The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-28
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Celebrated Gases. By Henry Lauren
Clinton. (New York: Harper & Broth
ers; Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon.
For more than forty years Mr.. Clinton
occupied a prominent position at the New
York bar which brought him into conneo-
ticn with some of the most important
| legal contests ever seen in this country.
A while ago he published book giving
an account of some Of those cases, which
was SO favorably received that he was
led to continue his "reminiscences which
he does in this volume. Celebrated Cases
deals Largely, though not exclusively, with
important criminal trials with which he
was connected on one side or the other.
The two most interesting cases treated in
the volume are the celebrated trial OF
Mrs. Cunningham for the murder of DR..
Harvey Burdell, which took place way
back in the fifties, but which continues
to hold its place as one Of the most sensa-
tlonal and mysterious of the criminal
tragedies of this country. Mr.. Clinton
appeared in this case as counsel for Mrs.
Cunningham. She was acquitted, and in
Mr.. Clinton's opinion her innocence was
FULLY established. The mystery of this
tragedy was never cleared up, but the
effect of the verdict of the jury in rehabi-
litating Mrs. Cunningham was largely
destroyed by 9 subsequent attempt on
her part to gain possession Of DR.. Bur
delPs property by pretending to give
hi b., ~. e. IF x1b oh c6.
claimed was Burdell. The bogus char
acter of this alleged birth WAS completely
exposed, and the disclosure reacted and
led many to believe that she was the au-
thor of the original tragedy notwithstand-
| ing the verdict of acquittal. Mr.. Clinton
was called into the Tweed case especially
to look out for the jury and see that none
| OF Tweed tools got onto it. His service
| was of most important kind, because 1t
was upon the packing of the jury that
| Tweed relied, since the evidence was over
whelmingly against him. In his first
| trial Tweed had managed to get all but
| one juryman on his side, simply packing
| the jury with men whom he was able to
control On the second trial an honest
and impartial jury was obtained, thanks
to Mr.. Clinton's efforts, and the arch
| thief was convicted. Cumulative senten-
| ces were imposed on Tweed, and his coun-
| sci took the case to the Court of Appeals,
alleging that such sentence was illegal
| The court SO held, and Tweed was dis
charged after the term of sentence an the
| first count had expired. This decision of
the Court of Appeals was made the occas-
ion of an extraordinary attack upon the
| court by the great lawyer, Charles O'Con-
| nor, in which he kimpugned its motives
and secuted It's law. AS Mr.. Clinton says,
had Mr.. O'Connor been a less distin-
guished man he would undoubtedly have
been disbarred, or otherwise punished, for
this attack, but as it was he seems to
| have suffered nothing more than some
| severe criticism at the hands of some of
the lawyers who took the side of the
court Another case Of some interest is
| the trial Of Richard Croker, better known
nowadays, as s'Boss'' Croker, for murder.
Mr.. Clinton defended Croker. The crime
was alleged to have been committed on
election day in 1874 in the midst of a
| quarrel between Croker and James
| O'Brien. 1t was claimed that Croker
had drawn pistol during the quarrel,
fired it and shot dead one of the bystand-
ers. Croker. denied that he had pistol
on that occasion. The trial resulted in q
disagreement, the jury standing eight for
acquittal and four for conviction. The
case was subsequently mol pressed, the
district attorney having become con-
WINGED, Mr.. Clinton says, that Croker was
| innocent. A few of the cases in the book
| seem to be Of rather a commonplace order,
and hardly worth the space given them.
| The most of them are, however, "cele-
| brated cases. and the accounts of them
given in this volume are very readable.
| A School History of the United States.