The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-22
CHARGES TO BE ANSWERED.
CONTINUED from Eighth Page.)


ceived contracts under Gen. Gilmore, and
when this young officer came here. he had
contracts under him. and We ask, what
more natural than that he should be in
innate with him. he was an Older man.
man of reputation and ability; man
with whom any one could be proud to be
intimate. The letters that have been in
troduced showing intimacy were personal
letters and there is nothing wrong in them.
Another matter-that of the TWO wit
nesses, who swore that they did not sign
certain papers-it viii be shown by United
states Commissioner Gillespie, that the
men did appear before him and swore
10 the papers, but whether they did or not
could make no difference to the accused.
because he was bound by the sworn pa
per.
Another matter referred to- is the En-
pire Constructor Company, and the find
ing of the stock book I'm the file case. 1t
addition to what has been shown In New
York on that pCSnt, il VIII be further shown
THAI the accused had no interest directly
or indirectly with that company; that he
never owned share or an interest in
share Of the stock OF the company and
that the book found the file case was
put there without his knowledge.
Another matter is in reference 10 the
contracts on the Savannah river. As TO
the one before the Twiggs contract, where
it is charged that the work was done by
the contractor without any supervision or
inspection. il will be shown that It was
done under inspection and direction
of an assistant engineer and that the work
was properly done.
In reference TO the TWiggs contract,
where it was claimed that Twiggs had
been oppressed and limitations thrown out
that because of that he was made TO
lose money on the contract, 1t win be
shown that he was to do the work within
a certain time and that he did not do it
and that Capt. Carter extended his COM
tract twice. 1t will be shown that has
failure was due to his inexperience in that
class of work
With reference to the claim that the in
spectors and assistant engineers had not
received instructions to carry out the spec
ifcations. Mr. Rose said it would be shown
by a. least five witnesses that Mr.. Cooper
was told 10 see that the specifications
were carried out, that the interests of the
United States should be protected and
that the best work possible under the
specifications should be done. That was
done as is shown by the success of this
work. Instead of there being large
amounts of money lost 10 the United
States it will be shown that a large
amount of money was saved to the govern
ment, and that had the so-called specifi-
have been accomplished at all, Il could only
have been done at the cost of more than
81 ,G00 600 more than was spent.
Another suggestion has been made that
the accused had control of large sums of
money, the inference being drawn from
that that The accused derived a benefit
from the supposed profit of the contract
OTIS. There is not a suggestion of this
in the proof and there is not particle
wi baf inf
be drawn. But this. like many other
things, is here. and we are here 10 meet
It,
You must remember In hearing this
testimony and in your deliberations, that
there is but one person on trial before
you, one person over whom you have
jurisdiction, that is the accused, Capt.
Carter. You must also remember that he
Is not charged with bad engineering: he
is not charged with mistakes, but he is
charged with an evil, corrupt heart,
whereby he did wrong, and that will be
the question that you are TO determine
and the question to which the evidence
viii be addressed. While this matter has
been brought in it will be further estab-
lished in addition to the proof already in,
that the father-in-law of the accused is a
wealthy man, and that by powers Of at
torney given him-the amplest and fullest
power-he had the right to control his
fortune; that the moneys that he did have
control of were the moneys of that father
in-law that not a dollar of that money
came 10 him from any improper source.
The suggestion that these powers of at
torney were used as a cover, or an ntima-
ton of a suspicion we will show TO be alb
solutely false and untrue 1t will be
shown that they were honest powers, used
by the accused for the purpose of advance
ing the interests of his principal in the
transaction of the business of that princt-
pal Not only that, but the sufficiency re-
ports to his superior officers each year
stated that he was in the management of
a large estate, that of his father-in-law.
another suggestion has been that the
accused had lavish expenditures. If that
was not government money; If that was
not money wrongfully obtained, it is no.
bodys business whether his expenditures
We're lavish or frugal On that subject
there was introduced here some bills
showing purchases at Tiffany's. 1t viii
be shown that those purchases were made
with the money of Mr.. Westcott, the ia
ther-in-law. upon commissions from Mr..
Westcotts family. That of the two pic
lures purchased. one of them was for Mr..
Westcott and is now in a house given by
him 10 another son-in-law That Mr..
Westcott has ratified the acts. of his
agent under his power of attorney will be
SHOWN to you, and II ne doeS not COM
plain of the lavishness of those expendi-
lures and it was not government money
then it was something that this court
has nothing whatever to do with him.
How the signing by someone else OF
the name of the payee on the back of q
check payable to Mr.. Bangs, has any con-
nection with this conspiracy charge,
am unable to see. But we will show thai
the testimony of the expert that the in
dorsements on these checks was In thc
handwriting of b. ID. Greene, in addition
TO what has already been shown, is alb
solutely untrue; that he has never yet
seen many of those checks. II viii bC
shown who did put the indorse ments on
and that it was there by authority ant
right. .rF
That, l think, covers most of the
grounds that have been suggested by the
prosecution in relation of this charge oil
conspiracy. There is one or two Other
matters l desire to cali attention to in ref
erence to the evidence thai we will brins
out, not explanatory of those matters, bu
affirmative evidence on the part of the
defense
In this connection Mr. Rose mentioned
the mulcting of one of the Atlantic Con.
tracing Companys tugs in the United