The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1894-04-25
PRINCIPLE SUFFERS
Sad Story of the Imrisoned Mis-
souri, Judges.
NEVER BUILT THE ROAD
Long Drawn Litigation Over Bonds Is-
sued by MissONri County to Aid
Its Construction.

KANSAS CITY, Mo-, April 23.-Hard in
deed is the lot of a man elected 10 be
Judge of St. Clair county, Missouri. In
stead of the honor of holding an i'm
portant county office, with a comfort
able salary attached, the prison cell
awaits him unless he is willing to for.
felt the respect and friendship of every
man in the county and call down bitter
maledictions upon his head by voting to
make a levy for the payment of the
bonds issued by the county swenty-four
years ago to aid in the building of the
Clinton and Memphis branch of the
Tebo & Neesho railroad, a road which
never had an existence save on paper
or in the fertile brains of the schemers
who originated this plan for rcbbing
the taxpayers of St. Clair and other
Missouri counties.
The history of the issue of the ST.
Clair county bonds and the litigation
over them, which has been going on for
many years past, is story of bare
faced swindling and long-sufferlng
people striving to escape from the
burden of an enormous debt saddled
upon them by fraud and collision, bu:
which the United States courts have de.
creed that they are liable for because
the bonds were issued and passed into
the hands of alleged innocent purchas.
ers. Because the people of St. Clair
county are unwilling to raise money BY
excessive taxation to pay this unjust
debt Judges Thomas hewitt and George
H. Lyons were confined in the jackson
county jail, until the latter became a
physical wreck, and in order to gain his
freedom consented TO vote for the pay
ment of the bond, while Judge R B. F..
Copenhaver, an old man, who has al
ready passed the allotted three score
and ten years, has been released only
because, broken down by confinement,
his end is near and he has been allowed
to 60 home to his family to die in peace
Judge Phillips, of the United States
circuit court for the western district Of
Missouri, has time and again ordered
the judges of the county court to make
the levy necessary to pay of the bonds
and the interest, but 80 bitter is the
opposition of the taxpayers OF the coun
~ that they openly threaten to admin
lister lynch law to any man elected to a
seat on the county bench who will agree
to make the levy.
The inception Of the st. Clair county
bond case was in 1870, when during the
February term of the county court a
petition bearing 400 signatu was pre-.
sented praying that the court subscribe
$3.50, 900 to the stock of the Clinton Il
Memphis branch of the Tebo g. Necsho
railroad. a line which began nowhere
and ended nowhere. The county court
at that time was composed of william
A. Mitchell, William Collins and Thomas
F. Robinson. There were remonstrances
as we'll as petitions in favor of issuing
the bonds. but after taking month for
del beration the judges decided that
majority of the taxpayers of the coun.
ty were in favor of issuing the bonds,
and accordingly on April S, 1870, they
made an order to the effect that St.
Clair county should subscribe the sum
of $35O,OOO to aid the Tebo & Neosho
railroad, on condition that the railroad
should be run through the county on the
most practicable route.
This was never done, hence all these
years of litigation and suffering by i'm.
prisonment of the judges.