The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-06
DENOUNCED BY FOSTER.
The Attorney irrniGns Witnesses
A;:EiDst senator Clark


| fore the Committee on Privileges and
Elections of the Senate. When the aTgu-
, ment was suspended on Tuesday \. 4.
| Btrney associate counsel fer the memo
| rialists against Senator Clark had con-
stunned three of the six hours allotted to
that side. Mr.. Birney spoke from 10 to
II O'Clock yesterday morning. and was fol-
| lowed by Roger Foster OF New York, as
sociate counsel for Senator Clark, who
consumed two hours of the six allotted to
the defence, When the committee ad-
tourned at 1 o'clock to meet again at 20
O'Clock this morning. Mr. Foster had not
concluded. He will probably speak for
che hour today. and will be followed by
| former Senator Faulkner. counsel in-chief
for the junior Senator from Montana.
Mr.. Birney continued his presentation
OF the case. reviewing the evidence on
| which he based his contention that Senator
Clark resorted to bribery to be elected to
the Senate. He was listened to by all the
members OF the committee with marked
attention.
Mr.. Foster was extremely bitter in his
denunciation of the witnesses who APP
peared against the accused. He said in
part:
The story of the petitioners is one that
il true would make every lover OF this
country. every friend of a republican form
Of government. hang his head in shame.
II asserts a condition of political coTrup-
ton more degraded than any the world has
ever seen. The lowest days of the Roman
Republic. and England. during the admin
istTation of Sir Robert Walpole, seem pure
when compared with the picture that the5e
men draw of their own State. Not orly
does their narrative shock the conscience,
but to believe it strains the capacity OF
the most credulous OF mankind. Fifty
four members of the Legislature IA ma
jo-ity OF its NUMBER, majority of the
representatives of both political parties,
all but four OF the Republicans. bought
like cattle at country fair, Ten thou
sand dol ars paid TO each Democrat and
$1,000 to each Republican. An unreason-
able discrimination, Thousand dollar bills
handed out as freely as cards at afternoon
receptions, No attempt at economy.
Denounced by Mr.. Foster.
"A member of Congress who gloTies in
the fact that he has committed an offence
which men of hanor. where it is net for
hidden by law. regard as worse than
crime. the reading Of a private letter,
which by the penal code Of Montana is
punishable by imprisonment. that he has
bribed the letter carrier to aid him n
stealing it, thus making himself If not in
law q thief. at least the receiver CT stolen
goods. which by the same code Is punt
able by imprisonment for five more years;
who has written letter asking his agent
to corrupt grand jury: who has betrayed
his political friends for a salary OF $1,000
a year; who has been proved By several
witnesses to be guilty of subornation CT
perjury, and whose own perjury was p ain
to all Of you.
An Attorney General who confssses on
the witness stand that he has betrayed the
secrets OF the grand jury, and who has
been proved, by his own witnesses, to have
falsitied his report of them; who has en-
fessed that he has committed felony pun
ishable by ten years Imprisonment by ad
vising the State Treasurer to pay the State
funds of the Commonwealth without law
full authority, in violation of the State
constitution and her penal code; who has
been proved by two witnesses TO have bsen
guilty of subornation OF perjury: who in
your presence exposed his own perjury by
his repeated contradictions OF himself;
who yet would have you believe that he
might have had his own price, which he
fixed al 100000. in return for abandoning
a case. and that he Indignantly spurned
the bribe.
"A Supreme Court which allows its clerk
to desert his Office and travel about the
State looking Up evidence in a case then
pending before it, the papers in which
are in his custody; Supreme Court, the
members of which admit that the reputa-
ton Of one at least OF them is so low that
a jury of the city where he lives would
not have believed him under oath; and
that it was common rumor that attempts
he ata tn hrin s i'm of he
receive with equanimity a direct offer
Of a bride by one. And he, after coyly
declining the cfer twice repeated at
the invitation of his tempter, calls upon
him alone, and thus by his conduct in
vites a renewal OF the proposition. Yet
neither he nor the court resent il. But
one OF them would have you believe that
s5,000,000 was ready for them had they
deserted Days cause. Such debasement
and such prodigality in that community!
why, Aladdin with his lamp was not so
eXtravagant as they would have you be-
lieve was he who according to their story
had not the reputation CT being a liberal
payer the junior Senator from Mon
teRa. These volumes of testimony read
like a tale of the Count of Monte Cristo
dealing with the inhabitants OF Inferno.
1t is as the dream OF an opium smoker.
a tale told by an idiot full of sound and
Jury ana slgGlIylnS nothing.
A Defence OF Montana.
No Senators, Montana is not like
SodOm and Comorrah nor is her capitol
tabernacle OF bribers. All Speakers of
her Assembly are not as venaI as Stin
All her legislators have not been as de-
based as Whiteside. All her Attorneys
General have not been as impudent law
-. AT..tr
not been as much despised by their fellow
citizens as Hunt. All her Congressman
have not been as shameless as Campbell.
The high character of the gentleman who !
is my clients colleague your daily walk
and conversation with him and with those
who were his predecessors must have /
convinced you that the State is not SO |
vile as she has been represented here to /
be: for otherwise men CT their reputation /
would not hitherto have been uniformly /
chosen to represent her in the Senate |
There was no scandal about Montana at |
the National Capital until Campbell was |
elected there to Congress.
"Out of all this war of conflicting evil |
dence there is one thing, however, upon /
the proof of which we can all, | think. I
readily agree: that is the truth of the old !
adage: Foul is the bird that fouls its own |
nest Never hitherto has a court OF jus /
tice listened to a set of witnesses so de- (
graded by their own admissions as those
who have testified in support of the Sian /
ders against their own State. Bribe offer I
ers like Whiteside. who pleaded as if he ;
had been his brother to induce Bywater /
to sell his soul in order that he might be- |
tray him. Obtaners Of money under false |
pretenceS such as Whiteslde. Clark and /
Meyers Unsuccessful solicitors of Dribes. |
as Stiff. Sullivan, and Normoyle. Would I