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not find him in his office, the girl did not even
know that Mary Phagan had disappeared.
None \pf the State’s material witnesses
could he impeached, and the defense had no
evidence which at all shook the State’s case.
In fact, the defense never did have a
rational theory, and has none, now.
Like a lot of parrots they repeat, “The
negro did it,” relying upon prejudice and
ignorance to lose sight of thg fact that, at
the time Mary Phagan and Leo Frank both
disappeared, Monteen Stover came in at the
front door, walked up the stairs, looked at
the clock, went into Frank’s offices—both of
them! —and couldn’t find him.
That was the time of the crime, -fixed by
Frank himself, before he learned of Mon
teen’s visit.
That was the time the crime commenced ;
and, had the negro been at it, on the floor
below, the Stover girl would have caught
him in the act.
Only those who are ignorant of the
record, or bitterly prejudiced in Slaton's
favor, or selfishly interested in his return to
the State he betrayed, can fail to see it.
The jury said “Guilty!” Judge Roan
officially declared the evidence sufficient.
The Supreme Court did the same thing.
THAT OF GUT TO HAVE ENDED IT.
Had Mary Phagan been a Jewess, and Leo
Frank a Gentile, the case would have ended
right there.
Had Leo Frank been a man without
means and without wealthy relatives, noth
ing more would have been heard.
He had had his day in court: he had been
defended by able lawyers: he had been
legally 'convicted: nothing {more remained
except to let the Law take its course.
That was the way it was last year, with
the four Gentiles.
Why wasn't it the way, this year, with the
Jew? i
But John Cohen and James R. Gray found
a new Code for Frank. They made the dis
covery that judicial power is not vested
solely in the courts.
Criminals must be tried in the newspapers,
and acquitted on the sensational statements
of Hessian writers.
The Haas Committee set itself up, to de
fame the Courts, and defy the Law.
The Burns Agency was imported, to buy
off. and to buy up, witnesses.
They tried to get rid of George Eppes,
and they took him out of the State.
They hired one of the girl witnesses to
undertake to change the (evidence of the
other girls. They tried to get Mary’s chum,
Helen Ferguson, to accept money and leave
the State. They tried to bribe the machin
ist who found the hair. They tried to intimi
date those who found the blood.
Burns, Rabbi Marx and Mrs. Frank, all
three, beseiged Monteen Stover, and the girl
was passionately urged to change her evi
dence.
When she refused, Burns wrung his hands
in despair and virtually told Mrs. Frank
there was no hope.
They tried to “persuade” another negro
man to swear that he and Conley committed
sodomy with each other. They tried to get
another negro to swear he heard Conley con
fess. They tried to get the cook’s husband to
swear away his court-house evidence. They
did everything that knavery could suggest
and money pay for; and when they finally
hired Ragsdale and Barber, the bottom fell
out and the people of Georgia got a glimpes
of what Burns was doing.
Then they ran him out. The extraordin
ary motion for new trial was denied unani
mously by our Supreme Court; and the case
had the unprecedented duck to reach £he
Supreme Court of the United States.
When it was lost there, we naturally sup
posed that at last, the case was ended.
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Not so. The clamor broke forth worse
than ever. Big Money was determined to
“save Leo Frank.”
The Prison Commission transformed itself
into a Court of review, and went over the
same ground the Supreme Court of Georgia
had traveled.
But again the case was lost. Then it was
up to one of Frank’s own lawyers—the New
York attorney having speeded up the send
ing of the decision of the U. S. Supreme
Court, and ex-Congressman Howard having
abruptly ended his argument before the
Commission.
It is now denied that Louis Marshall re
quested the U. S. Supreme Court to trans
mit tlie decision, without waiting the usual
length of time.
All I know about it, is what the newspa
pers said. Nobody denied it, then.
It is said that nobody raised the point
with Slaton that he ought not to pass on the
Frank case—being Rosser’s partner.
AVrong again! The point was raised, by a
member of the Atlanta bar, and it was done
in writing, and in a most delicate, respectful
■way. I published the letter.
The point was also raised, in a Cobb coun
ty mass-meeting, held at Marietta, last year.’
The question was put squarely up to Sla
ton, while he was in the race for the Senate,
and he evaded it!
What a reckless thing it is, therefore, to
say that the point came too late! Dorsey
knew of the letter, and knew of the Cobb
county action; consequently, he knew it
was useless to again endeavor to reach the
“honor” of a man who has none, or to arouse
a “conscience” that doesn’t exist.
