USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 17
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In my memory I know of no one, who, in his elo- quence, particularly in stump speaking, was so very attrac- tive as John Brough. He had a ringing tenor voice, as clear as a bell, and a fluence of words like the flow of a beautiful river, and the matter, as well as the manner of his speech, was always attractive and interesting. Clear back in 1842, I remember his first appearance here as a public speaker, when he made a democratic stump speech just before the Exchange, on the wharf on Front street, having before him thousands of people, and his voice was so loud, ringing and clear, that he gathered a large audi- ence on the bank on the other side of the river, in Coving- ton, who, hearing him so plainly, were interested through- out his whole speech, and frequently applauded his re-
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marks over the river. The night was bright moonlight, and the atmosphere pure and beautiful, thus lending, of course, a great help to his clear, melodious, clarion voice. I spoke that night, myself, as a young stumper, after Mr. Brough, and well do I remember my own loud voice, too, reaching with ease, the large audience on the other side of the river, which had been collected by the ringing tones of John Brough.
Charles Brough was also eloquent, though his elo- quence was rather in the sober, serious, pregnant matter than in the manner. Indeed, his manner was by no means agreeable, as lawyers used to too well know, who had to deal with him as prosecuting attorney. John was fat, fair and forty ; Charles was long, gaunt and younger, and really awkward in his way ; but, for all that, he was strong and powerful. He plodded, where John roved and ranged, but, after all, was a more reliable person, perhaps, in every regard, than his more eloquent brother. As a prosecuting attorney, Charles was notoriously hard and severe, and woe to the poor devils who got once in his clutches. There was no mercy for them. This, however, he himself used to say was altogether "official." Law- yers at the bar, however, were frequently astonished at hearing the-prosecuting attorney declare, in his State speeches before the jury, and this with a peculiar nasal twang, " If the prisoner is not guilty, why don't he prove his innocence-why don't he prove his innocence?" The only reply that his opponents could give to this was a vice versa, "If the prisoner is not innocent, why don't the prosecutor prove his guilt-why don't the prosecutor prove his guilt?"
But the Broughs were good lawyers, good politicians, and good men, and I must not forget to relate, though it
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much concerns myself, this particular remembrance of mine, of the magnanimity of Charley Brough as a demo- cratic politician and a man. Mr. Brough, having served one term of two years as prosecuting attorney, from 1842 to 1844, was a candidate for renomination by the demo- cratic convention at Carthage of those days, and reëlec- tion by the people. I, young, ambitious fellow that I was, was his opposing candidate for nomination, and came within just three votes of beating him at the convention. The next term I was again a candidate before the Car- thage convention for nomination as prosecutor, against many-I believe, seven-aspiring opponents, and I beat them all, and got the nomination, and was elected by the people ; and for this favor, so much sought after by me in those ambitious times of mine, I was much indebted to my political and personal friend, Charles H. Brough, who, magnanimously withdrawing in my favor, did every- thing he honorably could for me as editor of the Enquirer newspaper, and as a politician and as my personal friend. I will ever keep, in green memory, the name of Charles H. Brough.
HOW JOHN BROUGH WAS ADMITTED TO THE BAR.
John Brough was already famous as a politician and an extraordinary stump speaker, and as auditor of the State of Ohio, and as editor of the Democratic newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and all that, and he wanted now, if practicable or possible, to be admitted to the bar -to practice law. He had not studied the law a great deal, but for some two or three years he had been look- ing, ever and anon, into the books, and he applied to the old Supreme Court, then sitting on circuit in Cincinnati, to be made a lawyer. This was in the year 1845, and
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the court appointed as the committee of lawyers to ex- amine John Brough, three distinguished members of the bar, to-wit: William R. Morris, Samuel M. Hart, and Ben Fessenden ; and all parties being then present in court, they called John Brough and took him out into the court house yard under the locust trees, and leaned him up against one of the trees, and immediately commenced proceedings.
"Fire away, " said John.
And then Ben Fessenden, first of the examiners, interrogated with emphasis, "What is law, any how, Mister Brough ?
John Brough-" Well, d-d if I know, but I do know where we can all get a good glass of oid Bourbon."
All the Committee-"Where, Mister Brough, where?" Brough-" Come, we will go get it."
All-" AGREED !" (very emphatically.)
They all went over to the McFarland Hotel, back of the court house, and got the very fullest supply of the best old Bourbon from mine host, and John Brough was duly certified to, and, BECAME A LAWYER, and a good one into the bargain !
