2146 lines
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2146 lines
108 KiB
Plaintext
33 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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Contents of this file page
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Anaconda Standard, Butte, Montana, Sept. 5, 1891, 1
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE. 2
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**** ****
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This file, its printout, or copies of either
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are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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**** ****
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NOTE:
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The matchless eloquence of Ingersoll! Where will one look for
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the like of it? What other man living has the faculty of blending
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wit and humor, pathos and fact and logic with such exquisite grace,
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or with such impressive force? Senator Sanders this morning begged
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the jury to beware of the oratory of Ingersoll as it transcended
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that of Greece. Sanders was not far amiss. In fierce and terrible
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invective Ingersoll is not to be compared to Demosthenes. But in no
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other respect is Demosthenes his superior. To a modern audience, at
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least, Demosthenes on the Crown would seem a pretty poor sort of
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affair by the side of Ingersoll on the Davis will. It was a great
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effort, and its chief greatness lay in its extreme simplicity.
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Ingersoll stepped up to the jurors as near as he could get and
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kept slowly walking up and down before them. At times he would
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single out a single juryman, stop in front of him, gaze steadily
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into his face and direct his remarks for a minute or two to that
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one man alone. Again he would turn and address himself to Senator
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Sanders, Judge Dixon or somebody else of those interested in
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establishing the will as genuine, At times the gravity of the jury
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and the audience was so completely upset that Judge McHatton had to
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rap for order, but presently the Colonel would change his mood and
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the audience would be hushed into deepest silence. If the jury
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could have retired immediately upon the conclusion of Ingersoll's
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argument, there is little doubt as to what the verdict would have
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been.
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If Ingersoll himself is not absolutely convinced that the will
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is a forgery, he certainly had the art of making people believe
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that he was so convinced. He said he hoped he might never win a
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case that he ought not to win as a matter of right and justice. The
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idea which he sought to convey and which he did convey was that he
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believed he was right, no matter whether he could make others
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believe as he did or not. In that lies Ingersoll'S power.
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Whether by accident or deign the will got torn this morning.
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A piece in the form of a triangle was torn from one end. Ingersoll
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made quite a point this afternoon by passing the pieces around
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among the jury, and asking each man of them to note that the ink at
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the torn edges had not sunk into the paper. In doing this he
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adopted a conversational tone and kept pressing the point until the
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juror he was working upon nodded his head in approval.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
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Both Judge Dixon and Senator Sanders interrupted Ingersoll
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early in his speech to take exception to certain of his remarks,
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but the Colonel's dangerous repartee and delicate Art in twisting
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anything the they might say to his own advantage soon put a stop to
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the interruptions and the speaker had full sway during the rest of
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the time at his disposal. The crowd -- it was as big as
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circumstances would permit, every available inch of space in the
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room and in the court house corridors being occupied -- enjoyed
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Ingersoll's speech immensely, and only respect for the proprieties
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of the place prevented frequent bursts of applause as an
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accompliment to the frequent bursts of eloquence.
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Anaconda Standard, Butte, Montana, Sept. 5, 1891,
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**** ****
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY
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IN THE
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DAVIS WILL CASE.
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May it please the Court and gentlemen of the jury, waiving
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congratulations, reminiscences and animadversions, I will proceed
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to the business in hand. There are two principal and important
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questions to be decided by you:
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First, is the will sought to be probated the will of Andrew J.
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Davis? Is it genuine? Is it honest?
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And second, did Andrew J. Davis make a will after 1866
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revoking all former wills, or were the provisions such that they
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were inconsistent with the provisions of the will of 1866?
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These are the questions, and as we examine them, other
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questions arise that have to be answered. The first question then
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is: Who wrote the will of 1866? Whose work is it? When, where and
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by whom was it done? And I don't want you, gentlemen, to pay any
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attention to what I say unless it appeals to your reason and to
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your good sense. Don't be afraid of me because I am a sinner.*
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**** ****
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[* NOTE: Col. Ingersoll when speaking of himself as a sinner
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in this address is referring to the remarks made by Senator
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Sanders. who in the preceding address said:
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"In an old book occur the words. My son if sinners entice thee
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consent thou not.' I will not apply this to you, gentlemen of the
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jury. But I will have a right to demand of you that you hold your
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minds and hearts free from all influences calculated to swerve you
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until you have heard the last words in this case." The Senator
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enjoined them not to be beguiled by the eloquence of a man who was
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famed for his eloquence over two continents and the islands of the
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sea; a man whose eloquence fittingly transcended that of Greece in
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the time of Alexander."]
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**** ****
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
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I admit that I am. I am not like the other gentleman who thanked
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God "that he was not as other men." I have the faults and frailties
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common to the human race, but in spite of being a sinner I strive
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to be at least a good-natured one, and I am such a sinner that if
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there is any good in any other world I am willing to share it with
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||
all the children of men. To that extent at least I am a sinner; and
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I hope, gentlemen, that you will not be prejudiced against me on
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that account, or decide for the proponent simply upon the
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perfections of Senator Sanders. Now, I say, the question is: Who
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wrote this will? The testimony offered by the proponent is that it
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was written by Job Davis. We have heard a great deal, gentlemen, of
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the difference between fact and opinion. There is a difference
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||
between fact and opinion, but sometimes when we have to establish
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||
a fact by persons, we are hardly as certain that the fact ever
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||
existed as we are of the opinion, and although one swears that he
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||
saw a thing or heard a thing we all know that the accuracy of that
|
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statement must be decided by something besides his word.
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There is this beautiful peculiarity in nature -- a lie never
|
||
fits a fact, never. You only fit a lie with another lie, made for
|
||
the express purpose, because you can change a lie but you can't
|
||
change a fact, and after a while the time comes when the last lie
|
||
you tell has to be fitted to a fact, and right there is a bad
|
||
joint; consequently you must test the statements of people who say
|
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they saw, not by what they say but by other facts, by the
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||
surroundings, by what are called probabilities; by the naturalness
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of the statement. If we only had to hear what witnesses say,
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||
jurymen would need nothing but ears. Their brains could be
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||
dispensed with; but after you hear what they say you call a council
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in your brain and make up your mind whether the statement, in view
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of all the circumstances, is true or false.
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Did Job Davis write the will? I would be willing to risk this
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entire case on that one proposition. Did job Davis write this will?
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And I propose to demonstrate to you by the evidence on both sides
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that job Davis did not write that will. Why do I say so?
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First: The evidence of all the parties is that Job Davis wrote
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a very good hand; that his letters were even. He wrote a good hand;
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a kind of schoolmaster, copy-book hand. Is this will written in
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that kind of hand? I ask Judge Woolworth to tell you whether that
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is written in a clerkly band; whether it was written by a man who
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wrote an even hand; whether it was written by a man who closed his
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"a's" and "o's"; whether it was written by one who made his "h's"
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and "b's" different. Job Davis was a good scholar.
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No good penman ever wrote the body of that will. If there were
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nothing else I would be satisfied, and, in my judgment, you would
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be, that it is not the writing of Job Davis.
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It is the writing of a poor penman; it is the writing of a
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careless penman, who, for that time, endeavored to write a little
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smaller than usual, and why? When people forge a will they write
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the names first on the blank paper. They will not write the body of
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the will and then forge the name to it, because if they are not
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successful in the forgery of the name they would have to write the
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whole business over again; so the first thing they would do would
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
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be to write the name and the next thing that they would do would be
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to write the will so as to bring it within the space that was left,
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and here they wrote it a little shorter even than was necessary and
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quit there [indicating on the will] and made these six or seven
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marks and then turned over, and on the other side they were a
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little crowded before they got to the name of A.J. Davis.
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Now, the next question is, was Job Davis a good speller? Let
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us be honest about it. How delighted they would have been to show
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that he was an ignorant booby. But their witnesses and our
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witnesses both swear that he was the best speller in the
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neighborhood; and when they brought men from other communities to
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a spelling match, after all had fallen on the field, after the
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floor was covered with dead and wounded, Job Davis stood proudly
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up, not having missed a word. He was the best speller in that
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county, and not only so, but at sixteen years of age he wasn't
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simply studying arithmetic, he was in algebra; and not only so,
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after he had finished what you may call this common school
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education in Salt Creek township, he went to the Normal school of
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Iowa and prepared himself to be a teacher, and came back and taught
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a school.
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Now, did job Davis write this will? Senator Sanders says there
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are three or four misspelled words in this document, while the fact
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is there are twenty words in the document that are clearly and
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absolutely misspelled. And what kind of words are misspelled? Some
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of the easiest and most common in the English language. Will you
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say upon your oaths that Job Davis, having the reputation of the
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champion speller of the neighborhood -- will you, upon your oaths,
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say that when he wrote this will (probably the only document of any
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importance, if he did write it, that he ever wrote) he spelled
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shall "shal" every time it occurs in the will? Will you say that
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this champion speller spelled the word whether with two "r's," and
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made it "wherther," making two mistakes, first as to the word
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itself, and second, as to the spelling? Will you say that this
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champion speller could not spell the word dispose, but wrote it
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"depose"? And will you say the ordinary word give was spelled by
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this educated young man "guive"? And it seems that Colonel Sanders
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has ransacked the misspelled world to find somebody idiotic enough
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to twist a "u" in the word give, and even in the Century dictionary
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-- I suppose they call it the Century dictionary because they
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looked a hundred years to find that peculiarity of spelling -- even
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there, although give is spelled four ways, besides the right way,
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no "u" is there. And will you say that Job Davis did not know the
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word administrators?
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Now, let us be honest about this matter -- let us be fair. It
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is not a personal quarrel between lawyers. I never quarrel with
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||
anybody; my philosophy being that everybody does as he must, and if
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he is in bad luck and does wrong, why, let us pity him, and if we
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happen to have good luck, and take the path where roses bloom, why,
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let us be joyful. That is my doctrine; no need of fighting about
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these little things. They are all over in a little while anyway. Do
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you believe that Job Davis spelled sheet -- a sheet of paper --
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"sheat"? That is the way he spells it in this document. Now, let us
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be honor bright with each other, and do not let the lawyers on the
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other side treat you as if you were twelve imbeciles. You would
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
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better be misled by a sensible sinner than by the most pious
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absurdities that ever floated out from the lips of man. Let us have
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some good, hard sense, as we would in ordinary business life. Do
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you believe that job Davis, the educated young man, the school
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teacher, the one who attended the Normal school would put periods
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in the middle of sentences and none at the end? That he would put
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a period on one side of an "n" and then fearing the "n" might get
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away, put one on the other; and then when he got the sentence done,
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be out of periods, so that he could not put one there, and put so
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many periods in the writing that it looked as if it had broken out
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with some kind of punctuation measles?
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Job Davis, an educated man! And you are going to tell this
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jury that that man wrote that will! I think your cheeks will get a
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little red while you are doing it. This man, when he comes to this
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little word "is" in the middle of a sentence, his desire for
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equality is so great that he wishes to put that word on a level
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with others, and starts it with a capital, so that it will not be
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ashamed to appear with longer words.
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And yet the will was written by Job Davis, and Sconce saw him
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write it, and Mrs. Downey saw him write it. If there were one
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million Sconces, and a million Mrs. Downeys, and they held their
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hands up high and swore that they did, I know that they did not,
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unless all the witnesses who have testified to the education of Job
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Davis have testified lies. There is where I told you a little while
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ago that when a lie comes in contact with a fact it will not fit.
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These other people in Salt Creek township that have come here and
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sworn to that, did not know whether it was spelled right or wrong.
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They did not take that into consideration.
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It seems to me utterly, absolutely, infinitely impossible that
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this will was written by a good speller. I know it was not. So do
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you. There is not a man on the jury that does not know it was not
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written by a good speller -- not a man. And you cannot, upon your
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oaths, say that you believe two things -- first, that job Davis was
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a good speller, and, secondly, that he wrote this will. Utterly
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impossible. There is another word here, "wordly" -- "all my wordly
|
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goods." "Worldly" it ought to be; but this Job Davis, this scholar,
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did not know that there was such a word as worldly, he left out the
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"l" and called it wordly, "all my wordly goods," and they want you
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to find on your oath that it was written by a good speller. There
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are twenty words misspelled in this short will, and the most common
|
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words, some of them, in the English language. Now, I say that these
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twenty misspelled words are twenty witnesses -- twenty witnesses
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that tell the truth without being on their oath, and that you
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cannot mix by cross-examination. Twenty witnesses! Every misspelled
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word holds up its maimed and mutilated hand and swears that Job
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Davis did not write that will -- every one. Suppose witnesses had
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||
sworn that Judge, Woolworth wrote this will. How many Salt Creekers
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||
do you think it would take to convince you that he was around
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||
spelling sheet "sheat"?
