The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-07-14
POWERS ON TRIAL
AS An ACCESSORY.
Jury of Democrats Will Weigh the
Evidence in First of the
GOebel Cases.
COLONEL CAMPBELL'S SPEECH.
Scathing Arrangement Of the For
mer Kentucky Secretary of
State-Three Days Work
Completing Jury.
REPrRI.IC Special.

REPTRI.IG Special.
Georgetown. Ky. July fS.-A jury has been
secured to try Caleb Powers. former Srcre-
tary Of STATE. unde- the indictment, chars-
Ing him with being an accessory before the
fact 10 the murder Of William Go"bel. TIE
jury was completed after three days work.
and this afternoon the Commonwealth
made its statement Of the case and began
the hearing of testimony. TIL" opening ar
gument was by Colonel Thomas {. Camp
bell. and 1t was scathing Arrangement Of
the several accused men. He spoke for fifty
five minutes Powers sat unmovcl through
the terrible arraignment. even when Cul,':"l
Campbell told Of an occasion on n" night
of January IS when Powers. holding up
his right hand. said:
Hoehe! has not as many days IL 1--we as
1 have fingers on my hand"-a ferrfuily
prophetic statement. which proved true n
just four dsys-PowerH 81; calm and col
lected. with not even the CULVER of an eye
lash.
The jury H. made up as follows:
W. q. finder farmer Independent: l. O.
Stone. farmer. Prohibitionist: A. W. Craig
shoe dealer. Democrat; W. T. Mursun
Farmer. Democrat. George Murphy. farmer.
Democrat: j. e. Porter. farmer. Repub-
lican; Alonzo Kemper. farmer. Democrat
W. III. Oldham. coal merchant. Independent:
II. Ford. farmer. Democrat: J. T..
Crossthwaite. tewelry. Democrat; J. T.
Mulberry. blacksmith. Democrat. Harris
Musselman, farmer, Democrat.
The two men clasSed al Independents are
nomnaliy Democrats. but are known IN the
state as anti-Goebel Democrats and OPPOSE 1
20 the regular party organization. Scott
County is strongly Democratic. and tn
proportion of the jury as politically d.
vided IS about In the same ratio 10 the
strength Of the several parties in the coun-
ty. Both sides exhausted all their chal-
lenges permitted under the law. AMI the
twelfth man selected was not subject to
peremptOry challenge.
Counsel Owens in Court.
Former Congressman Owens. who has
been given charge of the defense. was in
court to-day, though suffering great pain
from an accident caused by being struck
by trolley car las; night. and IL was
against the advice of lis physician that he
appeared In court. From the second special
venire, the remainder of the Jury ob-
tanned In the first hour. and an adjourn
ment till afternoon was taken TO permit the
attorneys for the Commonwealth to pre-
pare their statement of the case, the jury
first being sworn.
When court was convened In the after
noon the Indictment was ordered read. Then
the witnesses were called and put under
RUE to answer when they might be called.
the large number of witnesses. and IL was
800 o'clock when the court and jury was
ready TO hear the statement Of the Com
monweslth.
Campbelrs speech.
Some of the extracts from Colonel Camp
bells speech follow:
We expect TO show that, for the purpose
Of maintaining the offices which the dc
fendan; and his colleagues claimed. there
met together In the city of Frankfort a
number OF men. among whom the defend
ant. Caleb Powers, was leader ASso
ciated with him were his brother. John l..
Powers. and an ex-Secrefary OF State. OF
this State. Charles Finley: one W. II.
Culton. an assistant Auditor of the state:
one George X. Hempbill clerk In the Sec
Rotary of States Office. and one Wharton
Golden. an officer Of the state Militia. and
eNpectant office holder IN the administra-
ton Of W. s. Taylor.
These men determined that the law
should not be permitted to take its course.
They settled In their own minds that they
tribunal. high or low. would not be re-
spected by them: that they were so sttu-
ated in regard to the control Of the militia
of the State. and in regard TO being able
to rapidly move large bodies of mountain
men. that they determined. by force OF
arms. to orerawe their opponents anc. ~
necessary. to kill Goebel.
THE contest was at last to be settled.
From that hour to the opening of the trag-
edy which took Mr.. Goebefs life. the close
partiSans of Powers gave constant thought
to sncompassing the death Of Goebel. To
this end. about the 10th Of January, 1880. a
meeting was held between Powers. ex-Sec-
rotary of State Finley and others whom |
have mentioned. at which II was determined
TO bring 10 Frankfort mountain army OF
feud!sts.' II was quickly discovered. how
ever. that so large body OF men was un-
weldy. The proper provisions had not been
made for feeding or lodging them. Two
hundred picked men We're selected from the
different counties and retained. The rest
We're sent home.
Mountain Feudists.
Attention is called TO the character of the
men retained in Frankfort Many of them
had been engaged In mountain feuds and
had Killed from one to several persons in
.heir career: some were fug1t,ves from JUS
lice: one. Doctor W. X. Johnson. being "A
fugitive on Indictments for forBcry. larceny.
'i2amy and murder In different States. An
1ther. named Van Bibber: was reckless
'rilow from Lee County. Virginia. and sim
lar characters We're from Tennessee and
North Carolina: scores Of them had indict-
nsnts pending against them for murder.
Among others retained was the assassin
who shot and killed Thomas Baker while
'urroundel by the militia OF the State in
lay County: also the murderer of Bakers
ut will be observed that a line drawn
rom the Secretary OF States office north
Westerly crosses slightly in front Of the
ounta'n and enters blackberry tree stand |
ng northwest of III. fountain. The point
Il descent from the Secretary Of States win
low to the blackberry tree equals one and
even-sixteenths of an inch to the foot. The
'oint at which the steel bullet entered Sem |
tor Goebel's body Is about one and thir- |
higher than the point %:
Kit: the distance Travelled through the body |
vas about sixteen inches. This makes n |,
mathematical demonstration that the bullet |
anne from the Secretary OF States window
The surprise may he I'm 'gined when |
<enzfe Todd. and j. b Matthews. Powers's \
assistant secretary. took the sand in Cat !
on.s trial and directly furnished evidence |
,hich attempts to show that You'sey. en- |
loyed as a clerk in the Auditors oA1ca ar |
snged for the shot to be fired from the |
ecretary OF States Office.
Not shot by Crank.
I'm nearly all OF the United States ex-
ept Kentucky unthinkfng people brIieya
hat Goebei was shot as were Lincoln ar.l |
an insane crank. Those en-
aged in the prosecution. however. spurn |
his idea. Their claim Is that the entire
istory OF the campaign waged against |
ioebel was carried on I'm vindictive spirit |
rom the beginning. and resort TO muir
er was frequently limited at in the
he columns Of the newspapers opposed TO
i'm.
His final taking Off was the result of n
nu I'm OF peisn IL ea er sta s
leaders. including the representa-
ives OF a certain corporation. conspired to-
ether to bring on what appeared TO b. a
istlfiabie revolution. which embraced the
liking OF the life of Senator Goebel The
ak'ng of his life was alleged to he by the
eople thus banded together quite as JustI-
ivorite Rizzio. by the Lords Of Scotland"
Colonel Campbell then took Up the vari-
US phases Of the case. bearing, however.
pom Powers. He cited the various meet
hich. he said. he expected to prove the