JOHN BROUGH CALLS A STRANGE WITNESS.
John Brough was totally unlike his brother in appear- ance, in character, in everything ; but he too, was a successful man, and finally, during war times, was elected Governor of this State. His career at our bar was not a long one, nor a very brilliant one, as he was too much engaged in politics ; and he certainly was one of the best stump-speakers in the political arena. His practice at our bar was mostly in criminal cases, where his remarka- bly bright and glowing eloquence was very available,
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and before a jury on behalf of his clients, he spoke with great power, although it seems he did not entirely rely upon that.
On one occasion he was the means of acquitting a prisoner of the charge of murder in the second degree. It was the case of the State of Ohio vs. John Cochran, I believe. The State made out a very plain case of murder, but to the amazement of everybody in the court, John Brough called a witness- a total stranger to everybody, who made for the prisoner, by his lying testimony, as afterward proved, a complete case of self-defense. The prosecuting attorney was taken aback completely by this peculiar and singularly strange stranger witness, and al- though he inquired of every police officer about court, he could learn nothing about him, and had to resort to a severe denunciation of him as a strange liar and a perjurer. Brough called for the protection of the stranger and strange witness by the court, which was afforded ; but the prose- cuting attorney took occasion to say that if the witness remained in this city long enough he would predict, that he would have to send him to the penitentiary for some crime or another. The prisoner was acquitted on account of the reasonable doubt made in the case by this perjured witness called to the stand, by lawyer Brough. But this was not all, for at the very next term of the court, this same and veritable (?) witness, remaining in the city as he did, un- doubtedly because he could not get out from want of means, was indicted, tried and convicted of larceny, and sentenced to the chain-gang.
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JOHN BROUGH BEATEN BY A DARKEY WITNESS.
On another occasion, Lawyer John Brough was en- gaged in defending a mulatto by the name of William Perkins, indicted for murder in the first degree, for killing a fellow-workman in a Deer Creek slaughtering estab- lishment, " purposely and of deliberate and premeditated malice," with a large butcher knife.
The evidence for the State was simple and plain against the prisoner to convict him of murder, and among the State's witnesses was an old, gray-headed, curious looking and curious behaving darkey, black as the ace of spades, who answered to the great and grandiloquent name of George Washington. His evidence was pecu- liarly strong against the prisoner, and now, in the cross- examination, Mr. Brough, for his client, desired to weak- en it by throwing, if possible, ridicule upon the old, curi- ous negro, and make him the subject and object of laugh- ter, and so he began :
"So your name is George Washington?"
Witness-" Yes, sah, dat be my 'pellation."
Lawyer B .- " Where did you get that name or 'pel- lation?"
Witness-" Way down in ole Virginny, sah."
Lawyer B .- "From whom did you get it?"
Witness-"Well, now you hab me, boss. I s'pose I tuck it from my fodder, or p'rhaps my mudder gib it to me, sah. Dunno."
Lawyer B .- "Are you a son of General George Washington, the father of his country?"
Witness-" Well, I 'spec I be. If he was de fodder of all dis country, he must hab been de fodder of de black folks as well as de fodder of de wite folks; and as I be
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one of dem black folks, he must hab been my fodder as well as de rest. So I guess, boss, dat I be a 'scendant in de perpendicular female line from de ole cock, any cum how."
Lawyer B .- " Don't you know that the great George Washington never told a lie?"
Witness-" Dat's what 'um say, and in dis 'ticular I much 'sembles him, fo' I nebber tole no lies in de whole curse of my bressed life, sah."
Lawyer B .- "So you think you resemble General George Washington, do you?"
Witness-"Je' so ; I tole you I 'sembles him in de 'ticular 'fo'said. I'se no gin'ral, howsumdever, I'se no malitious feller."
Lawyer B .- "And so, like your illustrious namesake, you tell no lies?"
Witness-"I dunno what you mean, boss, by de fust of you' remahks, but I know I don't tell no lies, any cum how. No, sah !"
Lawyer B .- "And you have told no lie about this case-haven't you?"
Witness-"Why, bress de Lord! no, honey, no ! I'se tole nuffin but de whole trufe."
Lawyer B .- " Couldn't you have made some mis- takes in your testimony?"
Witness-"' Dunno 'bout dat. We all be po' sinners here below, an' I'se one of dem fellows here below, shuah -an' I'se a sinner, shuah."