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Mr. WOOLWORTH. I have done worse than that a great many times.
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Mr. INGERSOLL. You have acted worse than that, but you have
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||
never spelled worse than that.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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5
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ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
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Now, this Job Davis died in 1868. Nobody has seen him write
|
||
for twenty-three years, but everybody, their witnesses and ours,
|
||
positively swears that he was a good speller. Now, comes another
|
||
question: Who wrote this will? Colonel Sanders tells us that it is
|
||
immaterial whether Job Davis wrote it or not. To me that is a very
|
||
strange remark. If job Davis did not write it, Mr. Sconce has sworn
|
||
falsely. If job Davis did not write it, then there was no will on
|
||
the 20th of July, 1866, and all the Glasgows and Quigleys and
|
||
Downeys and the rest are mistaken -- not one word of truth in their
|
||
testimony unless Job Davis wrote that will.
|
||
|
||
And yet a learned counsel, who says that his object is to
|
||
assist you in finding a correct verdict, says it don't make any
|
||
difference whether Job Davis wrote the will or not. I don't think
|
||
it will in this case.
|
||
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||
Who wrote the will? I am going to tell you, and I am going to
|
||
demonstrate it, so that you need not think anything about it -- so
|
||
that you will know it; that is to say, it will be a moral
|
||
certainty.
|
||
|
||
Who wrote this will? I will tell you who, and I have not the
|
||
slightest hesitation in saying it. James R. Eddy wrote this will.
|
||
And why do I say it? Many witnesses have sworn that they were well
|
||
acquainted With Mr. Eddy's handwriting -- many. Several of the
|
||
witnesses here had the writing of Eddy with them. That writing was
|
||
handed to the counsel on the other side, so that they might frame
|
||
questions for cross-examination. Those witnesses founded their
|
||
answers as to peculiarities upon the writings given to the other
|
||
side, and not on the writing in this will -- just on the writings
|
||
of letters and documents they had in their possession, and that we
|
||
handed to the opposite counsel. Now, what do they say? Every
|
||
witness who has testified on that subject said that Eddy had this
|
||
peculiarity: First, that whenever a word ended with the letter "d,"
|
||
he made that "d" separate from the rest of the word.
|
||
|
||
And, gentlemen, there are twenty-eight words in this short
|
||
will ending with the letter "d"; clearly, unequivocally, in
|
||
twenty-seven of the words ending in "d," the "d" is separate from
|
||
the rest of the word.
|
||
|
||
I do not include the twenty-eighth, because there is a little
|
||
doubt about it. The testimony is unvarying, except the writing that
|
||
Eddy has done since he has been found out to be the forger of that
|
||
will. Nobody has sworn that he had a letter from him in which that
|
||
is not the fact, unless that letter was written since the
|
||
institution of this suit. Twenty-seven of these words end with "d"
|
||
and the "d" is made separate from the rest of the word. Will judge
|
||
Woolworth please tell the jury whether any witness testified that
|
||
Job Davis made these separate from the rest of the word? Poor Job,
|
||
dead, and his tombstone is being ornamented with "guive," and he is
|
||
now made to appear as an ignorant nobody.
|
||
|
||
Twenty-eight words ending with "d." Now, if that were all, I
|
||
would say that might be an accident -- a coincidence, and that we
|
||
could not build upon that as a rock. I would say we must go
|
||
further, we must find whether any more peculiarities exist in
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
6
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
Eddy's writing that also exist in this will. We must be honest with
|
||
him. Now, let us see. He always had the peculiarity of terminating
|
||
that "d" abruptly, down just above the line, or at the line,
|
||
lifting his pen suddenly, making no mark to the right. Every one of
|
||
the "d's" in the will is made exactly that way. Corroboration
|
||
number two. These twenty-seven witnesses, the "d's," swear that
|
||
Eddy is their father, that they are the children of his hand, that
|
||
he made them.
|
||
|
||
Another peculiarity: They say that Eddy always made a double
|
||
"l" in a peculiar manner. The last "l" came down to the line of the
|
||
up stroke, and that "l" as a rule stopped there. It did not go on
|
||
to the right -- a peculiarity. Now, let us see. In this will there
|
||
are nine words that end with a double "l" (and I want you to look
|
||
at that when you go out); each one is made exactly the same way --
|
||
each one. Nine more witnesses that take the stand and swear to the
|
||
authorship of this will.
|
||
|
||
Has any body shown that that was Job Davis's habit? Poor, dead
|
||
dust cannot swear; nobody has said that. Another peculiarity is
|
||
that Eddy made a "p" without making any loop to the right in the
|
||
middle of it. Now and then he makes one with a loop, but his habit
|
||
is to make one without. Moses Downey swore that Job Davis made a
|
||
"p" with three loops, a loop at the top, a loop at the bottom and
|
||
a loop in the middle. That is exactly what he swore, and he was the
|
||
one who taught Job to write; and he said he made his letters
|
||
carefully, he closed his "a's" at the top, he made his "o's" round,
|
||
he made his "h's" after the orthodox pattern, he was all right on
|
||
the "b's" -- your witness.
|
||
|
||
Now, gentlemen, you remember how that "p" looks, without any
|
||
loop; and there are twenty-one "p's" that have no loop to the right
|
||
-- twenty-one in this will. Twenty-one more witnesses, and every
|
||
one of them is worth a hundred Sconces, with his sheep and hogs
|
||
floating in the air. Twenty-one witnesses that swear to the
|
||
paternity of this will. Moses Downey, your own witness, swears that
|
||
job made a "p" with three loops. There is not a "p" in the will
|
||
with three loops, and there are twenty-one without any, and the
|
||
evidence of all the witnesses on our side was that it was his habit
|
||
to make "p's" without any loop, and they were given the papers that
|
||
they might cross-examine every one.
|
||
|
||
Now, do you see, we are getting along on the edge of
|
||
demonstration.
|
||
|
||
These things cannot conspire and happen. They may in Omaha,
|
||
but they can't in Butte, or even in Salt Creek township. Nature is
|
||
substantially the same everywhere and I believe her laws are
|
||
substantially the same everywhere, from a grain of sand to the
|
||
blazing Arcturus; everywhere the probabilities are the same. Let us
|
||
take another step.
|
||
|
||
It is also sworn by intelligent men who have the writing of
|
||
Eddy in their possession, (writing shown to the other side) that it
|
||
was his habit to use "a's," "o's" and "u's" indiscriminately. For
|
||
instance, "thut" that, you all remember in the will. When you go
|
||
out you will see it. He often uses an "o" where an "a" should be,
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
7
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
an "a" where a "u" should be, a "u" where an "a" or "o" should be;
|
||
in other words, he uses them interchangeably or indiscriminately.
|
||
How many cases of that occur in this will? Twenty-two -- twenty-two
|
||
instances in this will in which one vowels is used where another
|
||
ought to have been used.
|
||
|
||
Twenty-two more witnesses that James R. Eddy wrote this will.
|
||
Twenty-two more. They have taken the stand; they won't have to be
|
||
sworn, because they can't lie. It would be splendid if all
|
||
witnesses were under that disability -- that they had to tell the
|
||
truth. That cannot be answered by log-wood ink. Eddy made "p's"
|
||
just the same, whether he used logwood or nigrosin, and he used his
|
||
"a's" and "o's" and "u's" indiscriminately, no matter whether he
|
||
was writing in ink, red, blue, brown, iron, Carter's, Arnold's,
|
||
Stafford's, or anybody else's. Another witness testified that he
|
||
used "r" where he ought to use "s," and that he used "s" where he
|
||
ought to use "r," or that he made his "r's" and "s's" the same.
|
||
Many instances of that kind occur in this will, and every "r" says
|
||
to Eddy, "you are the man" -- every one. Every "s" swears that your
|
||
will is a poor, ignorant, impudent forgery.
|
||
|
||
That is what it is -- the most ignorant forgery ever presented
|
||
in a court of justice since the art of writing was invented. It
|
||
comes in covered with the ear marks of fraud. And yet I am told
|
||
that it requires audacity to say that it is a forgery. What on
|
||
earth does it require to say that it is genuine? Audacity, in
|
||
comparison with what is essential to say that it is genuine, is
|
||
rank meekness and cowardice. Words lose their meaning. All swear
|
||
that Eddy scattered his periods with a liberal hand, like a farmer
|
||
sowing his grain. Now, we will take the twenty-third line of the
|
||
will. "To their use (period) and (period) benefit (another period)
|
||
forever (another period)"; twenty-fifth line: " Davis (period) and
|
||
(another period) Job (another period) Davis (another period) of
|
||
(another period) Davis (another period) County (another period)."
|
||
What a spendthrift of punctuation this man was! And yet he was well
|
||
educated. studying algebra, going to. the Normal school in Iowa,
|
||
champion speller of the neighborhood. Every period certifies and
|
||
swears that Job Davis did not write that will. He had studied
|
||
grammar. Punctuation is a part of grammar and no one but the most
|
||
arrant, blundering, stumbling ignoramus, would think of putting six
|
||
or eight periods along in a sentence, and then leaving the end of
|
||
that sentence naked without anything. Another peculiarity is, Mr.
|
||
Eddy uses "b" and "h" interchangeably. He makes a "b" exactly like
|
||
an "h," makes an "h" exactly like a "b." You can see that all
|
||
through the will. There are several instances of it, and each one
|
||
says that Job Davis did not write it. Downey says he did not write
|
||
that way, and each one says that Mr. Eddy did write it, and nobody
|
||
else.
|
||
|
||
I am not through yet. The testimony is that Eddy was a poor
|
||
speller.
|
||
|
||
Now, the learned counsel, Mr. Dixon, says that in this case we
|
||
must be governed by the probable, by the natural, by the reasonable
|
||
-- three splendid words, and they should be in the mind of every
|
||
juror when examining this testimony. Is it natural, is it probable,
|
||
is it reasonable? We have shown that Eddy was the poorest speller
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
8
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
in the business. Whenever they went to a spelling match, at the
|
||
first fire he dropped; never outlived, I think, the first volley.
|
||
And one man by the name of Sharp distinctly recollects that they
|
||
gave out a sentence to be spelled: "Give alms to the poor," and
|
||
Eddy had to spell the first word, give; and he lugged in his "u"
|
||
with both ears -- guive," and he dropped dead the first fire. The
|
||
man remembers it because it is such a curious spelling of give; and
|
||
if I had heard anybody spell it with a "u" when I was six years old
|
||
it would linger in my memory still.
|
||
|
||
Now, let us take Judge Dixon's test. It is a good one, well
|
||
stated, and it is for you to decide whether the misspelled words
|
||
were misspelled by a good speller or a poor speller. If you say Job
|
||
Davis wrote it, then you are unnatural, unreasonable and
|
||
improbable.
|
||
|
||
Isn't it altogether more natural, more reasonable, more
|
||
probable, to say that a bad speller misspelled the words than that
|
||
a good speller did?
|
||
|
||
Let us stick to his standard, and see if Eddy spelled give
|
||
"guive" -- and, gentlemen, you cannot find in all the writing of
|
||
James R. Eddy, written before he was charged with this forgery,
|
||
where the word give appears, that it is not written with a "u" --
|
||
I defy you to find a line in the world where "given" is "guivin."
|
||
Now, let us go another step. Everybody admits that he was a poor
|
||
speller, and is it not more reasonable to say that he wrote the
|
||
will on the spelling, than that the champion speller did? We have
|
||
some more evidence on Mr. Eddy as good as anything I have stated.
|
||
|
||
Now, do not be misled because I am a sinner. Let us stick to
|
||
the facts. William H. Davis testified to the spelling of Eddy, and
|
||
while he testified, held in his hand a will that he had seen James
|
||
R. Eddy write. In this will there were twenty words misspelled;
|
||
shall, "shal" and in the James Davis will, shall "shal,." Good!
|
||
Whether, in our will "wherther"; in the other will, "wherther" --
|
||
just the same; sheet of paper, "sheat" in our will; "sheat" in the
|
||
other will; in our will "guive," in that "guive." Did Job Davis
|
||
rise from the dead and write another will? Was one copied from the
|
||
other, and the copy so slavish that it was misspelled exactly the
|
||
same? You cannot say it was entirely copied, for now and then a
|
||
word, by accident, is right.
