Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-28

people became to the robbers an object
of the keenest hate. n there was
also a political necessity.
The men who had cheated Taylor and
Powers out of their offices, and who had
needed the cry of assassination to offset
the cry for civil liberty of ;Aeir oppon-
ents.
Caleb Powers. Charles Finley. his pre-
decessor in office. and Governor Taylor
probably did a very foolish thing when
on the 25th of January, 1900, they brought
more than one thousand armed noun
taineers to Frankfort to petition the
legislature for justice in the contest mat
ter: it looked very like an attempt
to terrorize and intimidate. More than
half of the testimony for the common
wealth related to the part which Caleb
Powers bore in bringing the noun
taineers to Frankfort: but on the same
day on which they came all but one
hundred and fifty Went back to their
homes. Judge Cantrill instructed the
jury that If the prisoner had consplreu
with any of the persons m in the
Indictment, or with anybody else, for the
purpose of terror or intimidation, and
one of his Observation-Disclosures had in
pursuance of the conspiracy killed VIII
liam Goebel, then the prisoner was
guilty as an accessory to the murder:
which certainly is carrying the law OF
conspiracy to a most extravagan
length. But the purpose of terror and
intimidation was abandoned When the
bulk of the mountaineers were taken
back on the very special train which had
brought them to Frankfort. yet the
iury are told that If one OF them re-
naming in Frankfort. or even II one
who had always lived in
should five days after the
tion OF January 25th take 1T into MS
head to shoot William Goebel. then
Caleb Powers suddenly becomes a muir
derer! Don't talk to me OF the oenni-
tion of treason in the state trials in
Stuart or Tudor times. If such is the raw
of murder in an American state IN the
year of grace. nineteen hundred!
But suppose Judge Cantrin in that
fearful instruction was right, what
evidence was there that any one m the
in the conspiracy for terror and intiml-
aation" fired the shot? None whatever.
During the whole trial the attorneys for
the prosecution, so far from proving
who fired it. never even gave thelr own
opinion as to the nanne of the actual
murdeder. For aught that appeared IN
evidence, it might have been young San
ford. ~avenging his father in the grave.
his widowed mother and orphaned sister
in the madhouse and s%anitariuln. or some
other man whom the deceased a in
suited or wropged.
While on this most important point
there was 10 direct evidence at all, the
indirect proofs We're either ludicrously
lame, or openly perjured. The first wit
ness was the surveyor OF
county, bringing with him a block cut
from a hackleberry tree in which a bull
let was imbedded, said to be the fatal
showing that the bullet must have come
from the window in Caleb Powers pr1-
waite office. But the witness admitted
that he had testified against Powers in
the examining court; that he had then
exhibited the same block with the same
bullet. and had reached the same con-
clusion as to the course of the bullet.
on that occasion he had by mis-
take held the block from the hackle-
berry tree upside down.
Science was confirmed by an eye-wit-
ness. One George Franklin Weaver was
state-one of the lawyers for the prose-
cution acting as bailiff to serve the sub
poena-and swore that on the Goth OF
January he had just strolled into frank
fort, and that. coming to the capitol
grounds, he saw a man stick a rifle bar
rel out of that same corner Windows;
n hen he heard the shots. Most am
pie evidence was given that at that very
hour Weaver was at Grayson Springs.
Ky, 1875 miles east of Frankfort; n the
fellow is now in Jail fully committed for
perjury by the county judge at George
town after a long and patient hearing.
in which is was clearly shown that he
had never been inside of Frankfort when
he gave his testimony about the rifle
stuck out Of the window. How does
this witness come into the case at all?
Did he volunteer his perjured story in
order to hang a man, unknown to him,
who had never wronged him? Is it not
likely that the men who hired him to
swear away Powers life had also hired
the confessing accomplices?
But the strongest proof of the defend
ants innocence is the manner in which
he bore himself as a witness on the
stand during an examination drawn out
for nearly three days. He never once
faltered, never contrad; cted himself: he
readily confessed that the mountaineers
had been brought to Frankfort to fight if
need be, and that they Wore badges for
mutual recognition. The judge was quite
willing for him to make confessions of
his unlawful intentions, but, whenever
he tried to speak of motives or actions
incompatible with a murderous intent
for instance, when he tried to explain
his journey to Louisville as made for the
purpose of bringing unarmed respect
able citizens ito Frankfort as remon-
strants, the judge stopped him. In
fact, the judge rebuked every witness of
the defense for every word not strictly
competent, though he gave to the prose-
cution and Its witnesses the widest lat-
tude.. When Rev. John Stamper, a
brother-in-law of the pretended accom-
plice Golden, having sworn that the lat
ter spoke of his belief in Powers inno-
cence, and in answer Ito a question by the
prosecution responded, II testify because
I don't wish an innocent mar to be
punished" the judge called him down for
making a stump speech, and ordered the
words to be expunged. The Kentucky
code of practice allows none but written
instructions in criminal cases; the judge
is not to display his own belief in the
prisoners guilt or innocence, but on this
trial the judge intimated all along his
belief in the prisoners guilt and his de-
sire for his conviction. Do not blame