Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-05-03
Last Of Arguments in Cowan
Impeachment Case
Question as to Voting Meth.
DDS to be Adjusted
Tonight will see Large Crowd
in Senate Lobby

Today final arguments that can be
made before the court of impeachment
itself takes over the case of John F.
Cowan for decision are being made in
the chamber of the state senate by
Counsel George A. Bangs for the pros
ecution, and in that address he has re-
viewed proceedings as they appear
from the viewpoint OF the prosecution.
Concludes the Case.
Tonight when he concludes both
board OF managers and respondent
will have said their last word, and to-
morrow morning when court recon
venes, it will be ready to enter upon
final consideration of action. Just
what will transpire when the court
convenes tomorrow is an uncertain
quantity. There doubtless will be
more or less argument over points that
have been raised during the trial, un-
less by motion such argument is aban
doned, and there will also be some
little consideration Of the method of
voting and such incidentals.
May Not Vote Tomorrow.
1t is entirely uncertain at this mo-
ment whether there will be any voting
tomorrow, or not, and that cannot be
made definitely known until court fin
ally decides to begin balloting.
Opening Arguments.
In opening arguments this morning
George Bangs referred briefly to some
features that had been touched upon
by Tracy Bangs. That biographer,
Almighty God, whom counselor for re-
spondent declared last night wrote
with unfailing hands upon the face of
a man the kind Of life he led, also
had other means of making that bio-
graphy, and one of these was the i'm
preston upon those with whom a man
comes in contact. Men who have come
here In this case against Judge Cow
and have not come with malice or ha-
tired, but that justice may be done.
The sins have come home to roost.
He declared that it was his purpose
to deal with bald naked facts as laid
before the bar of the senate.
Like those who preceded him, he
thanked the members of the court for
their kindness, as we'll as the presid-
ing officer From others about the
capitol building, he said, he had also
received kind consideration, but he
had taken such consideration as q
mere mark of gentlemanly or lady
like treatment, although possibly such
respondent had spoken of, had been
by latter devined as marks of SYM
pathy toward the accused.
Sympathy out Of Place.
Sympathy has no place in this case.
1t is not for the court to consider
but to consider that one
question:; is or is not Judge Cowan a
fit man for judge OF the Second Ju-
dicial district? 1t is for this court
to cleanse the judiciary, not by &C.
quittal or not by conviction, but by a
verdict that cannot but be above re-
proach or suspicion.
Sentiment against the method of
administering justice in the Second
judicial district, he said, was not made
IN a single day, nor in single week,
or a single month, but has come in
years or action. This sentiment crys.
talized in the resolution adopted by
the house of representatives, and In
that resolution, which he read, it was
declared that public rumor and report
the method of dealing JUS
tice in the Second district was such as
to destroy confidence in the courts,
and such confidence cannot be re-
stored except by a thorough cleans
ing of the charge. And if guilty, then
the judiciary should be cleansed by
the removal of the offending judge.
and if not guilty, then it should be
cleansed of suspicion by a verdict
that cannot be suspicioned.
Calls District Rotten.
He pointed to the court of the Sec
ond district as being a reservoir OF
rottenness rather than court to ex-
pedite justice, over which presided
man who had so far forgotten himself
as to allow himself to become the
victim of his own beastly passions ev-
en- while on the bench. The verdict
of this court must be above suspicion,
or there will be a day of reckoning
coming.
Are Proceedings Criminal?
Then Mr. Bangs entered upon dis
cussion of whether or not the pro-
ceedings were criminal, declaring that
thew were not criminal. and that the
plea of respondents counsel that they
should be deemed such, was the same
course of action always taken by an
accused in trying to create feeling