|
||
|
||
Judge Dixon tells you that Eddy did not disguise his spelling.
|
||
Good Lord! How could he disguise his spelling? He spelled as he
|
||
thought was right. No man of his education would think of
|
||
disguising his spelling. He knows how to spell give; he believes it
|
||
is with a "u" still there is a prejudice against "u" since he was
|
||
charged with forgery, and so he has dropped it; but he thinks it is
|
||
right, nevertheless. Now, isn't it perfectly wonderful, is it not
|
||
a miracle, that james R. Eddy made exactly the same mistakes in
|
||
spelling and writing one will that Job Davis did in writing
|
||
another?
|
||
|
||
Isn't it wonderful beyond the circumference of belief, that a
|
||
good speller and bad speller happened to misspell the same words?
|
||
It won't do. There is something rotten about this will, and the
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
9
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
rotten thing about it is that James R. Eddy wrote it, and he wrote
|
||
it about March, 1890. That is when he wrote it, and he let the
|
||
proponent in this case have it. We will get to that shortly. So,
|
||
gentlemen, I tell you that every misspelled word is a witness in
|
||
our favor. There is something more. Eddy uses the character "&" in
|
||
writing, instead of writing "and." The will is full of them; and it
|
||
is stated that sometimes when he endeavors to write out the word
|
||
"and" he only gets "an," and that peculiarity is in this will. "An"
|
||
for "and"; that you will find in the seventeenth line in the last
|
||
word of the line. Colonel Jacques swore that one of Eddy's
|
||
misspelled words was the word "judgment"; that he put in a
|
||
superfluous "e," and in this case here is "judgement" -- "shall
|
||
give the annuity that in the judgement of the executors shall be
|
||
final;" there is the superfluous "e" -- judgement. Now, there is
|
||
another. Their witnesses swore that as a rule he turns the bottom
|
||
of his "y's" and "g's" to the left. Now, you will find the same
|
||
peculiarity in this will, and the amusing peculiarity that be turns
|
||
the "g's" a little more than he does the "y's." I don't want these
|
||
things answered by an essay on immutable justice. I want them to
|
||
say how this is. Another thing, how he makes a "t," with a little
|
||
pot hook at the top, and that hook has caught Mr. Eddy. You will
|
||
find them made in the will, exactly, where the "t" commences a word
|
||
-- where it is what we call the initial letter. And what else? When
|
||
he makes a small "e" commencing a word, he always makes it like a
|
||
capital "E," only smaller. That is the testimony, and that happens
|
||
in this will and it happens in the papers and letters.
|
||
|
||
Now, I say, that all these peculiarities taken together, the
|
||
same words misspelled, the same letters used interchangeably, the
|
||
same mistakes in punctuation, the same mistakes in the words
|
||
themselves -- all these things amount to an absolute demonstration.
|
||
So, I told you, he uses the capital "I" with the word "is" and that
|
||
he does twice in this will.
|
||
|
||
Here are hundreds, almost, of witnesses that take the stand
|
||
and swear that Eddy is the author of that will. He wrote it --
|
||
every word of it. He negotiated with John A. Davis for it, and I
|
||
will come to that after a little. And how do they support this will
|
||
that has in it the internal evidence that it was written by James
|
||
R. Eddy? Why do I say it is impossible that he should have written
|
||
it, and the will should be genuine? Because at the date of that
|
||
will, or the date it purports to bear, Eddy was only eight years
|
||
old. And we don't know the real date, gentlemen, of that will yet.
|
||
My opinion is that it was dated by mistake, so that it came on a
|
||
date that Davis was not there, or came on a day that was Sunday,
|
||
and then they folded up that will, and scratched it and rubbed it
|
||
until the date is absolutely illegible, and nobody can say whether
|
||
it is June, July, or january. There was a purpose. The day may have
|
||
been Sunday, or they may have afterward ascertained that he was not
|
||
there. It is a suspicious circumstance that the day is left loose
|
||
so they can have a month to play on, maybe more. Now, they say, can
|
||
you impeach Sconce?
|
||
|
||
Every misspelled word in the will impeaches Sconce, ever,
|
||
period impeaches Sconce, every "a" that is used as "o" impeaches
|
||
him, and "o" as "u" every "b" that is made like an "h" impeaches
|
||
him, every "h" that is made like a "b" impeaches him.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
10
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
In other words, every peculiarity of james R. Eddy that
|
||
appears in that will impeaches J.C. Sconce, Sr. -- Captain Sconce.
|
||
There is a thing about this will which, to my mind, is a
|
||
demonstration. It may be that it is because I am a sinner, but I
|
||
find, and so do you find it in the second initial of Sconce, in the
|
||
letter "C." There are two punctures, and you will find that exactly
|
||
where the punctures are there is a little spatter in the ink -- a
|
||
disturbance of the line, in the capital first; in the small "c"
|
||
there is another puncture and another disturbance of the line.
|
||
Professor Elwell says that these holes were made afterwards. Let's
|
||
see. There is a hole, and there is a splatter and a change of the
|
||
line. There is another hole and there is another change. There is
|
||
another hole and there is another change. What is natural? What is
|
||
reasonable? What is probable? It is that the hole being there,
|
||
interrupted the pen, and accounts for the diversion of the line,
|
||
and for the spatter. That is natural, isn't it? but they take the
|
||
unnatural side. They say that these holes were made after the
|
||
writing. Would it not be a miracle that just three holes should
|
||
happen to strike just the three places where there had been a
|
||
division of the line and a little spatter of the ink ? Take up your
|
||
table of logarithms and figure away until you are blind, and such
|
||
an accident could not happen in as many thousand, billion,
|
||
trillion, quintillion years as you can express by figures.
|
||
|
||
Three holes by accident hitting just the three places where
|
||
the pen was impeded and where the spatters were. Never such a thing
|
||
in the world. It might happen once. Nobody could make me believe
|
||
that it happened twice -- that is, a hole might happen to get where
|
||
the pen was interrupted once; as to the second hole, I would bet
|
||
all I have on earth, as to the third hole, I know it did not. I
|
||
just know it did not. And yet Mr. Elwell says that these holes were
|
||
made afterwards. and he goes still further, and says that there is
|
||
not any trouble in the line. If anybody will look at it, even with
|
||
the natural eye, they can see that there is; and, in a kind of
|
||
diversion, they called Professor Hagan, when he called attention to
|
||
it, Professor Pin-holes and pin-hole expert. He might have replied
|
||
that that was a pin-head objection.
|
||
|
||
Professor Elwell accounts for all the dirt on this will by
|
||
perspiration, all on one side and made by the thumb, and although
|
||
there were four fingers under it at the same time, the fingers were
|
||
so contrary they wouldn't perspire. This left the thumb to do all
|
||
the sweating. I need not call him a professor of perspiration, for
|
||
that throws no light on the subject; but I say to you, gentlemen,
|
||
that those marks, those punctures, were in that paper when Sconce
|
||
wrote his name. Sconce says they were not -- he remembered. He has
|
||
got a magnificent memory. I say that even that shows that he is not
|
||
telling the facts.
|
||
|
||
Now, what else? We went around among the neighbors. He was
|
||
charged with passing counterfeit money, with stealing sheep, with
|
||
stealing hogs, with stealing cattle and with stealing harness.
|
||
|
||
Mr. WOOLWORTH. It was not proved that this man was accused of
|
||
counterfeiting, of passing counterfeit money.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
11
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
Mr. INGERSOLL. I tell you how I prove it. A man by the name of
|
||
Lanman was on the stand. He swore he was acquainted with Sconce's
|
||
reputation. Colonel Sanders asked him who he had ever heard say
|
||
anything about it. He said Lewis Miller and Abraham Miller and a
|
||
man by the name of Hopkins and several others. What did they say?
|
||
I asked them afterwards, and among other things I recollect he was
|
||
charged with passing counterfeit money, stealing hogs, stealing
|
||
sheep, stealing harness, killing another man's heifer in the woods.
|
||
I don't think I am mistaken, but if I am I will take counterfeit
|
||
money back. I won't try to pass counterfeit money myself, although
|
||
a sinner.
|
||
|
||
Mr. WOOLWORTH. (Interrupting): He was not charged with killing
|
||
a heifer.
|
||
|
||
Mr. INGERSOLL. No, no; the heifer was there. I have a very
|
||
good memory; I suppose it comes from the habit of taking no notes.
|
||
Lanman was the man, and while we are on Sconce there is a thing
|
||
almost too good to be passed.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Jackson was on the stand, Senator Sanders asked him,
|
||
"Whoever told you anything against him?" "Well," Jackson answered,
|
||
"I asked Hopkins--" "Who else?' "Well," he said, "I had a private
|
||
conversation, I don't like to tell." "You have got to tell." Mr.
|
||
Jackson said to the Court: "Must I tell; it was a private
|
||
conversation." "You must tell." "Well," he said, "it was with Mr.
|
||
Carruthers, one of the counsel for proponent;" and he said that
|
||
what Mr. Carruthers said had more influence upon him than anything
|
||
else, because Carruthers was in a position to know.
|
||
|
||
Mr. SANDERS. (Interrupting). Were those his exact words?
|
||
|
||
Mr. INGERSOLL. Yes, that he was an attorney. I tell you that
|
||
was a death-blow; that came like thunder out of a clear sky when
|
||
you haven't seen a cloud for a month.
|
||
|
||
Besides that he was impeached in open court. What else? The
|
||
witnesses that came to the rescue of Sconce; how did they rescue
|
||
him? They lived down there and never heard anything against him.
|
||
All these rumors, thick in the air, the bleating of sheep following
|
||
him wherever he went; the low of cattle and yet these people never
|
||
heard it. Tried for stealing harness, they never heard of it. They
|
||
were not acquainted with him. They said that they had some personal
|
||
dealings with him and he was all right, and one man endeavored to
|
||
draw a distinction between truth and honesty. A man could be a very
|
||
truthful man and a very dishonest man. Just think of that
|
||
distinction, a man of truth but dishonest. That won't do. Even
|
||
Senator Sanders said: "Some accusations, probably a dozen," to use
|
||
his excellent language -- what memories we have! Let me read the
|
||
exact words: "Some accusations; probably a dozen or more, of
|
||
stealing sheep and hogs lit on Sconce."
|
||
|
||
Mr. SANPICRS: I didn't say that.
|
||
|
||
Mr. INGERSOLL. I don't insist; but those are the exact words
|
||
I remember. And don't you remember that he went into a kind of
|
||
homily on neighborhood gossip, that hardly anybody escaped? I
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
12
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
believe a good many of this jury have escaped and a good many in
|
||
this audience have escaped. You can pick out a great many men that
|
||
a dozen accusations of stealing hogs and sheep and heifers have not
|
||
lit on.
|
||
|
||
Then, there is another thing about Sconce that I don't like,
|
||
gentlemen. Sconce, in giving the history of the affair in Arkansas,
|
||
was asked if he didn't say, "Did I say that Davis' name was on it
|
||
when I signed it?" and right there he skulked and stated under oath
|
||
that when he said that he alluded to the photograph. Could he by
|
||
any possibility have alluded to the photograph when he said:
|
||
|
||
Did I say that Davis's name was on it when I signed it? Did he
|
||
ever sign the photograph? No; he never signed the photograph. Davis
|
||
never signed the photograph, and if he ever said those words he
|
||
said them with reference to the original will, and he knows it. And
|
||
yet, in your presence, under oath, he pretended that when he made
|
||
that remark he alluded to the photograph. I wish somebody would
|
||
reply to that and tell us whether, as a matter of fact, he alluded
|
||
to the photograph.
|
||
|
||
Now, Mr. Sconce, as you know, has the most peculiar memory in
|
||
the world. He remembers things that had nothing whatever to do with
|
||
the subject, photographed in all details, everywhere; and yet,
|
||
gentlemen, your knowledge of human nature is sufficient to tell you
|
||
that that kind of memory is not the possession of any human being.
|
||
|
||
Thousands of people imagine that detail in memory is evidence
|
||
of truth. I don't think it is; if there is something in the details
|
||
that is striking, then there is; but naturalness, and, above all,
|
||
probability, is the test of truth. Probability is the torch that
|
||
every juryman should hold, and by the light of that torch he should
|
||
march to his verdict. Probability! Now, let us take that for a
|
||
text, Probability is the test of truth. Let us follow the natural,
|
||
let us follow the reasonable.