It has been said that it would have been
“cowardly” for Slaton to have reprieved
Frank and left him for Governor Harris to
dispose of.
Why, then, did he reprieve the negro who
was undeca death sentence, and leave him
to Governor Harris?
And if he is such a brave man, why didn't
he pardon the Jew whom he says was inno
cent ?
I am very credibly informed that Leo
Frank, on his way to Cobb county, denounced
Slaton as a crook.
This must mean that Frank had been
promised a pardon.
If innocent, he was entitled to one; and if
Slaton believed him innocent, he acted pusil
lanimously, in not setting him free.
There is no middle ground.
Those who admit that they believed Frank
to be guilty, but favored. commutation, can
only excuse themselves by saying they op
pose capital punishment.
If married men of middle age are not to
be hanged when they deliberately leave
young and healthy wives, and pursue young
girls to such a horrible death as fell to the
hard lot of Mary Phagan, then we've got no
use for the law of capital punishment.
Slaton saw lots of use for it. Zr/stf year, as a
protection to homes, and human lives: the
commuters saw it, too: it was not until this
year, AND THIS CASE, that the railroad
lawyers and some Doctors of Divinity be
came such rampant commuters.
It is said that Slaton made no money by
the commutation.
That is an assumption which settles the
question \Vithout debate. It is perfectly clear
to every lawyer that. asTlosser's partner, he
was legally entitled to share whatever Rosser
got.
It is said that Slaton knew that the com
mutation would kill him politically.
He doesn’t talk that way. He expresses
the most bouyant confidence in his future
popularity.
He says that none of the best people are
against him. He says that those who made
the outcry against him are mere scum, riff-
raff, rag-tag and bobtail; men whose Wiveai
take in boarders and washing.
He says that these low-down
have always been against him, and he hopes
they always will be.
Unless your political eye-sight is failing,
you can easily see a formidable line-up in
favor of Slaton for the Senate.
The Jews will be solidly for him. So will
the Chambers of Commerce, of Atlanta and
Savannah.
So will the L. & N. Railroad system. So
will the Hearst papers. So will the Atlanta
dailies.
The Roman Catholics will support him al
most to a man, on account of The Jefferson
ian being against him.
You need not doubt that Slaton made him
self reasonably certain of a powerful com
bination, before he ever took the bit in his
teeth. ;
He is crafty, and he doesn’t act upon im
pulse.
It will be remembered that while the
Frank case was on its way to him, Nathan
Straus, of New York, came to see him.
It will be remembered that while the
Frank case was on its way to him, AVilliam
Randolph Hearst came to see him.
It will be remembered that immediately
after the commutation, and the flight from
Georgia, he was banqueted by Air. Hearst in
New York.
It will be remembered that Mr. Hearst's
personal representative, John Temple
Graves, in his address to a Northern press
club, proclaimed the intention of Air. Hearst
to put Slaton in the race for the Senate or
the Vice Presidency.
Slaton himself has repeatedly told the
Northern people that he would re-enter poli
tics in Georgia, and make his action in the
Frank case an issue before the people.
It’s none of my business to stir anybody
else's pot, but if one of our Senators has not
maneuvered to oust the other. I fail to read
the signs.
Those who defend Slaton say that his pre
vious character had been good.
Once upon a time. I said that much to
Judge Pottle, in Columbia county, when a
client of mine had been convicted of stealing
a cow.
Judge. Pottle answered me. by saying that
the previous character of the cow had also
been good.
If the character of Judas Iscariot had not
been good. Christ would not have made him
one of the Twelve, and Keeper of the Treas
ury.
If the character of Benedict Arnold had
not been good, Washington would not have
made him Commander at AVest Point.
If the previous character of Seigel had not
been good, lie would net have been able to
steal two million dollars from the work-peo
ple who put their savings in his bank.
Lots of folks enjoy the reputation of being
straight, when in ract. they are crooks who
have not been found out.
AVhen John AV. Grant hired a man to write
against The Jeffersonian, dud carefully cor
rected the proofs himself, he should have re
membered that there is no personal issue be
tween his rascally brother-in-law and my
self. No such issue can be made. I am not
to be side-tracked on personalism, and
thrown off the true issue.
Prove that I am the worst man in the state
—as Doctor Cicero Boanerges AVilmer says
I am— that does not clear the skirts of John
Al. Slaton.
It was he who was governor last year,
and it was he who then correctly stated the
Law. in the Uniphrey case, the Wilburn
case, and in the Cantrell case.
It was he wliq officially declared, last year.
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