Autobiography of Charles Clinton Nourse: Prepared for use of Members of the FamilyNourse, Charles Clinton
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Autobiography of Charles Clinton Nourse: Prepared for use of Members of the Family
Nourse, Charles Clinton
Iowa -- Politics and government; Lawyers -- Iowa -- Biography; Nourse, Charles Clinton, 1829-
We had one serious hindrance and drawback in our case. F. S. Stewart,
the deputy auditor, proved a very heavy load to carry. He had many
winning ways by which he made no friends, and his conduct proved him to
be a greedy, grasping man, and if the impeachment had been against him
instead of Mr. Brown we should have found "Jordan a hard road to
travel." In addition to his regular salary he had drawn a very
considerable sum of money for extra pay and compensation for work he
had done in the Auditor's office, as he claimed, out of regular hours.
He had also collected as bank examiner from the various banks he
examined a considerable amount of fees for which there was no provision
or warrant of law, and had taken the money to his own use. The only
serious charge against Mr. Brown and the only one from which we
apprehended any danger, grew out of the examination of the Bremer
County Bank, situated in Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa. That bank had
for its rival another bank in the locality, that probably would have
profited by having it go out of business, and they were entirely
disappointed and dissatisfied because the examination of the bank by
Mr. Brown in person and by an assistant proved the bank to be a solvent
concern. After the examination of the bank and after Mr. Brown had
given in for publication a certificate of their solvency, and without
any previous request for compensation or suggestion of payment from any
source, the cashier of the bank had paid to Mr. Brown voluntarily the
sum of one hundred dollars as compensation for his extra services and
expenses during the investigation of the affairs of the bank.
The charge in the articles of impeachment was that this was a bribe to
Mr. Brown that had induced him to certify fraudulently and falsely to
the solvency of the bank. We proved beyond controversy that the bank
was solvent and continued to be so for several years after the
investigation, and that the certificate of solvency given to it was
just and right and proper, and there was no foundation for the charge
that it was given from any corrupt motive. This matter of the Bremer
County Bank did not constitute any part of the original trouble or
accusation against Brown by the Governor, but it was trumped up by
Brown's enemies and was soon gathered in by the Governor's "muck-rake."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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