|
||
|
||
At the time they say this will was made, Andrew J. Davis had
|
||
removed from Iowa years before; had settled, I believe, in Gallatin
|
||
county. His interests in Iowa were nothing compared with his
|
||
interests in this Territory at that time. From the time he left
|
||
Iowa he began to make money; I mean money of some account. He began
|
||
to amass wealth. He was, I think, a sagacious man.
|
||
|
||
Judge Dixon says that he was a man of great business sagacity.
|
||
I am thankful for that admission. In a little while he became worth
|
||
several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Afterwards he acquired
|
||
millions. Now, during all that time, from the 20th of July, 1866,
|
||
up to the day of his death, he never inquired after the James Davis
|
||
will. It is a little curious he never wrote a letter to James Davis
|
||
and said, "Where is the will, have you got it?" Not once. They have
|
||
not shown a letter of that kind, not a word. Threw it in the
|
||
waste-basket of forgetfulness and turned his face to Montana. Years
|
||
rolled by, he never wrote about it, never inquired after it.
|
||
|
||
They have brought no witnesses to show that A.J. Davis ever
|
||
spoke of the will; not a word. Gentlemen, let us be controlled by
|
||
the natural, by the reasonable, by the probable.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
13
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
In 1868 one of the executors died -- Job Davis. I think
|
||
Sanders said that if a man of Judge Davis's intelligence, knowing
|
||
what a difficult thing a will is to write, should have allowed
|
||
Mr. Knight, a Kentucky lawyer, to draw his will, who had not had
|
||
much practice, why, he is astonished at that, and in the next
|
||
breath tells you that Andrew J. Davis employed a twenty-two year
|
||
old boy who could not spell "give" to draw up his will in 1866.
|
||
Isn't it wonderful what strange things people can swallow and
|
||
then find fault with others! Now, remember:
|
||
|
||
In 1868 Job Davis died; then there was only one executor to
|
||
that will. A.J. Davis went on piling up his money, thousands on
|
||
thousands. Greed grew with age, as it generally does. Gold is
|
||
spurned by the young and loved by the old. There is something
|
||
magnificent after all about the extravagance of youth, and there
|
||
is something pitiful about the greed of old age. But he kept
|
||
getting money, more and more, and in '85 he had sold the
|
||
Lexington mine. He was then a millionaire. In '85, I think. They
|
||
say he sold that mine in '81, maybe he was then a millionaire.
|
||
There was the will of '66 down in Salt Creek township, used as a
|
||
model for other wills, for the purpose of teaching the neighbors
|
||
spelling and elocution, to say nothing of punctuation. They got
|
||
up little will soirees down there -- will parties -- and all the
|
||
neighbors came in and Mrs. Downey read it aloud and wept when she
|
||
thought it was the writing of her brother Job. That accounts for
|
||
the tear drops, I suppose; the round spots on the will. 1885;
|
||
Andrew J. Davis worth millions. Then what happened? Then James
|
||
Davis, the other executor, died. Then there was a will floating
|
||
around down in Salt Creek township, sometimes in a trunk,
|
||
sometimes in a box, other times in an old envelope, other times
|
||
in a wrapper, and when I think of the shadowy adventures of that
|
||
document it makes me lonesome. James is dead, poor Job nothing
|
||
but dust; a will down there with no executors at all; and A.J.
|
||
Davis did not know in whose possession it was, and never wrote to
|
||
find out. Let us be governed by the natural, gentlemen, by the
|
||
probable. Never found out, never inquired, and after James Davis
|
||
died he lived four years more. I think James Davis died on the
|
||
5th of December, 1885, then he lived a little more than three
|
||
years after he knew that both executors were dead and did not
|
||
know whether the will existed or not. Judge Dixon tells us
|
||
perhaps if he had made a will before he died it would have been
|
||
different from this. I think perhaps it would. What makes him
|
||
think that it would have been different? If that will existed in
|
||
Salt Creek township he knew it, and he knew it in 1885, 6, 7, 8,
|
||
9, and when death touched with his icy finger his heart he knew
|
||
it then, and if he made that will in '66, it was his will when he
|
||
died unless it had been revoked. He knew what he was doing.
|
||
|
||
I tell you there was no will down in Salt Creek township at
|
||
all; there wasn't any here. There have been a good many since.
|
||
Now, where is the evidence that he ever thought of this will,
|
||
that he ever spoke of it?
|
||
|
||
What else? He appointed three executors of his will, that
|
||
is, in '66, if he made it, and in that he provided that a like
|
||
maintenance should be given to Thomas Jefferson, Pet Davis and
|
||
Miss Bergett, all three of Van Buren County, State of Iowa. What
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
14
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
else did he say? That the executors should have the right of
|
||
fixing that amount, and whatever amount in their judgment should
|
||
be fixed should be final. What is the legal effect of that? The
|
||
legal effect of that is that the estate could not have passed to
|
||
John A. Davis until the last who had a life interest was dead.
|
||
The proceeds could have been taken, every cent of them, from that
|
||
estate and given to the three persons for life maintenance, and
|
||
the youngest of those persons was four years old. John A. Davis
|
||
would have had to wait seventeen years. And do you think that
|
||
A.J. Davis ever made a will like that, putting it into the power
|
||
of two executors to divert the entire income to certain persons
|
||
and that there could be no division until they were all dead.
|
||
|
||
Now, another improbability. Recollect, all the time. that we
|
||
are to be governed by reason and naturalness. Now, then, it was
|
||
claimed that Judge Davis held certain relations with a certain
|
||
Miss Caroline Bergett. It was claimed that a daughter known as
|
||
Pet Davis was his. It was also claimed that a boy, Thomas
|
||
Jefferson Davis, was his son. Nobody tells the truth in this will
|
||
although it has been alluded to and argued as well, I think, as
|
||
could be. There is this trouble in the will that though the boy
|
||
Jeff was never in Van Buren County until he was twelve years old
|
||
-- was never there until six years after the will was dated, yet
|
||
his supposed father describes him as of Van Buren County.
|
||
|
||
Next, Miss Caroline Bergett had married a man by the name of
|
||
W.V. Smith in 1853, and in 1858, W.V. Smith took his wife and
|
||
children and moved to Texas -- eight years before this will was
|
||
made, and yet A.J. Davis forgot her name, forgot her residence,
|
||
forgot the residence of the boy that was imputed to him; that of
|
||
itself is enough to show that he was not present when the will
|
||
was made. If there is anything on earth that he would remember
|
||
this is it, and you know it. Although Mrs. Downey could not
|
||
remember when she was married or when her first child was born,
|
||
she does remember the time it took her to dust the room where
|
||
there was a clothes-press, a table and three or four chairs. She
|
||
recollects that.
|
||
|
||
Another improbability:
|
||
|
||
John A. Davis, the proponent, had charge of the Davis farm
|
||
down in Iowa and stayed there for six years after this alleged
|
||
will was made, and although he was acquainted with the Quigleys,
|
||
the Henshaws, the Sconces, and all the aristocracy of the
|
||
neighborhood, he says he never heard of the existence of this
|
||
will which so many people of that section talked about. What a
|
||
place for keeping secrets!
|
||
|
||
Senator Sanders says that the reason Judge Davis made his
|
||
will in Salt Creek township was because in that township they
|
||
knew about this woman or these women and these children, and he
|
||
didn't want to go into any other community and make his will.
|
||
|
||
Any need of publishing his will? Any need of reading any
|
||
more than the attesting clause to the attesting witnesses? Any
|
||
need to divulge a line? None. Ah, but Senator Sanders said that
|
||
he wanted to keep the secret, That is the reason he left the will
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
15
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
upon that table and rode away in a debonair kind of style on his
|
||
roan horse with the bobtail, leaving a congregation of Salt Creek
|
||
loafers to read his will. He wanted to keep it secret; hoped that
|
||
it would never get out. Imagine the scene, Job Davis writing the
|
||
will; Mrs. Downey with a duster tucked under her arm like the
|
||
soubrette in a theater. Well, when he was writing the will she
|
||
was looking over his shoulder and read the will as fast as he
|
||
wrote it. That makes me think of the fellow who was writing a
|
||
letter and there was a man looking over his shoulder, so he said:
|
||
"I would write more but there is a dirty dog looking over my
|
||
shoulder," and the fellow said: "You are a liar."
|
||
|
||
Everybody read it. Mrs. Downey read it; she read it as Job
|
||
wrote it; then he read it aloud; and then he went and got Sconce
|
||
and read it again; then in comes Glasgow and he read it. I think
|
||
Mrs. Downey must have read this will ten or twelve times.
|
||
|
||
Mr. MYERS. She said twenty-five.
|
||
|
||
Mr. INGERSOLL. Oh, yes; twenty-five, because it was in job's
|
||
handwriting; and whenever the twilight crept around the farm
|
||
bringing a little sadness, a little pathetic feeling, she would
|
||
light a candle and hunt the will, and read it just to think about
|
||
Job. She would see the words "guive" and "wherther" and all that
|
||
brought back Job, and she used to wonder "wherther" he was in
|
||
Paradise or not.
|
||
|
||
Now, John A. lived down there and knew all these people and
|
||
never heard of that will.
|
||
|
||
What do you think of that? Why is it that John never got any
|
||
information from Sconce? Sconce, who saw the will written and who
|
||
was one of the attesting witnesses. Why didn't he hear of it from
|
||
old Downey? Why didn't he hear of it from the Quigleys or the
|
||
Dotsous? Why didn't he hear of it in Salt Creek township, when it
|
||
was seen and read and read and read again until I think many of
|
||
them knew it by heart? And yet the only person really interested
|
||
was walking around unconscious of his great good fortune, and
|
||
nobody ever told him. There is another thing: For four months
|
||
after Andrew J. Davis died nobody told John about the will.
|
||
Nearly four months passed away; I think he died on the 11th of
|
||
March, 1890, and this will came to John on the first day of July.
|
||
All the neighbors knew it. Just as soon as A.J. died, they all
|
||
said: "John is coming right into the fortune now" only nobody
|
||
told John; and the first man we find with the will is James R.
|
||
Eddy, and the next man we find with the will is John A. Davis,
|
||
the proponent. When John A. Davis saw this will, leaving him four
|
||
or five million dollars, it did not take much to convince him
|
||
that the signature was genuine. Human nature is made that way. If
|
||
it was leaving four or five millions to either of us, including
|
||
the sinner who addresses you, the probability is that I would
|
||
say, "Well, that looks pretty genuine -- pretty genuine." And
|
||
then if I could get a few other fellows to swear that it was, I
|
||
would feel certain, and say, "That is my money."
|
||
|
||
Now, another improbability. All the evidence shows that
|
||
Judge Davis was a business-like, quiet, methodical, careful,
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
16
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
suspicious man, secretive, keeping his business to himself,
|
||
keeper of his own counsels; and when he did make a will it was
|
||
sealed; it was given to one of his friends to put away, and to
|
||
keep. It did not become the common property of the neighborhood.
|
||
He did not mount his roan horse and ask the people of the
|
||
community to look at it. He was a methodical, business-like man,
|
||
and I suppose Many of you, gentlemen of the jury, knew him; and I
|
||
shall rely somewhat on your knowledge of A.J. Davis, for you to
|
||
say whether he made this will, whether in 1866 he left his old
|
||
father naked to the world; whether he cared nothing for brothers
|
||
and sisters; whether he cared nothing for the children of the
|
||
sister that raised him. I leave it for you to say. You probably
|
||
know something about this matter. Andrew J. Davis, when he was a
|
||
child, when all the children were gathered around the same knee,
|
||
the children that had been nourished at the same tender and holy
|
||
breast, he would not have done this then. If some good fortune
|
||
came to one, it was divided.
|
||
|
||
How beautiful the generosity, the hospitality of childhood!
|
||
But as they grow old there comes the love of gold, and the love
|
||
of gold seems to have the same effect upon the heart that it does
|
||
upon the country where it is found. All the roses fade, the
|
||
beautiful green trees lose their leaves, and there is nothing in
|
||
the heart but sage brush. And so it is with the land that holds
|
||
within the miserly grip of rocks what we call the precious
|
||
metals.
|
||
|
||
The next question in the case is the Knight will. Was any
|
||
such will made? And I say here to-day, knowing what I am saying,
|
||
I never saw upon the witness stand a man who appeared to be more
|
||
candid, more anxious and desirous of telling the exact truth than
|
||
E.W. Knight, and from what I have heard there is not a man in
|
||
Montana with a better reputation. He has no interest in this
|
||
business, not one penny; and it was months and months after the
|
||
death of Judge Davis that we knew such a will ever existed --
|
||
that is, on our side. Either Mr. Knight was telling what he
|
||
believed to be true, or he was perjuring himself. No ifs and ands
|
||
about it. He is a man of intelligence and knows what he is
|
||
saying. He swears that A.J. Davis made a will.
