The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-02

tradicted by witnesses on both sides of
the case. L wish to call your atten-
ton to some of these matters before go
ing into a discussion of his story, and
also in that connection to call your at
/ tention to Mr.. Law himself. 1t is said
we have not attacked his character, or
rather his reputation for integrity
truth or veracity. That IS true. There
/ is a difference, gentlemen of the jury,
| was going TO say, and l Will not With
draw it; you are the jury in this case
under an obligation as sacred as ever
was imposed upon any body of men to
render a true verdict en- these charges
here. There is a difference between
character and reputation. mans
character is one thing, his reputation as
ito what that character is may be an
entirely different thing.
ACTIONS, NOT WORDS.
L speak of it simply to show how
! true it is that there is a distinction
between character and reputation. You
have all read the story of Dickens in
which the whited sepulchre, PecksniH,
! figures in his conversations with lurld
exhortations of purity and morality;
! he was continually with & prayer upon
his lips he was always denouncing
vice and sin in every form. Judging
! from his outward conduct and from his
| that he was a most sanity character,
but you know all along what the man
was, what his real character was. You
| have all read the story of Dr. Jekyl and
/ Mr.. Hyde. Other instances will occur
to each of you, showing how true 1T Is
| that While mans reputation may be
unspotted and unquestioned, his char
acter may be bad. indeed And so it is
on the other hand, for the qualification
of some enmity or i'll will or other i'm
| proper motive the enemies of man
whose character is good may fill the
community in which he lives with
rumors that will destroy his reputa-
ton. But they cannot affect his char
acter. So the fact that we called no
witnesses here to call in question the
general reputation of Mr.. Law for
honesty, for integrity and veracity can
count but little. 1t can count but little
in view of the attitude in which the
man has placed himself
] do not intend to indulge here in any
Vituperation or abuse of Mr.. Law or
anybody else who has been called to
the witness stand. / think it proper,
however, to call your attention to the
view that we take of the mans con-
duct as portrayed by his own testi-
mony. Mr.. Law, 1 take it, does not
stand as high in the estimation of any
one Of you gentlemen today as he did
two weeks ago. You know, say what
they will about his motives, that his
conduct has been questionable in the
extreme-cOnduct which no man with
| any self-respect or honor could be
capable of; conduct such as is always,
when it has come before the courts of
justice, been rebuked from the bench.
Cases there are in which the courts
have admonished jurors to be most
careful in weighing the evidence COM
ing from such man as he; other
cases there are where the courts have
said there should not be a conviction
upon the uncorroborated testimony of
a man who has done just what Mr..
Law says he has done,
Let me read briefly from one or two
of the cases. The cases in the fifty
ninth Federal Reporter, United States
against Adams are these:
The defendant, living in Portland,
Ore. had an advertisement in the pa
per of q medicine which would prevent
conception. A detective in the mail
service of the United States sent to this
woman, having this advertisement in
the PAPER, a decoy letter soliciting some
of this medicine to be used for an
illegal purpose impoTtuned her to send
it; it was sent: she was arrested, in
dicted, and the judge in the federal
court. there being no other evidence
sent the decoy letter on this particular,
to the commission of the offense, said,
II will not suffer a conviction to stand
upon the uncorroborated testimony of
such man."
POLICE CONSPIRATORS
In the case of Saunders against the
people, in the Thirty-eighth Michigan
when that bench was graced by the
most eminent judges that have ever
sat there, Justice Cooley, Marston
Graves and Campbell. This was d case
where officers-pOlice officers. knowing
that a man, the defendant, was q
burglar, and that he was contemplating
crime of burglary, feigned to act as
his accomplices and entered the build
ing with him. Mr.. Justice Marston,
delivering separate, special con-
curing opinion. says:
Where a person contemplating the
commission of an offense approaches an
officer of the law and asks his assist
ance, 1t would seem to be the duty of
the latter, according to the plainest
principles of duty and justice, to de-
cline to render such assistance. and to
take such steps as would be likely to
prevent the commission of the offense"
And, proceeding in this case, Mr..
Chief Justice Campbell says:
I concur with my brethren, Judges
Cooley and Marston in their views of
this case. Assuming that there is not
in the record full evidence of such an
invitation to enter the clerks office as
would conclusively show there was no
breaking, the encouragement of crimi-
nails to induce them to commit crimes
in order to get up a prosecution against
them, is scandalOus and reprehensi-
bic"
LAWS REPUTATION BLASTED.
Wouldn't tsat language meet with
the appreciation of every right think
ing man? Isn't is scandalous and rep
rehensible conduct? And when testi-
mony comes from the mouth Of a man
who confesses that he has been guilty
of scandalous and reprehensible con-
duct, doesn't it come under a cloud of
suspicion to start with? This is Rep
resentatiVe LaW-I care not what re-
port the committee may make concern
ing him; l say that he has, by his own
sworn testimony here, blasted his char
acter and reputation for all time He
must walk through life hereafter with
out the companionship and the con-
hdence of any high minded or worthy
gentleman. He will be scorned by all
hereafter who have any self-respect or
any correct sense of what is right and
honorable on the part of citizen.
Was it necessary to prevent the crime
of bribery, or to catch Mr. McCune in
the preparation of the crime of brib-
cry, that this conspiracy should have
been entered into between Mr.. Law
and Mr.. johnson and Mr.. Smith and
the police officials? No. This was on
Saturday morning, when Mr. McCune
and his friends had every reason to
believe, and did believe. that his cleo
ton would be secured that day, with
out any vote from Mr.. Law at all. No
doubt those who were opposing Mr.
McCune, they We're keeping just as
close track of the members of the leg
islature and their liberality to change