Lawyer B .- "And you might, then, have made some mistake, eh?"
Witness-" Well, now, cum to dat, I tink dat I have spoke de trufe, de whole trufe, an' nuffin' but de trufe,- shuah, no mistake."
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much comprehensive and universal genius and talent, so that, for the most part, one person engaged in crime, gen- erally confines himself to the perpetration of one class of crimes. The murderer, that is, one who kills a fellow- being purposely and of deliberate and premeditated mal- ice, from motives of mean gain or revenge, or mere wan- tonness or " cussedness," in some sort may be capable of any other particular crime ; but you will find even such a one limited in his capacity and practice. Such a one may have been, or may be, a burglar, a robber, a thief, but you will not find that he has been or is a forger, counter- feiter, or any of that class, where peculiar ability or tal- ent is requisite. The fact is, there are comparatively few murderers in the strict definition as we have given-mur- derers of the first degree. There are more of the second degree, who kill purposely and maliciously, but without deliberation or premeditation ; and there are many more who, killing from sudden passion, with, or without purpose, are guilty of manslaughter only. There are few crimi- nals, after all, who, engaging in the perpetration of the crimes of robbery, burglary, larceny, and the like, are quite prepared for the commission of deliberate murder ; they avoid that last resort, if they can. All thieves are not burglars or robbers. Burglary and robbery require more elements than larceny-more ability, talent, and courage or bravery, personal bravery. Counterfeiters and forgers, swindlers, etc., would scorn to be burglars or robbers, or even thieves ; they generally confine them- selves to the perpetration of the one genus of crime, and this genus, too, is, both in theory and in practice, divided and subdivided into species.
In the counterfeiting of bank notes, for instance, there are at least some six or seven species of criminals,
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to-wit : the engraver, the printer, the forger, the whole- sale holder, the retail holder, the merchant or seller, and the distributer or utterer; and it is this last class who are generally the victims only, of the justice meted out in our criminal courts. The distributers of counterfeit money or utterers and passers of it, of course, are the most exposed and liable, and generally get caught, while few of the other different species are ever found out, or brought to justice at all. In my experience as prosecuting attorney, though there were numerous cases of forgery and counterfeiting tried, I knew of very few instances of the engravers, or the forgers, or the holders being brought to trial. I remember one case only, of an engraver who was convicted. I remember but one case of the wholesale holder being brought to justice. These wholesale holders of counterfeit money were, and are generally, men of business, of good position in life, and respectability, who, like Cæsar's wife, are quite above suspicion ; standing clear aloof, they hold the counterfeit money in large quantities, in secret, and dispose of it in secret to the retail holders, who, in turn, sell what they purchase to the merchants and lesser dealers, and these at last dispose of it for a profit, to those who are willing to utter and publish it to the public, buying what they can with it. Once in my experience a large and very respectable pork merchant of this city came under my official surveillance as an immense holder of counterfeit bank notes; and through the police, I was on the eve of detecting him, and having him arrested with a great trunk full of counterfeit money, but his mistress-" an angel," " a divinity," (vide Judge Read)-was too smart for the police-too shrewd entirely. The bird had flown, and all the counterfeit bank notes were gathered up and burned
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by the mistress in the blazing stove before the police entered the room, where they expected to apprehend him and the money. On another occasion I had a prominent business man of the city carefully watched as a wholesale holder of counterfeit bank notes, but he was too cunning and adroit, and too respectable, for the police and the detective force. One holder-a hotel-keeper on Main street, in this city, was caught in possession of a great quantity of counterfeit money by detective police, and he was tried, convicted and sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years ; and this is the only conviction of a wholesale holder that I remember. It is difficult, very difficult, to detect or lay police hands upon those remotely concealed holders. It will, perhaps, be of some interest to say that among the counterfeiting class of criminals the forgers, or those who write the names or other writing required on bank notes, are, or used to be, for the most part, women. Females seem to possess the best talent in this particular of copying signatures, and other writing, and are generally employed by the dealers in counterfeit money to do this sort of delicate job, as they can beat the men in execution and skill of imitation. Their hands and fingers are more delicate and dainty, their percep- tions more sharp, and as women, they are the least liable to suspicion, and seldom or never liable to conviction. The crime of forging and counterfeiting bank notes was very rife when I was prosecuting attorney. This was because there were so many local banks of issue throughout the length and breadth of the land, all of which had notes printed and engraved, and these for the most part could be easily and readily counterfeited, and thus there was a harvest of counterfeit and forged bank notes, and a very great quantity, and many qualities
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of harvesters. There was one counterfeiter of great renown throughout the country for his exploits in this direction, whom I had convicted, and who told me after- wards, that he had forged and counterfeited the notes of at least seventy-five banks in the different States of this union. This was Jeremiah Cowden, who had been educated as a lawyer, and who, in connection with Henry Eastman, of this county, had so successfully counterfeited the ten dollar bills of the Lafayette Bank of this city that their counterfeits were taken by the officials over the counter of the bank; and it was absolutely found difficult on their trial to prove the notes forged and counterfeited. This was very novel and singular
CRIMINALS NOT DRUNKARDS !