|
||
|
||
And what else does he swear to? That there was also the
|
||
draft of a will, which gave away the mine or provided for its
|
||
working, and then at the end of that draft, provided that the
|
||
rest of the property should be divided in accordance with the
|
||
statute. Thereupon Mr. Knight told him: "Your heirs would
|
||
interfere by injunction, and you had better bequeath your whole
|
||
property and fix the amount to be expended in the development of
|
||
the mine." Thereupon he made another will, and that will was
|
||
signed.
|
||
|
||
Now, Mr. Knight knows whether it was signed or not, The will
|
||
was signed or Mr Knight Committed perjury knowingly, willfully
|
||
and corruptly. What does he say? That it was signed. What else?
|
||
That it was attested. Then these gentlemen came forward with Mr.
|
||
Talbot, who says that Knight said that when Davis came to the
|
||
bank to get the will he thought he was going to execute it. That
|
||
is, the idea being, it was not signed.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
17
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
What was it attested for if it was not signed? That is
|
||
absurd to the verge of idiocy. But they say that Mr. Knight is
|
||
not corroborated. Let us see. He says that Andrew J. Davis made a
|
||
will. Mr. Keith swears that A.J. Davis made a will. Knight says
|
||
that Davis went out and brought Keith in, and Keith swears that
|
||
he lived next door and A.J. Davis did come in there and get him
|
||
and he knows the time on account of the sickness of his child.
|
||
Corroboration number two. Knight swears that Davis then went for
|
||
another man. Keith says that he did go and get Caleb Irvine.
|
||
Corroboration number three. Knight said one of the men who signed
|
||
the will was in his working clothes. Corroboration number four.
|
||
Knight swears that Davis read the attesting clause. Keith swears
|
||
the same. Keith swears that Davis signed it, that he signed it,
|
||
and then Irvine signed it. What more? He swears that Knight wrote
|
||
it, and he was writing it when he went in. And yet they have --
|
||
and I will use an expression of one of the learned counsel -- the
|
||
audacity to say that Mr. Knight has not been corroborated.
|
||
|
||
And they would have you believe that Knight took that will
|
||
over to Helena and put it in the safe when it was not signed by
|
||
A.J. Davis, and they would make you think besides that, that it
|
||
was attested by two witnesses, and that two witnesses had to say
|
||
that they saw A.J. Davis sign it, that he signed it in their
|
||
presence, and that they attested his signature in his presence
|
||
and in the presence of each other. They proved a little too much,
|
||
gentlemen. They proved that by Talbot. They proved that by Andrew
|
||
J. Davis, Jr., who expects to fall heir to all that is taken, and
|
||
they proved it also by John A. Davis, the proponent,
|
||
|
||
RECESS.
|
||
|
||
May it please the Court and gentlemen: When we adjourned I
|
||
was talking about the testimony of Mr. Knight, and the making of
|
||
the Knight will. The evidence is, the way that will came to be
|
||
made, or what started it, is, as follows: A.J. Davis borrowed of
|
||
the First National Bank of Helena forty thousand dollars to put
|
||
in the mines, and Governor Hauser remarked when 'he got the
|
||
money: "Another old man going to fool with mines until he gets
|
||
broke." And that it seems piqued A.J. Davis, touched his vanity a
|
||
little, and then he said: "That mine shall be developed whether I
|
||
live or die. I am satisfied that it is a good mine, and I am
|
||
going to make a will and I am going to provide in that will for
|
||
the mine being developed." And thereupon he talked with Mr.
|
||
Knight. And finally Knight drew up a draft of a will, according
|
||
to his testimony, providing for the working of that mine. And
|
||
what did he say when he got through with it? "Now as to the
|
||
balance of the property, let it be divided according to law. That
|
||
makes a good will." That is what he said. Then Mr. Knight said to
|
||
him: "If you make the will that way it may be that the heirs will
|
||
come in and enjoin the working of the mine on the ground that it
|
||
is a waste of money. You had better make a full will and dispose
|
||
of all your property as you may desire, and fix the amount to be
|
||
used in the development of that mine."
|
||
|
||
Now, this is either true or false. It is true if Mr. Knight
|
||
can be believed; and he can be believed if any gentleman can be
|
||
trusted.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
18
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
What more? Knight says that A.J. Davis made the memoranda
|
||
from which to draw that will, had his manager come, and in that
|
||
will it told how the shafts should be run, how much work should
|
||
be done, and charged his trustees to do development work up to a
|
||
certain amount.
|
||
|
||
Is that all born of the fancy of this gentleman? And can you
|
||
believe that a man like Mr. Knight, who has run the largest bank
|
||
in Montana for twenty-five years -- can you believe that such a
|
||
man, who is not in any necessity, who is not in need of money,
|
||
comes here and swears to what he knows to be a lie, and makes
|
||
this all out of his own head, carves it out of his imagination?
|
||
|
||
The second will was made, the second will was signed, the
|
||
second will was attested, the second will was given Mr. Knight to
|
||
keep. They say it was not signed, and yet Mr. Knight swears he
|
||
told one man about it. He told Mr. Kleinschmidt, so that if
|
||
anything happened to him, Knight, he would know that Knight had
|
||
in that vault the will of Andrew J. Davis. Do you think he would
|
||
have done that if the will had not been signed, if it were worth
|
||
only waste paper? And yet they are driven to that absurdity for
|
||
the purpose of attacking the evidence of this man. It will not
|
||
do.
|
||
|
||
Judge Knowles said that in a conversation at Garrison, he
|
||
said that in the will the mine was left to Erwin Davis, and the
|
||
reason given for it was that Erwin Davis was a business man. Now,
|
||
the only way that can be explained, is one of two ways. One is
|
||
that Judge Knowles has gotten two matters mixed; the other is
|
||
that he is absolutely mistaken.
|
||
|
||
Judge Knowles, the President of the First National Bank of
|
||
Butte -- Judge Knowles, who has been the attorney of Andrew J.
|
||
Davis, Jr. -- Judge Knowles had this conversation, or some
|
||
conversation, with Knight; and why would Knight have taken pains
|
||
to tell him a deliberate falsehood?
|
||
|
||
There is something more. After all this occurred, Andrew J.
|
||
Davis, Jr. went to Mr. Knight and asked him to write out what he
|
||
remembered about that will, and Knight dictated it on the spot
|
||
and sent it to him.
|
||
|
||
Where is that letter? Here it is. I want to read that letter
|
||
to this jury. That was a letter written long ago. A letter
|
||
written before this will was filed in this court. A letter
|
||
written before Mr. Knight knew that A.J. Davis, Jr. had any will.
|
||
A letter written before Knight imagined there could ever be a
|
||
lawsuit on the subject. Andrew J. Davis Jr. went to him and asked
|
||
him to write out what he knew about that will, and he turned,
|
||
according to his own testimony, and dictated it, and sent it to
|
||
him, like a frank, candid, honest man; and before I get through I
|
||
will read that letter, and when it is read I want you to see how
|
||
it harmonizes absolutely and perfectly with his testimony here on
|
||
the stand.
|
||
|
||
I will draw another distinction. Mr. Knight gave two
|
||
depositions in this case. These depositions have not been
|
||
suppressed like the deposition taken of Sconce. Not suppressed.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
19
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
Why? Because we are willing that the jury should read the two
|
||
depositions and hear his testimony besides, and there is not the
|
||
slightest contradiction in the depositions themselves, or between
|
||
the depositions or either one of them and his evidence that he
|
||
gave here -- except two that they claim; and think what immense
|
||
contradictions they are.
|
||
|
||
In one deposition he says that A.J. Davis left some bequests
|
||
to some aunts. Mr. Knight swears on the stand that he never said
|
||
aunts, he said sisters, but if he did say aunts he meant sisters,
|
||
because he never heard of his having any aunts, and yet that is
|
||
held up as a contradiction, and to such an extent that you are to
|
||
throw away the testimony of this man.
|
||
|
||
Now, here is the letter. This will was filed July 24, 1890,
|
||
and when he wrote this letter he did not know that A.J. Davis Jr.
|
||
knew of a will, or that John A. Davis knew of a will. And this is
|
||
what he writes:
|
||
|
||
Helena, Montana, July 22, 1890.
|
||
|
||
I beg to say that some time in 1877 or 1878, I made a draft
|
||
of a will for your uncle Andrew J. Davis, which he duly executed,
|
||
and left the same on file with me, as a special deposit for two
|
||
or three years, when the same was canceled and destroyed; when I
|
||
was led to believe and to conclude that he had made and executed
|
||
a will to supersede and take the place of that.
|
||
|
||
That explains Talbot's testimony. Instead of saying to
|
||
Talbot that A.J. Davis came there, as he thought, to execute the
|
||
will, and destroyed that will, it not being signed, what he said
|
||
was that he destroyed the will, but from the way he acted he
|
||
thought he was going to make another, that he was going to
|
||
execute a will; and this is exactly what Mr. Talbot said. To
|
||
execute a will, and it took a re-direct examination to swap the
|
||
"a" for "the".
|
||
|
||
I cannot satisfactorily recall the considerations and
|
||
provisions of said will drawn by me, but the main burden and
|
||
desire was that the work on the mine known as the Lexington,
|
||
should be continued to a certain amount of development, and that
|
||
the mill should be carried on under a certain management, and
|
||
after providing for the payment of his just debts, he made
|
||
certain bequests naming certain nephews and nieces, running from
|
||
ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars each, and you are
|
||
especially named for the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, and
|
||
if the estate exceeded in value the net sum of five hundred
|
||
thousand dollars, then those bequests where to be increased; and
|
||
if in excess of one million dollars, the further increase was
|
||
named and specified.
|
||
|
||
That is the letter he wrote before he ever knew there would
|
||
be this suit; before he knew of the existence of this will.
|
||
|
||
A certain boy named Jefferson -- claimed to be his son --
|
||
was given the sum of twenty thousand dollars to be paid to him in
|
||
yearly sums of five thousand dollars for four years, and the same
|
||
provision as to a certain girl, claimed to be his child.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
20
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
Is that not exactly what he swore to on this stand?
|
||
|
||
Certain executors named E.W. Knight, S.T. Hauser, and W.W.
|
||
Dixon, each to receive the sum of ten thousand dollars for
|
||
services.
|
||
|
||
Yours truly,
|
||
|
||
E.W. KNIGHT.
|
||
|
||
Now, gentlemen, they were informed of the existence of that
|
||
will and of its destruction, and were so informed before John A.
|
||
Davis filed this will. And when we pleaded this will, John A.
|
||
Davis pleaded that it had bean republished, and yet no evidence
|
||
was given in of any republication. They knew that under the
|
||
statute of Montana, when a man makes will number one, and
|
||
afterwards makes will number two, and afterwards destroys will
|
||
number two, that will number one is not revived; that the making
|
||
of the second will kills the first, and the destruction of the
|
||
second kills that, and leaves the man intestate and without any
|
||
will. Now, there is the letter of Mr. Knight -- full, free,
|
||
frank, candid, honorable, like the man himself. He says there
|
||
that he does not remember all the provisions, but he does
|
||
remember that he provided for some nephews and nieces, and
|
||
provided for Andrew J. Davis, Jr., twenty-five thousand dollars,
|
||
for one Jefferson twenty thousand, for the girl about the same,
|
||
and that he provided also for the executors of the will, and
|
||
appointed Knight, Hauser, and Dixon as his executors. That is
|
||
exactly what he says here.
|
||
|
||
Now, was that will made? Have they impeached Mr. Keith? I
|
||
tell them now that they cannot impeach him. He has sworn to the
|
||
making of that will, apart and separate from Mr. Knight. Oh, they
|
||
say, why didn't they bring Knight in, and prove by him that he
|
||
then recollected Mr. Keith? What has that to do with it? Mr.
|
||
Keith recollected Mr. Knight, swore that he wrote the will, and
|
||
that he was writing it when he came in, and swore that he
|
||
attested it, that Davis signed it, and Irvine also signed it.
|
||
What more do we want on that will? I say, gentlemen, that the
|
||
will of 1880 ends this case. There is not ingenuity enough in the
|
||
world to get around it, and there was and never will be enough
|
||
brains crammed into one head to dodge it. That will was made, and
|
||
every man on the jury knows it. That will was executed by Andrew
|
||
J. Davis, every man of you knows it, and the will was afterwards
|
||
destroyed.
|
||
|
||
Now, the question is, did that second will revoke the first
|
||
will? Had it a revoking clause in it? E.W. Knight swears it had,
|
||
and he swears that he copied it from a will made by an uncle of
|
||
his named John Knight, and he had that will in his possession
|
||
here and in that will there are two revocation clauses, and
|
||
Knight swears that he copied those clauses, and right here it may
|
||
be well enough to make another remark. When he read the will to
|
||
A.J. Davis, and the passage "hereby revoking all wills," Davis
|
||
said: "There is no need of putting that in. I never made any
|
||
other will. This is the first." Knight said to him, "Well, that
|
||
is the way, that is the form, and I think it is safer to have it
|
||
that way." And Davis said: "All right; let it go."
