story may have been, he was just as
safe from any legal penalty within
the power Of man to inflict, as though
he had invented and told it, as above
suggested, in a contest for a prize
Though it may have been as false as
/ falsehood, the swearing to it was not
perjury. Perjury is an assertion,
upon an oath duly administered in q
! JUDICIAL proceeding, before a competent
court, of the uuih of some matter of fact
material to the question depending in
that proceeding. which assertion the
asserter does not believe to be true
when he makes it. or on which he
knows himself to be ignorant. IS
Am. and Eng. Ency. Of Law, 800
This alleged ..oath' OF Mr.. Luck
enbach, does not even purport to have
beentakenin any judicial proceeding or
before any competent court, or before
a court at all, for clerk Of court is
not court,) and be-
You'd the possibility of a doubt, Mr..
Luckenbach is safe from any prosecu-
ton for perjury by reason Of having
made it, though he be the inventor Of
the story, and it be false from top to
bottom. 1t is my conviction that the
story is purely al invention, and with
out trace of foundation in fact, the
work of Mr.. Luckenbach or of some
one who imposed upon his credulity,
and for the following reasons, and
without pausing to dwell upon the
consideration of the time, place and
circumstances of the alleged narration
to him. or upon the gross improba-
bility that a man, esteemed worthy
to be trusted, as according to the
story Mr.. Seyd was, would, ifpos-
sessed Of his senses, stoop so low as