While in this somewhat episodic mood on crime and criminals, I wish to take occasion in some measure to correct an erroneous opinion made common by the enthusiasm of temperance orators and their disciples ; this is, that all criminals are given to strong drink, and that strong drink is the cause of all crime. I full well know, that these temperance folks say they get their statistics from the prisons and penitentiaries, or profess or pretend to get them there, and predicate their misguided and mis- directed assertions upon these so-called statistics. But their statistics are not to be relied upon, unless in this sense, that the prisoners lie to these statisticians, and they re-lie upon them. In my jail experience I knew of a temperance orator of this city, who orated extensively upon strong drink being the sole cause of all crime, and this was his method of gathering statistics in our jail, and I suppose in other jails likewise. He would visit the jail and the cells, and whomsoever he found a subject for his
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interrogation, he would say to him, in a leading way: " Prisoner, I suppose strong drink brought you here ?" The poor prisoner, glad to be furnished with a ready- made excuse for his present predicament, would reply, " Yes," and down would go the answer on the note book of the investigator and statistician, and getting thus a "yes" from every prisoner, he accumulated a vast number of "yesses " (better guesses), and the result he would proclaim in his very next temperance speech, besides sending his relie-able statistics thus leadingly obtained, to every temperance journal in the land. Whereas in truth and in fact, criminals who murder, steal, rob, commit burglary, and rape, and arson, who forge and counterfeit, swindle and gamble, almost all criminals who commit crime against property, or person and property together, are necessarily from their very occupa- tion sober men, and not given to strong drink. If they did not keep themselves sober, they could not ply their vocation. They must keep sober, and abstain from strong drink, or have no success in their criminal occupation. There is a class of crimes against the person only, which mostly have their origin in strong drink; these are assaults and batteries, cutting, stabbing, shooting and homicide. They originate and are aggravated by strong drink, and there are many cases of petty larceny among drunkards, who steal small things to get along with and live at all, such as sneak thieves and the like. But once for all, our great criminals who fill our prisons and penitentiaries, are not drunkards ; they can not be, and at the same time be great criminals ; the one is incompatible with the other.
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A PROSECUTING ATTORNEY SURPRISED.
A prosecuting attorney necessarily has a great deal of various, curious and absolutely funny experience, and sometimes it partakes a little, if not quite, of the romantic. This romantic-serious incident occurred with me: A man was indicted by the grand jury for murder, and I duly prepared the indictment, and it was reported and delivered to the court. The prisoner was brought over from the jail, and stood up for arraignment, and while I was reading the indictment to him I recognized him, to my great surprise and astonishment, as once in bygone times, a boy on account of whose bold badness and depravity, I, myself, as a boy had predicted and prophesied of him, to one of my young companions, that he would one day come to the gallows. He was not found guilty of murder in the first degree, however, but he was found guilty of the crime of manslaughter, and sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. When I recognized him in my arraignment of him, I was at once impressed with the prediction I had made of him a score of years before, and it was with some difficulty that I proceeded in reading the indictment. On another occasion I was engaged in reading the indictment for counterfeit- ing to a good-looking prisoner, on his being arraigned in court, when I recognized him as a former schoolmate of mine, and the son of one of the old citizens of this city, who in former days was very much respected, and so departed this life. The prisoner also recognized me, and it was with extreme difficulty that he could keep his erect position in the prisoner's dock, while I was arraigning him. The tears came to his eyes, and the tears came to my eyes; but official duty must be attended to, and it