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
21
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
How do you fix that? There is no way out of it, that the
|
||
will was made in 1880, revoking all former wills. What else? The
|
||
conditions of the will of 1880, with regard to working the mine,
|
||
with regard to bequests to nephews, with regard to bequests to
|
||
others, with regard to the twenty thousand dollars given to Jeff
|
||
Davis, and the twenty thousand dollars given to the girl; these
|
||
provisions are absolutely inconsistent with the provisions of
|
||
this will of 1866. So on both grounds the will of 1880 destroys,
|
||
cancels, and forever renders null and void the will of 1866, even
|
||
if it had been the genuine will of A.J. Davis, and the Court will
|
||
instruct you to that effect.
|
||
|
||
And after Mr. Keith had testified, the proponents in this
|
||
case subpoenaed Mr. Knight, and if they thought that Knight would
|
||
swear that Keith was not the man, why did they not put him on the
|
||
stand? They ran no risk. He is an honest man. He would tell the
|
||
truth. I never had the slightest fear in bringing an honest man
|
||
on the stand. Never. I want facts, and I hope as long as I live
|
||
that I shall never win a case that I ought not to win on the
|
||
facts. No man should wish or endeavor to win a case that he knows
|
||
is wrong.
|
||
|
||
I say there is not a man on this jury but believes in his
|
||
heart and soul this minute that this will was made. You have to
|
||
throw aside the testimony of a perfectly good man, and no matter
|
||
whether what he said about Erwin Davis to Judge Knowles was true
|
||
or not -- and I must say that I never saw a witness on the stand
|
||
in my life more eager to tell his story than Judge Knowles was.
|
||
Never. He was bound to get it in or die. He answered questions
|
||
over objections before the Court was allowed to pass upon the
|
||
objections. Why? Because he is the President of the First
|
||
National Bank. Now, without saying that he was dishonest about
|
||
it, I say he was mistaken. Knight never said one word of that
|
||
kind to him.
|
||
|
||
It was impossible that he could have said it. So is Mr.
|
||
Talbot mistaken. So is Andrew J. Davis, Jr. mistaken, and so is
|
||
John A. Davis mistaken. Think of the idiotic idea that a will,
|
||
not signed, was given to Knight to keep, attested by two
|
||
witnesses, and not signed by the testator. Idiotic! Now, as I
|
||
understand it, gentlemen, you will have to find that that will
|
||
was made. Now, what is the next great question in this case, and
|
||
the question that will be argued at some length, probably, by the
|
||
other side? And why? Because it is the first and only point, so
|
||
far as facts are concerned, that they have won in this case, just
|
||
one. And what is that? Our experts said that they thought that
|
||
the ink was nigrosin ink, and the fact that they wanted a test
|
||
proves that they were sincere. Their witnesses said they did not
|
||
think it was nigrosin ink. Mr. Hodges said it had too much
|
||
lustre, but that there was only one way in which it could be
|
||
absolutely determined and that was by a chemical test. But, say
|
||
these gentlemen, or rather said Judge Dixon, "the moment that ink
|
||
turned red the whole case of the contestants was wrecked." Let us
|
||
see.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
22
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
If there had been no logwood ink in existence -- not a
|
||
particle -- after the 20th day of July, 1866; if, on the night of
|
||
the 20th of July, 1866, all the logwood ink on earth had been
|
||
destroyed and then this ink had turned out to be logwood, why, of
|
||
course, it would have been a demonstration that this paper was
|
||
written as far back as the 20th of July, 1866. If it had turned
|
||
out that it was written in nigrosin ink and that that had only
|
||
been invented in 1878, it would have been a demonstration that
|
||
the will was a forgery. But you must recollect the fact that it
|
||
is written in logwood ink is not only consistent with its
|
||
genuineness, but consistent with its being a forgery. Why? There
|
||
was logwood ink in existence in 1890, plenty of it, and if Mr.
|
||
Eddy wrote this will in 1890, he could have written it in logwood
|
||
ink; and the fact that it is written in logwood ink does not show
|
||
that it was written in 1866. Why? Because there was logwood ink
|
||
in existence every year since 1866, till now.
|
||
|
||
Suppose I said that the paper was only ten years old and it
|
||
turned out that it was forty, is that a demonstration in favor of
|
||
the other side? If it turned out to be ten, it is a demonstration
|
||
on our side.
|
||
|
||
But if it turned out to be forty, is not that consistent
|
||
with the genuineness of the instrument, and also with the
|
||
spuriousness of the same instrument? You can see that. Nobody is
|
||
smart enough to fool you on that. Nobody. Take the whole question
|
||
of ink out and the question is still whether Eddy wrote it or
|
||
not. Take the ink all out and it is still the question whether
|
||
Job Davis wrote it or not. Absolutely, and all the test proved
|
||
was, that our experts -- some of them -- were mistaken about its
|
||
being nigrosin ink. Mr. Tolman stated that it was impossible to
|
||
tell without a chemical test; that it looked like nigrosin ink
|
||
and from the manner in which it seemed to run he thought it was
|
||
nigrosin ink, but that it was impossible to tell without a test.
|
||
Mr. Hodges, their expert, said it looked to him like logwood ink;
|
||
that it had too much lustre for nigrosin, but he added that it
|
||
was impossible to tell without a chemical test. That is what he
|
||
said. Mr. Ames said the same thing, and I appeal to you,
|
||
gentlemen, if Mr. Ames did not have the appearance of an honest,
|
||
of a candid, and of a fair man. Professor Hagan said that it was
|
||
nigrosin ink, but he admitted that the only way to know was to
|
||
test it. And what else? Their own expert, Mr. Hodges, said that
|
||
logwood ink penetrates the paper. If this ink has been on here
|
||
twenty-five, years it penetrates the paper.
|
||
|
||
Sometimes an accident happens in our favor; a piece of that
|
||
will was torn off this morning. You see the edge there torn off
|
||
slanting. You see that "o-f"; how much that ink has sunk into
|
||
that paper. Not the millionth part of a hair. It lies dead upon
|
||
the top. Just see how the ink went in there -- not a particle. It
|
||
lies right on top. I would call that "float." There is the other
|
||
edge. There is where the ink stops. It has not entered a
|
||
particle. And when You go to your room I want you to look at it.
|
||
That ink has not penetrated a particle. And let us see what this
|
||
witness Hodges says: "Logwood ink penetrates the paper." There it
|
||
is, "to determine the nature of the ink, use hydrochloric acid."
|
||
What else?
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
23
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
"I think this will was written with Reimal's ink, and that
|
||
was made in Germany in the neighborhood of 1840. Reimal's ink
|
||
penetrates the paper." And then they say that we endeavored to
|
||
draw a distinction between modern and ancient. This is what Mr.
|
||
Hodges says about it.
|
||
|
||
On the addition of hydrochloric acid to logwood ink it will
|
||
turn to a bright red. The old-fashioned ink was manufactured by
|
||
mixing a decoction of logwood with chromide of potash and formed
|
||
a blue black solution. Logwood inks as made to-day differ from
|
||
those, in that the modern logwood inks contain another sort of
|
||
chrome than chromide of potash; they contain chromium in the form
|
||
of an acetate or a chlorine.
|
||
|
||
Hodges was the man that talked about ancient and modern
|
||
logwood inks; and he, before the test was made, said that the old
|
||
logwood ink would turn a bright red, modern logwood not so
|
||
bright. And after the evidence was all in, Professor Elwell came
|
||
smilingly to the post and said, "they have got it exactly wrong
|
||
end to; the older the duller and the newer the brighter." And
|
||
after a moment said, "This was kind of dull." Before the test was
|
||
made, Mr. Tolman swore, "I agree with Professor Hodges that if it
|
||
is an old logwood ink it will turn a bright, scarlet red. In the
|
||
case of modern logwood inks I don't agree with him, but to that
|
||
extent I think his tests are good," and he drew that distinction
|
||
before the test was made.
|
||
|
||
Gentlemen, you saw this will. I want to call your attention
|
||
to it again. You see that "j" in Sconce's name, that is pretty
|
||
red. Not so awfully scarlet, though, that it would affect a
|
||
turkey gobbler. You see it in "Job"; you see it in "James Davis,"
|
||
but there it is brown, and not red, and not scarlet, and no flame
|
||
in it, and Professor Hodges himself said that although both were
|
||
logwood inks, he would not swear that Job Davis and James Davis
|
||
were written with the same ink. Do you see the red in that "Job"?
|
||
Now find the red on that "s" of "James." He said he would not
|
||
swear that they were written in the same ink, but both in logwood
|
||
ink, that is to say, they might have been different inks. While I
|
||
would not swear that they were the same inks, I would swear that
|
||
both inks contained logwood. And that is all he swore to, and I
|
||
must say that I believe he was a perfectly honest, fair
|
||
gentleman.
|
||
|
||
Now, all that the ink test proves on earth is that it is
|
||
logwood instead of nigrosin, and that doer, not prove that Eddy
|
||
did not write the will, because there was plenty of logwood ink
|
||
when he did write it. That is the kind of ink he used. And it has
|
||
no more bearing -- the fact that it turned out to be logwood --
|
||
to show that it is a genuine will than though it had turned out
|
||
to be iron ink. Suppose the experts had been wrong on both sides,
|
||
and it had turned out to be iron ink, what would have happened
|
||
then? Is it a genuine will? Nothing can be more absurd than to
|
||
argue that that test settled the genuineness of this will.
|
||
|
||
Hodges says another thing; that perhaps the pen went to the
|
||
bottom of the ink bottle and got a little of the settlings of the
|
||
ink on it, when he wrote "James Davis," and consequently that has
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
24
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
a different color. Well, if the pen had gotten some of this
|
||
sediment on it, the more sediment the more logwood, and the more
|
||
logwood the brighter the color, Instead of that, it is dull.
|
||
|
||
There is another trouble: With regard to the experts, while
|
||
undoubtedly there are some men who do not swear to the exact
|
||
truth, whether paid or not, undoubtedly some men swear truthfully
|
||
who are paid. I do not believe that you doubt the testimony of
|
||
Hodges simply because you paid him so much a day. I don't. And
|
||
certainly we have found no men philanthropic enough to go around
|
||
the country swearing for nothing. I judge of the man's oath, not
|
||
by what he is paid, but by the manner in which he gives his
|
||
testimony -- by the reason there is behind it. That is the way I
|
||
judge and yet Senator Sanders judges otherwise, as he told you in
|
||
a burst of Montana zeal.
|
||
|
||
I like Montana, too, and I believe the Montana people are
|
||
big enough and broad enough not to have prejudice against a man
|
||
because he comes from another State. Every State in this Union is
|
||
represented in Montana, and the people who left the old settled
|
||
States and came out to the new Territories, dropped their
|
||
prejudices on the way -- and sometimes I have thought that that
|
||
is what killed the grass. I like a good, brave, free, candid,
|
||
chivalric people. I don't care where you come from -- I don't
|
||
care where you were born. We are all men, and we all have our
|
||
rights; and as long as the old flag floats over me, I have just
|
||
as many rights in Montana as I have in New York. And when you
|
||
come to New York I will see that you have as many rights, if you
|
||
are in my neighborhood, as you have in Montana. That is the kind
|
||
of nationality I believe in. I hate this little, provincial
|
||
prejudice; and yet Senator Sanders invoked that prejudice. That
|
||
insults you. We did not insult you when we asked you when you
|
||
went on the jury, if you cared whether the money stayed in Butte
|
||
or not, or whether you were interested or not, or related or not.
|
||
These were the questions asked every juror, and we relied
|
||
absolutely on your answers when you said that you were
|
||
unprejudiced, and that you would give us a fair trial; and we
|
||
believe you will.
