Year: 1879




arguments. 1t was fully 10 80 o'clock when
Judge Woods took the bench, and the deputy
marshal with the terrible lead pencil
raped the crowd to order, and In dulcet
strains exclaimed: Gentlemen, this talking
must be stopped in court" rapee-tap-tap.
| Like Tite Barnacle in the Circumlocution
Office he was tho major domO Of the whole
affair, and when there was an opportunity,
came out with his baton of authority to show
| thOse present that he was the boss OF THIS
- ere thing, you know" Another crcum-
stance that attracted not little attention
and comment was the number Of deputy
marshals guarding the jury. They were
there in a perfect cloud, and with anything
hut affable bearing ordered gentlemen here
and there In an authoritative manner, SO
much SO as to excite much strong feeling on
| the part Of some.


| During the progress Of the whisky cases and
the trial Of the Grant parish prisoners in both
Of which the government was party, there
was none of this and 1t looked a little singular
that such strict surveillance should be kept
| In this trial over everybody. Deputy mar
shals have. OF course, their duties to perform
and should perform them, but II request to O
gentleman will secure what Is desired much
sooner than a peremptory order.


| After the lead pencil had quieted the court
room, Mr.. Beckwith began his argument to
the jury, closing for the defense. He opened by
promising the jury that he would endeavor
| to be exceedingly brief. lie then entered into
an analytical discussion of what a conspiracy
was. He said that society, in fact every civil
contract was u conspiracy, but differing from
cOnspiracies known to the criminal law, in
that their purposes were legal. A criminal
conspiracy Is where the object Is for an IL
legal purpose, and explained the necessity and
application of the law upon the subject; called
attention to the disadvantage at which
the defeuse was put by the course pursued by
the government in this trial, In refusing to
disclose its line of prosecution, and the d-
rection and purpose of the evidence 1t would
produce


Blunt has sworn that he was expelled from
beyond the limits of his parish because other
wise 1t would appear that ne might have con-
tinued the advocacy of Wells beyond that
parish and In other parishes of the fourth
district. 1t was remarkable that the grand


Jury should have found q bill on the ground
that defendants had conspired to prevent the
advocacy Of Wells and Blunt, since no evil





: trial which leads to that conclusion.


The district attorney seems to hold that
parties under trial must prove an alibi or be
presumed to have been present at occurrences
which he claims showed conspiracy: The


persons most nearly concerned in the depart
, ure OF Blunt and the BredaS from their par


ish have not been indicted. The whole record


is inconsistent, inludlclal and dsgracetul
) AS the case Is, it must be admitted that either
= the facts charged in the indictment have not


existed or that the evidence produced In


court Is false. The charge Is an injury to


Blunt and others unknown, and yet 1t appears


that the other parties were known and must
| have been known to the grand Jury as wit
8 nesses charging the same injury at the same
= time In another case, wherein the grand jury
Q has found an indictment. He tMr. Beckwith
8 will treat this case precisely as though the
:, defendants had not been placed upon the
. stand


:. According to Blunt's own evidence, his
: whole case rests upon the transactions which
: occurred between II O'Clock on the twenty
. first Of September, and his exit from the


parish at O'Clock on the night of that day


TO make ouths case within that limit he hac


to lie, and he did 50. Blunt neglected to state
+ that the Republican meeting on the
twenty-frst OF September was in ad
i vocacy OF the candidacy OF Wells
. and the fact does not appear. Mr.. Beckwitf
d here analyzed Blunts testimony, exposing
i Ii its Inconsistencies and charaeterzing its
5 motives in the most unsparing terms, as also
+ the evidence OF Mrs. Paris ana MISS Blunt
: and Lewis "the pOSsum."


He then took up the Indictment and tore II
into tatters, saying that it was to be regretted


such piece OF pleading should be perpetuateC
, | by becoming part OF the records OF the
court He at length dwelt upon the am
, biguous counts, and explained that the aver
; meDtS in some of them were incorrect ir
, grammar and sense. He then in q logical anC
i clear manner showed that the accused were
! on trial for preventing certain parties from


advocating the cause of one Wells for Con


gress, and gave a careful exposition of what


the word advocacy in law meant. He sale
that under the law it could not be construed
to refer to anything but the right to cast a


vote. Were it otherwise then every STUMP
: speaker would be amenable to the law, if by
argument or persuasion he convinced single
man that his trade would suffer If he did not
vote for certain candidate. The support o


candidate means only the voting for, anc


not the speaking for, and holding mass meet


ings in favor of any one.


He then took up the question of intent anC
argued that if there had been any conspiracy
with criminal intent on the part OF the Demo
! cratic convention, why was it that they as
sembled without arms on the twenty-tirst o


September last, and when they thought dan


ger threatened had to go on fruitless search


tor them.


! He reviewed caustically the evidence o
: Blunt, Mrs. Paris, Mrs. Blunt and the "vix
enish Miss Blunt, who said the ''crowd hat
fsearched for her father in the demij0hn, ant


pronounced their statements false through


out.


Then turning his attention to the Natchi
l toche5 Vndicdtor, he said that no commu
nifty could be held responsible for the utter
9 ances of a newspaper in it. The prosecutO


fol the government, Mr.. Leonard, had, at OH


time, been an editor on the Shreveport Times


and if that community was held responsible


for what it had said then the city directory o
2 that city might be taken to learn the names
= of those, who, under such indictments a
i the present one, might be brought down her
| to stand trial The government, eithe
: through modesty after declaring its inabilit.
= to present its case better, or through design
: had not given the defence an opportunity 0
t knowing what they We're going to depen'


upon, but he thought that it might be tn


fact that all the defendants had not bee
Il placed upon the stand


2 He said that for week the accused ha'
= been subjected to a draught in the court
q room, flowing from over a cess-pool on tn


sidewalk, and several of the accused had bee


made i'll, and the congested lungs OF almos


10