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prevailed over feeling, and the indictment was finished and the prisoner pleaded "not guilty, " and it was so recorded. But this was not all-my feelings were neces- sarily further tried. I had to do my duty for the State in the long and tedious trial of my former schoolmate with- out betraying my feelings, and this I did, and the prisoner was necessarily found guilty, for the evidence was plain and conclusive, and he was sentenced for a term of years to the penitentiary before my eyes, and sent to the peni- tentiary. This man, when a boy was so good, and so good looking, and so amiable and effeminate, that he endeared himself to all his school companions, both boys and girls, indeed, he was loved and treated tenderly by the boys, almost as a girl, and he was the last boy in the world that any one would have ever even dreamed of being one day a criminal, or a convict in the penitentiary. But so it was. I of course inquired particularly into his history as a man-having known him so well as a youth -and found out the reason of his downward course. In his young manhood he had become an excellent engraver, and was doing well in his art and trade. He married. His wife proved to be the sister of a notorious counter- feiter, and had helped her brother in his career of crime ; but this was not known for a long time afterward by the victim of their wiles and coaxings. Loving his wife, and becoming a pot companion of her brother, he was per- suaded to embark in the business of counterfeiting bank notes-and became the steady engraver of a band of counterfeiters extending from Maine to Louisiana. He was at last found out with the unfortunate results above detailed. Whatever became of him I know not. I heard little or nothing of him after he was in the penitentiary. The name of the latter good boy was Henry Lovejoy-
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quite a loveable name, too ; the name of the bad boy about whom I so early made the doleful prediction was John Hahn-a bad name, which in his boyhood days, was a perfect scare-crow to all the boys of his neighborhood.
ANOTHER ROMANTIC INCIDENT WITH THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY.
I have another romantic incident to relate, in connec- tion with my various and onerous duties as prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county, in days agone. In my days of boyhood I went to the school of Milo G. Williams, an old pioneer schoolmaster of this city, where there were, as pupils, over a hundred boys and girls, among whom of course there was a good amount of talent and ability. Of those who had much talent, there was a handsome-featured and handsome-bodied boy by the name of Edward O'Con- ner, who, in addition to his ability, was much liked by the boys, and loved by the girls, on account of his good, ami- able disposition and character ; in fact, he was a general favorite of the pupils and the master. He was particu- larly distinguished for his aptness and talent in figures, and easily mastered all the rules and problems of arith- metic, and was even apt in higher mathematics. Well, this boy, Edward, like myself, grew up to manhood in this city. What occupation he had chosen for himself, or his parents for him, I do not now remember, and I hardly ever met him in our manhood. During my first term as prosecuting attorney, there was a person indicted by the grand jury for petit larceny- stealing an amount of money out of the till of a grocery store somewhere in the southwestern part of the city, and the name of the defendant in the indictment was " Edward O' Conner ;" but this did not disturb me at the time, and I did not think
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much of it. But my surprise and astonishment took on very undue proportions, when I came to the day of the arraignment of the prisoners from the jail. Going through the batch of indictments reported by the grand jury, and arraigning the prisoners in the criminal box in the old court house, I came to the name of Edward O'Conner, and notified the sheriff to order Edward O'Conner to stand up. He accordingly called out, "Prisoner Edward O'Conner, stand up." Edward O'Conner obeyed in the prisoner's box, and did stand up, and I, the attorney for the State, looked at him, expecting to see the usual stamp of a thieving character; but oh! how surprised and amazed I was when I steadily looked and recognized the prisoner before me as the handsome Edward O'Conner who was once my school-fellow and playmate. I stopped reading the indictment, and would have gladly stopped reading it altogether, if my personal and individual feel- ings had been allowed to prevail ; but this could not be, and I read the counts or charges of the indictment through, and with a burning tear in my eye, asked my play-fellow and schoolmate, or rather the prisoner, Edward O'Conner, to plead to the indictment. "Are you guilty or not guilty?" was the somber, ugly question propounded, with faltering tongue, by me. The prisoner, Edward O'Con- ner, looked at me, the officer of State, and in that officer he, too, recognized his former schoolmate and play-fellow, but the recognition seemed to have had no effect upon him-no start, confusion, or tear for him ; but he answered, solidly, stolidly, and gruffly, "Not guilty." I was taken somewhat aback by this sang froid and nonchalance, but I proceeded, " Have you a lawyer to defend you?" He replied in the same tones, "No, I have no money to em- ploy an attorney to defend me." Said I, officially, " Do
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