|
||
|
||
Now, then, with regard to these experts, you have got to
|
||
judge each one by his testimony; and it is foolish it seems to
|
||
me, to call them vipers and pirates, as Senator Sanders did. A
|
||
very strong expression -- "vipers, pirates" living off, he said,
|
||
the substance of others; and yet he had an expert on the stand,
|
||
Mr. Dickinson; he had another, Mr. Elwell; he had another, Mr.
|
||
Hodges; and after that he rises up before this jury and calls
|
||
them "three vipers" and "three pirates." I never will do that. If
|
||
I ask a man to swear for me, and he does the best he can, I will
|
||
leave the "pirate" out.
|
||
|
||
I will drop the "viper," and I will stand by him, if I think
|
||
he is telling the truth; and if he is not I won't say much about
|
||
him; I don't want to hurt his feelings. But I want to call your
|
||
attention again to the fact that every expert on our side swore,
|
||
knowing that they had three experts on the other side, and that
|
||
if we made a mistake they could catch us in it; and we did make a
|
||
mistake in that ink; and the test showed that we made a mistake,
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
25
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
and that is all the test did show; but it did not show that the
|
||
will is genuine any more than if it had turned out to be carbon
|
||
ink; then both sides would have been mistaken. And yet after all
|
||
it did turn out to be modern logwood ink, and it did turn out not
|
||
to be Reimal's logwood ink, made of the chromate of potassium;
|
||
did turn out not to be that, and I say on this will that there is
|
||
an absolute, decided and distinct difference between the color on
|
||
the name Job Davis and the name James Davis. And right here, I
|
||
might as well say that that man Jackson, who came here from
|
||
Butler, Mo. -- and when I said Butler was a pretty tough place,
|
||
rose up in his wrath and said it was as good as New York any day
|
||
-- that man says that when he saw the will he does not remember
|
||
of seeing the names of James Davis and Sconce in it, but he did
|
||
remember of seeing the name of Job Davis. I don't think he saw
|
||
any of it. Now, there is another question here -- because I have
|
||
said enough about ink, at least enough to give you an inkling of
|
||
my views.
|
||
|
||
There is another question. Why didn't John A. Davis take the
|
||
stand? That is a serious question. john A. Davis had sworn, on
|
||
the 13th of March, 1890, that his brother died without a will.
|
||
John A. Davis, on the 24th day of July, 1890, filed a will in
|
||
which he was the legatee. That will came into his possession
|
||
under suspicious circumstances. What would a perfectly frank and
|
||
candid man have done? What would you have done? You would not
|
||
have allowed yourself to remain under suspicion one moment. You
|
||
would have said, "I got that will so and so." You would have let
|
||
in the light, "I obtained it in such a place, it is an honest,
|
||
genuine will, and here it is, and here are the witnesses to that
|
||
will." But instead of that, John A. Davis never opened his mouth,
|
||
except to file a petition swearing that it came into his
|
||
possession the first day of July. He knew that he was suspect,
|
||
didn't he? He knew that the men in whose veins his blood flowed
|
||
believed that the will was a forgery -- knew that good men and
|
||
women believed that he was a robber, and that he was endeavoring
|
||
to steal their portion. He knew that, and any man that loves his
|
||
own reputation and any man that ever felt the glow of honor in
|
||
his heart one moment, would not have been willing to rest under
|
||
such a suspicion or under such an imputation. He would have said:
|
||
"Here is its history, here is where I got it, it is not a forged
|
||
will. It is genuine. Here are the witnesses that know all about
|
||
it. Here is how I came into possession of it."
|
||
|
||
No, sir. Not a word. Speechless -- tongueless. And he comes
|
||
into this court and comes on to this stand to be a witness, and
|
||
is asked about a conversation he had with Burchett, and then we
|
||
asked him, "How did you come into the possession of that will?
|
||
"All his lawyers leaped between him and the answer to that
|
||
question. They objected. If he came by that will honestly he
|
||
would have said, "I am going to tell the whole story." He wants
|
||
you to believe that he came by it honestly, doesn't he? He wants
|
||
you to believe it. He not only wants you to believe it,
|
||
gentlemen, but he asks twelve men -- you -- to swear that he came
|
||
by it honestly, doesn't he? If you give your verdict that that is
|
||
a genuine will, then you give your oath that John A. Davis came
|
||
by it honestly; and he wants you twelve men to swear it. And yet
|
||
he dare not swear it himself. He wants you to do his swearing. He
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
26
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
is afraid to stand in your presence and tell the history of that
|
||
will. He is afraid to tell the name of the man from whom he
|
||
received it. He is afraid to tell how much he gave for it; afraid
|
||
to tell how much he promised. He is afraid to tell how they
|
||
obtained witnesses to substantiate it in the way they have. Well,
|
||
now, ought not you to let him tell his own story, ought not you,
|
||
gentlemen, to be clever enough to let him do his own swearing?
|
||
|
||
Now, I will ask you again if he came by that will honestly,
|
||
fairly, above board, would he not be glad to tell you the story?
|
||
Would he not be glad to make it plain to you? If that was a
|
||
perfectly honest will and came to him through perfectly pure
|
||
channels, would he not want you to know it? Would he not want
|
||
every man and woman in this city to knowit? Would he not want all
|
||
his neighbors to know it? And yet, he is willing, when this case
|
||
is being tried, and when he is on the stand, and asked how he got
|
||
the will -- he is willing to close his mouth -- willing to admit
|
||
that he is afraid to tell; and I tell you to-day, gentlemen, that
|
||
the silence of John A. Davis is a confession of guilt, and he
|
||
knows it, and his attorneys know it. A client afraid to swear
|
||
that he did not forge a will, or have it forged, and then want to
|
||
hire a man to defend him and call him honest! Well, he would have
|
||
to hire him; he would not get anybody for nothing. And yet he is
|
||
asking you to do it. If John A. Davis came properly by it, let
|
||
him say so under oath. Don't you swear to it for him, not one of
|
||
you.
|
||
|
||
Now, there is another question. Why did not James R. Eddy
|
||
take the stand? We charged him with forging the will. We made an
|
||
affidavit setting forth that he did forge the will, and in this
|
||
very court Mr. Dixon arose and said he was glad that the charge
|
||
had been fixed, and the man had been designated. Judge Dixon said
|
||
here, before this jury, when this case was opened, "the man who
|
||
was charged with forging this will will be here. He will stand
|
||
before this jury face to face; and he will explain his
|
||
connections with the will to your satisfaction." That is what
|
||
Judge Dixon said. Where is your witness? Where is James R. Eddy?
|
||
Why did you not bring him forward? I know he is here now --
|
||
delighted with the notoriety that this charge of forgery gives
|
||
him -- with a moral nature that is an abyss of shallowness, --
|
||
delighted to be charged with it, and he will probably be my
|
||
friend as long as he lives, because I have added to his notoriety
|
||
by saying he is a forger. Why did they not bring him on the
|
||
stand? Mr. Dixon gives one reason. Because the jury would not
|
||
believe him. And that is the man who is first found in possession
|
||
of this will. That is the man in whose hands it is, and it is
|
||
from that man that John A. Davis received it. And the reason that
|
||
he is not put on the stand is that it is the deliberate opinion
|
||
of the learned counsel in this case that no jury would believe
|
||
him.
|
||
|
||
How does that work with you? James R. Eddy here -- his
|
||
deposition here -- and they could not read his deposition because
|
||
he was here and they had him here and kept him here, so that we
|
||
could not read his deposition. They were bound that he should not
|
||
go on the stand. Why? Because the moment he got there he could be
|
||
asked, Where did you find the will? Who was present when you
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
27
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
found it? When did you first tell anybody about it? When did you
|
||
first show it to John A. Davis? How much did he agree to give yon
|
||
for it? What witnesses have you talked to in this case? What
|
||
witnesses have you written to in this case? What work have you
|
||
done in this case? What affidavits have you made in this case?
|
||
And what have you done with the other three wills that you have
|
||
in this case ?
|
||
|
||
Such questions might be asked him, and they were afraid to
|
||
put him on the stand. Every letter that he had written would have
|
||
been identified by him if he had been put on the stand. Maybe he
|
||
would have been compelled to write in the presence of the jury,
|
||
to see whether he would spell words correctly.
|
||
|
||
They knew that the moment he went on the stand their case
|
||
was as dead as Julius Caesar. They knew it and kept him off.
|
||
|
||
Now, there is only one way for them to win this case. And
|
||
that is to keep out the evidence. Only one way to win the case --
|
||
suppress John A. Davis. Keep your mouth closed or defeat will
|
||
leap out of it. Eddy, keep still. Don't let anything be seen that
|
||
will throw any light upon this. I ask you, gentlemen of the jury,
|
||
to take cognizance of what has been done in this case. Who is it
|
||
that has tried to get the light? Who is it that has tried to get
|
||
the evidence? Who is it that has objected? Who is it that wants
|
||
you to try this case in the dark? Who is it that wants you to
|
||
guess on your oaths? The failure of Eddy to testify is a
|
||
confession of guilt. They dare not put him on the stand -- dare
|
||
not.
|
||
|
||
Now, gentlemen, there is a little more evidence in this case
|
||
to which I am going to call your attention. Something has been
|
||
said about a conversation in March, 1891. Sconce had his
|
||
deposition taken in Bloomfield, Iowa. That deposition has been
|
||
suppressed. John A. Davis was there at the time it was taken.
|
||
John A. Davis and Sconce went into the passage leading up to the
|
||
office of Carruthers. Mr. Burchett, sheriff of the county, a man
|
||
having no possible earthly or heavenly interest in this business,
|
||
happened to stop at the corner to read his paper -- looked at it
|
||
as he opened it -- and he then and there heard John A. Davis say,
|
||
"Stick to that story and I will see that you get all the money
|
||
you have been promised," and thereupon Sconce replied, "All right
|
||
I'll do it." Sconce denies it, and that denial is not worth the
|
||
breath that he wasted in forming the denial. John A. Davis denies
|
||
it. Of course he denies it. But he dare not tell where he got
|
||
that will. He dare not do it. He wants you to do that for him. He
|
||
wants you to lift him out of the gutter and wash the mud off him.
|
||
He is afraid to do it himself.
|
||
|
||
I want to call your attention to that conversation, and that
|
||
of itself is enough to impeach Sconce. That is enough of itself
|
||
to show that John A. Davis was entering into a conspiracy or
|
||
rather had entered into one with Mr. Sconce. Now, gentlemen,
|
||
there is another thing, and we must not forget it. Curious people
|
||
down in Salt Creek township, on the other side; of course there
|
||
are plenty of good men there or the township could not exist, and
|
||
we had a good many of them here -- good, straight, honest,
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
28
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
intelligent looking men. But the other side had some -- all in
|
||
the family -- all of them.
|
||
|
||
Swaim, he was not in the family, but he is a clerk in
|
||
Tremble's bank, where Wallace is the cashier, where they suppress
|
||
depositions; say they are not finished when they are signed by
|
||
the person who swears to them.
|
||
|
||
John C. Sconce, the only living witness, whose "ancient but
|
||
ignoble blood has crept through rascals ever since the flood,"
|
||
cousin to James Davis, cousin to Job Davis, cousin to Mrs.
|
||
Downey, cousin to Eddy, cousin to Dr. Downey by marriage, brother
|
||
to T.J. Sconce, Jr., brother-in-law to Abe Wilkinson, cousin to
|
||
Tom Glasgow and Sam, cousin to Moses Davis, cousin to Alex.
|
||
Davis, uncle to Henshaw's daughter, and father-in-law of George
|
||
Quigley. Every one of them united. Blood is thicker than water.
|
||
Eddy stuck to his family.
|
||
|
||
James R. Eddy -- cousin to Sconce, son of Mrs. Downey, (Mrs.
|
||
Downey, the duster lady, who remembers that Davis asked her to
|
||
remain, but didn't ask her advice, didn't have her sign the will,
|
||
didn't give her any bequest, but there she was with her duster),
|
||
grandson of James Davis, nephew of Job Davis, and related by
|
||
blood or marriage to both the Glasgows, Moses and Alexander
|
||
Davis, to T.J. Sconce and J.C. Sconce, Jr., Abe Wilkinson, George
|
||
Quigley, S.M. Henshaw, (the celebrated lawyer). J.L. Hughes, and
|
||
Eli Dye, brother-in-law to C.O. Hughes, and foster brother to
|
||
John Lisle, and Mrs. A.S. Bishop. And it is just lovely about
|
||
John Lisle.
