Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-12-02


Sell COMMENTED UPON-THE
CONSPIRACY FEATURE STANDS
OUT BOLDLY AND IS NOT AT
FECTED BY DEPOSITING THE
FUNDS IN THE BANK.
Philadelphia, December Limited
States Senator Quay, his son Richard
R. Quay, and ex-State Treasurer Ben
jamin j. Haywood will have to stand
trial in the criminal court of this city
on the charges of conspiracy and lille
gal use of the State funds on deposit
in the wrecked Peoples Bank.
The demurrers recently filed by the
defense to the five indictments con-
tanning these charges were overruled
to-day by Judge Finletter, who thus
sustained the indictments. The de-
PENDANTS were not in court, but their
counsel entered formal pleas of not
guilty, and Monday, December IL, was
fixed for the beginning of the trial.
Judge F'aletter's opinion opens with
this general statement:
'All of the questions raised by these
demurrers and the motion to quash
could have as fully raised upon motion
in arrest of judgment after trial upon
the merits. Such motions serve no
good purpose. They prolong the anx-
ieties of the innocent and they permit
no guilty man to escape. They do not
prevent the commonwealth from sub
hitting other bills free of the errors
complained about. Their only effect is
to postpone and delay a final DISPOSE
ton of case.
Whilst the right of defendants to
use these methods of obstruction and
delay may not be questioned, they are
regarded by the court with disfavor
THE commonwealth-the people
has right, especially in communities
like this, to the speedy determination
of criminal cases and the speedy pun
ishment of criminals
"The public good requires it, and the
interests of the innocent defendant de-
mand it. 1t is necessary for the pro-
lection of the individual citizen, in his
life, his person and his property.
I'm considering legal questions we
| should never lose sight Of the point at
ISSUE"
Then he discusses the purposes of
demurrers and taking up the indict-
| ments cites acts of assembly, reciting
the duties and powers of bank cash
iers.
The demurrers, he says, admit all
the facts of the indictments and by
this omission establish that the defend
ants had conspired with Cashier Hop
kins as charged.
Continuing, the court says:
1T must be conceded that the acts
of 1850 and 1860 make it a crime for a
cashier of any bank to directly or in
directly engage in the purchase and
sale of stocks. 1t is argued that these
acts apply under the decisions, to
banks of issue only. There is no
such limitation in the acts themselves,
which forbid the cashier of any bank
to do the acts complained of, and it is
sufficient to plead in the words of the
act. If the decision limit these stat
utes to banks of issue, the question
whether or not the Peoples Bank is a
bank of issue can be raised at the trial.
1t is a question of evidence, not of
pleading.
1T is undoubtedly true, as argued
by counsel, that Mr.. Quay had right
to borrow money from the Peoples
Bank. But the conspiracy charged is
the use unlawfuly of money, the
property of the Peoples Bank, for the
gain and advantage of the said Matthew
S. Quay
1T nowhere appears in the record
or in the demurrer, or in the argu-
ment. that Mr.. Hopkins had the legal
custody Of the money: nor does it APP
pear that Mr.. Quay knew or had rea-
son to believe that Hopkins had the
legal custody of the money"
To appropriate the property of the
bank without its consent, the court
say sis conspiracy, but this is a
question of evidence for the Common
wealth to establish, or for the defend
ant to explain and show that it was a
loan from the bank.
The opinion proceeds:
"The indictments charge that the
defendants unlawfully and falsely did
combine and agree together by ma
licious means to use, and did use, to
make profit, large sums of the public
money of the Commonwealth. The
demurrers admit all of these facts to
be true, but contend that they violate
no law.
These are three distinct violations
of the law 1t is contended by the de-
PENDANTS that, when the money was
deposited in the Peoples Bank it ceas-
ed to be public money, and therefore