Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1909 — THANKS COOPER CASE AUDIENCE [ARTICLE]

THANKS COOPER CASE AUDIENCE

Judge Hart From Bench Commends Decorum Observed.

ARGUMENT LASTS 5 HOURS

Captain Fltzhugh In Opening For the State Says Defense Will Point to the Colonel aa a Gentleman of the Old School, “At the Last Flower of Old Southern Chivalry”—Then He Refers to the Widow of the Slain Carmack and His Ten-Year-Old Son.

Nashville, Tenn., March 9.—After Captain C. T. Fitzhugh completed the opening argument for the state in the case against Colonel Duncan B. and Bolin J. Cooper and John D. Sharp, charged with the murder of former United States Senator E. W. Carmack, Judge William Hart ordered the jury withdrawn and said: “I want to thank the audience for the splendid order preserved. In spite of the splendid bursts of eloquence iiom the speaker there has not been a single demonstration, and the court is thankful to you for makin'g his task an easy one. “Remember the warning I gave you holds good today, too.” Fitzhugh is a dramatic orator and his exertions left hint nearly a physical wreck when he concluded. He spoke for five hours. Talks of Widow and Her Son. “There will be many arguments made to you.'' he said, “to touch your hearts. You will he asked to be generous and sympathetic. They will talk to you of this 'boy.' Why, gentlemen, be is twenty-B{?\en years old and some of the greatest achievements of men have been accomplished before n man is thirty, and they will point to Colopel Cooper as a gentleman of the old school, as the ‘last flower of the old southern chivalry.’ Do you believe ft? Was he a gentleman when he used that awful language in the presence of Miss Lee? And when they talk to you of sympathy, just look over there. You see in sable garments the widow of E. W. Carmack. You see on her arm the ten-year-old boy who was the pride of E. W. Carmack’s life. Did Duncan Cooper or Robin think of this widow or this boy when they shot down the husband or the father? Would it not have been better if Robin Cooper, instead of shooting the senator, had said to his father: ‘Father do not kill the father of this little boy; do not slay the husband of this fond wife,’ but he did not.

Mentions Duty of Press. "Harrlman, Rockefeller and Morgan are private citizens. They never held an office, but we know they exercise a powerful control In public affairs. Their names appear dally In the public press. Yet 'who ever heard one of these men demand that his name be omitted? Who ever heard of one of these men hunting down an editor and assassinating him on the street? It is the duty of the press to keep the public informed, and when he went into politics Colonel*Cooper made it the duty of the press to watch him." The Democrat and tne Indianapolis Dally News, each a full year for only $3.60.