|
||
|
||
John Lisle is one of the fellows that saw this will. "How
|
||
did you come to see it, John?" "James Davis," he says, "was my
|
||
guardian and he had to give a bond, and so one day when James
|
||
Davis was away from home, I thought I would go and see the bond."
|
||
|
||
Of course he thought James Davis kept the bond that he gave
|
||
to somebody else -- to the county judge; but Mr. Lisle pretends
|
||
that he thought the bond would be in the possession of the man
|
||
who gave it. And so he sneaked in to look among the papers. Now,
|
||
do you believe such a story -- that he thought that man had the
|
||
bond? Didn't he know that the bond was given to somebody else?
|
||
Foolish! Bishop swears the same thing; James Davis was guardian
|
||
for his wife, and he was looking to see if James had the bond;
|
||
and another fellow by the name of Sconce, was looking for a note,
|
||
and when he opened this double sheet of paper folded four times
|
||
and happened to see Sconce's name he said: "Here it is -- a
|
||
promissory note."
|
||
|
||
Mary Ann Davis -- that is to say, Mrs. Eddy, that is to say,
|
||
Mrs. Downey, is the mother of J.P, Eddy, daughter of James Davis,
|
||
sister to Job, second cousin to Sconce, wife of Downey, and
|
||
related by blood or marriage to Tom and Sam Glasgow, Moses and
|
||
Alexander Davis, Abe Wilkinson, S.M. Henshavy, J,O, Sconce, Jr.,
|
||
T.J. Sconce, George Quigley and C.O. Hughes. All right in there,
|
||
woven together.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
29
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
E.H. Downey -- son-in-law of James Davis, brother-in-law of
|
||
Job, husband of Mary Ann Davis-Eddy-Downey, and step-father of
|
||
Mr. Eddy.
|
||
|
||
S.C. Sconce. Jr. -- cousin to Eddy, nephew of J.C. Sconce,
|
||
Sr., cousin to Mrs. Downey, cousin of E.H. Downey, son-in-law of
|
||
Henshaw, cousin to George Quigley, related to Tom and Sam
|
||
Glasgow, Abe Wflkffison and Moses and Alex Davis.
|
||
|
||
George Quigley -- son-in-law of Sconce.
|
||
|
||
Sam Glasgow -- cousin of Sconce, son-in-law of Dye, brother
|
||
to Tom Glasgow, brother-in-law to Moses and Alex. Davis, cousin
|
||
to Abe Wilkinson, and related by marriage to J.R. Eddy. Here they
|
||
are, same blood. All have the same kind of memory; runs in the
|
||
blood.
|
||
|
||
Henshaw -- father-in-law to J.C. Sconce, Jr. Lisle --
|
||
adopted son of James Davis, and his ward, and foster brother to
|
||
Eddy. A.S. Bishop -- married to Allie Lisle, ward of James Davis,
|
||
foster sister of James R. Eddy.
|
||
|
||
T.J. Sconce -- Eddy's cousin, J.R. Sconce's brother,
|
||
brother-in-law and cousin to the Glasgows, cousin to Alex. and
|
||
Moses Davis, brother-in-law to Abe Wilkinson and uncle to J.C.
|
||
Sconce, Jr.
|
||
|
||
Moses Davis -- cousin of Sconce, brother-in-law to the
|
||
Glasgows, cousin to Abe Wilkinson, brother of Alex. Davis, and
|
||
related to Eddy and Arthur Quigley.
|
||
|
||
Alexander Davis -- cousin to Sconce, brother of Moses Davis,
|
||
brother-in-law to the Glasgows, cousin to Wilkinson and related
|
||
by marriage to Arthur Quigley.
|
||
|
||
Abe Wilkinson -- brother-in-law to Sconce, cousin to Alex.
|
||
and Moses Davis, and cousin to the Glasgows.
|
||
|
||
Tom Glasgow -- cousin to Sconce, and Abe Wilkinson, and a
|
||
brother-in-law of Moses Davis, and a brother to Sam Glasgow, and
|
||
related by marriage to Eddy.
|
||
|
||
Arthur Quigley -- brother-in-law to Alex. Davis, and brother
|
||
to George Quigley, who is a son-in-law of Sconce. John L. Hughes
|
||
-- his nephew married Eddy's wife's sister. Eli Dye -- father-in-
|
||
law of Sam Glasgow.
|
||
|
||
There they are, all of them related except Swaim and
|
||
Duckworth and Taylor; and Duckworth, he is in the tie business
|
||
along with Eddy. There is the family tree. All. growing on the
|
||
same tree, and there is a wonderful likeness in the fruit. Why,
|
||
that Glasgow has as good a memory as Sconce. He remembers that
|
||
this is the same will he saw -- paper like that, and he swears --
|
||
I think it is Sam Glasgow -- that he did not read the contents or
|
||
see a signature. And yet he comes here, twenty-five years
|
||
afterwards, and swears it is the same paper. And then the paper
|
||
was clean and now it is covered with all kinds and sorts of
|
||
stains.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
30
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
Now, gentlemen, take the signature of A.J. Davis, and I want
|
||
you all to look at it. I say it is made of pieces. I say it is a
|
||
patchwork. It is a dead signature. It has no personality -- no
|
||
vitality in it, and I want you to look at it, and look at it
|
||
carefully. I say it is made of pieces. Of course every
|
||
counterfeit that is worth anything, looks like the original, and
|
||
the nearer it looks like the original the better the counterfeit.
|
||
All the witnesses on the side of the proponent who have sworn
|
||
that it is his signature, also swear that he wrote a rapid, firm
|
||
hand -- nervous, bold, free, and that he scarcely ever took his
|
||
pen from the paper from the time he commenced his name until he
|
||
finished; and I want you to look at that name. I will risk your
|
||
sense; I will risk your judgment -- honest, fair and free --
|
||
whether that is a made signature, or whether it is the honest
|
||
signature of any human being.
|
||
|
||
And now, gentlemen, one word more. I contend, first, that
|
||
the evidence shows beyond all doubt that Job Davis did not write
|
||
this -- will. Second, that it is shown beyond all doubt, that
|
||
James R. Eddy did write this will, and that that evidence amounts
|
||
to a demonstration. I claim that the will of 1880 was made
|
||
precisely as E.W. Knight and Mr. Keith swear; that that will was
|
||
utterly inconsistent with the will of 1866, even if that had been
|
||
genuine; that it revokes that will, that its provisions were
|
||
inconsistent, and that afterwards that will was destroyed, and
|
||
that there is not one particle of evidence beneath the canopy of
|
||
heaven to show that it was not made and to show that it was not
|
||
destroyed. And the Court will instruct you that the will of 1866,
|
||
even if genuine, is not revived.
|
||
|
||
This is the end of the case. So I claim that the
|
||
probabilities, the reason, the naturalness, are all on the side
|
||
of the contestants in this case -- all. And I tell you, that if
|
||
the evidence can be depended on at all, A.J. Davis went to his
|
||
grave with the idea that the law made a will good enough for him.
|
||
Do you believe, if he were here, if he had a voice, that he would
|
||
take this property and give it to John A. Davis; that he would
|
||
leave out the children of the very woman who raised him; that he
|
||
would leave out his other sisters, that he would leave out the
|
||
children of his sisters and brothers? Do you believe it? I know
|
||
that not one man on that jury believes it.
|
||
|
||
This case is in your hands. That property is in your hands.
|
||
All the millions, however many there may be, are in your hands;
|
||
they are to be disposed of by you under instructions from the
|
||
Court as to the law. You are to do, it. And, do you know, there
|
||
is no prouder position in the world, there is no more splendid
|
||
thing, than to be in a place where you can do justice. Above
|
||
everybody and above everything should be the idea of justice; and
|
||
whenever a man happens to sit on a jury in a case like this, or
|
||
in any other important case, he ought to congratulate himself
|
||
that he has the opportunity of showing, first, that he is a man,
|
||
and second, of doing what in his judgment ought to be done, and
|
||
there will never be a prouder recollection come to you hereafter
|
||
than that you did your honest duty in this case. Say to this
|
||
proponent: "If you wanted to show us that you got this will
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
31
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
honestly, why didn't you swear it; if you wanted us to believe it
|
||
was a genuine will, why didn't you have the nerve to take your
|
||
oath that it is a genuine will?"
|
||
|
||
Now, you have the opportunity, gentlemen, of doing what is
|
||
right. Your prejudice has been appealed to, but I say that you
|
||
have the manhood, that you have the intelligence, and that you
|
||
have the honesty to do exactly what you believe to be right; and
|
||
whether you agree with me or not, I shall not call in question
|
||
your integrity or your manhood, I am generous enough to allow for
|
||
differences of opinion. But when you come to make up your
|
||
verdict, I implore you to demand of yourselves the reasons; to be
|
||
guided by what is natural; to be guided by what is reasonable. I
|
||
want you to find that this will was found in the possession of
|
||
Eddy in April or March, next in the hands of John A. Davis; and
|
||
that John A. Davis dare not tell how he came in possession of it.
|
||
John A. Davis, on the edge of the grave -- for this world but a
|
||
few days, and according to the law without that will he could
|
||
have had an income of over fifty thousand a year. He was not
|
||
satisfied with that. He wanted to take from his own brothers and
|
||
sisters, wanted to leave his own blood in beggary.
|
||
|
||
He never saw the time in his life that he could earn five
|
||
thousand a year -- never. And he was not satisfied with fifty
|
||
thousand -- he wanted four and a half millions for himself.
|
||
|
||
Gentlemen, I want you to do justice between all these heirs.
|
||
I want you to show to the United States that you have the
|
||
manhood, that you are free from prejudice, that you are
|
||
influenced only by the facts, only by the evidence, and that
|
||
being so influenced, you give a perfectly fair verdict -- a
|
||
verdict that you will be proud of as long as you live. How would
|
||
you feel, to find a verdict here that this is a good will, and
|
||
afterwards have it turn out to be what it is -- an impudent,
|
||
ignorant forgery?
|
||
|
||
Now, all I ask of you is to take this evidence into
|
||
consideration. Don't be misled even by a Christian, or by a
|
||
sinner, for that matter. Let us be absolutely honest with each
|
||
other. We have been together for several weeks. We have gotten
|
||
tolerably well acquainted. I have tried to treat everybody fairly
|
||
and kindly, and I have tried to do so in this address.
|
||
|
||
I have had hard work to keep within certain limits. There
|
||
would words get into my mouth and insist on coming out, but I
|
||
said: "go away; go away." I don't want to hurt people's feelings
|
||
if I can help it. I don't want anyone unnecessarily humiliated,
|
||
but I say whatever stands between you and justice must give way;
|
||
and if you have to walk over reputations -- and if they become
|
||
pavement you cannot help it. You must do exactly what is right,
|
||
and let those who have done wrong bear the consequences.
|
||
|
||
Now, gentlemen, I have confidence in you. I have confidence
|
||
in this verdict. I think I know what it will be. It will be that
|
||
the will is spurious, and that the will of 1880 revoked it,
|
||
whether spurious or not. That is my judgment, and I don't think
|
||
there is any man in the world smart enough or ingenious enough to
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
32
|
||
|
||
ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE.
|
||
|
||
get any other verdict from you as long as John A. Davis was
|
||
afraid to swear that it was an honest will; as long as James R.
|
||
Eddy, the forger, dare not take the stand; and they will never
|
||
get a verdict in this world without taking the stand, and if they
|
||
do take it, that is the end. There is where they are.
|
||
|
||
Now, all I ask in the world, as I said, is a fair, honest,
|
||
impartial verdict at your hands. That I expect, More than that I
|
||
do not ask. And now, gentlemen, I may never see you again after
|
||
this trial is over -- separated we may be for-ever -- but I want
|
||
to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the attention you
|
||
have paid to the evidence in this case and for the patient
|
||
hearing you have given me.
|
||
|
||
NOTE: The Jury disagreed and the case was compromised.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
||
|
||
The Bank of Wisdom Inc. is a collection of the most
|
||
thoughtful, scholarly and factual books. These computer books are
|
||
reprints of suppressed books and will cover American and world
|
||
history; the Biographies and writings of famous persons, and
|
||
especially of our nations Founding Fathers. They will include
|
||
philosophy and religion. all these subjects, and more, will be
|
||
made available to the public in electronic form, easily copied
|
||
and distributed, so that America can again become what its
|
||
Founders intended --
|
||
|
||
The Free Market-Place of Ideas.
|
||
|
||
The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
|
||
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
|
||
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
|
||
us, we need to give them back to America.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
33
|
||
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