Autobiography of Charles Clinton Nourse: Prepared for use of Members of the FamilyNourse, Charles Clinton
History
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-
it with the expectation that it could be re-sold to advantage and the
money refunded before it should be called for. Whether this was true or
not and who the parties were that had induced the old gentleman to
betray his trust, I do not know and have never tried to ascertain. The
time came finally that the man was to be put upon his trial. He came
into my office the day before the case was to be called for trial,
looking pale and haggard, told me he had bid his wife good-bye and his
boys and that he was prepared for the worst, that he supposed there was
no hope for him, that he could endure it but it was hard on the family
at home. I invited him into my private room and seating him at the
opposite side of my table I said to him that for the sake of his wife
and children I had made up my mind that he should be acquitted. He
looked at me incredulously and asked what I meant, and how it was
possible for him to escape conviction. He said he had already confessed
his fault and they had his confession all taken down in writing before
the investigating committee. I stepped to my safe and took out the
memoranda that I had obtained from his deputy and laid them down before
him. Looking him fully in the face, I said, "Tell me what those papers
mean?" He asked me where I got them, and said he supposed they had been
destroyed long ago. I told him no, that I carefully preserved them
because it might be, as I thought, for his interest at some time or
other to tell the truth, that there had been enough lies told about the
business, and now probably the truth might save him. He asked what I
meant. I said to him, "Here is a memoranda of the amounts that you took
out of the safe that belonged to the state of Iowa. They never were in
your hands as treasurer of the Agricultural College and you know it and
you have known it all the time. You thought I was deceived, but I was
not. I have known the truth and I hoped the time might come when the
truth might benefit you more than the falsehood." I showed him the
letter written by the deputy to President Welch. I had a memoranda of
the date of the cancellation of the $30,000 warrant issued to him as
treasurer of the Agricultural College. I looked him fully in the face
and said, "You never had that money in your hands, you never received
it, you were not at home when that warrant was cancelled, and you know
it." He sighed deeply and said, "That is true, but I told a different
story and now what am I to do?" I said to him, "All you have to do is
to tell the truth." The old man took courage and told me that I had
guessed the truth and it was true that he had never used a dollar of
Agricultural College funds. Upon the trial I introduced in evidence the
memoranda that had been kept in the safe of the State Treasurer, I
introduced the warrant that had been issued by the auditor to the
treasurer for Agricultural College funds, I proved by Dr. Welch the
letter that had been written him by the deputy and the date of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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