Capitalists and financiers -- Fiction; Psychological fiction
At two o’clock sharp Dennis Shannon, as district attorney, began his
opening address. He stated in a very simple, kindly way—for he had a
most engaging manner—that the indictment as here presented charged Mr.
Frank A. Cowperwood, who was sitting at the table inside the jury-rail,
first with larceny, second with embezzlement, third with larceny as
bailee, and fourth with embezzlement of a certain sum of money—a
specific sum, to wit, sixty thousand dollars—on a check given him
(drawn to his order) October 9, 1871, which was intended to reimburse
him for a certain number of certificates of city loan, which he as
agent or bailee of the check was supposed to have purchased for the
city sinking-fund on the order of the city treasurer (under some form
of agreement which had been in existence between them, and which had
been in force for some time)—said fund being intended to take up such
certificates as they might mature in the hands of holders and be
presented for payment—for which purpose, however, the check in question
had never been used.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Mr. Shannon, very quietly, “before we go into
this very simple question of whether Mr. Cowperwood did or did not on
the date in question get from the city treasurer sixty thousand
dollars, for which he made no honest return, let me explain to you just
what the people mean when they charge him first with larceny, second
with embezzlement, third with larceny as bailee, and fourth with
embezzlement on a check. Now, as you see, there are four counts here,
as we lawyers term them, and the reason there are four counts is as
follows: A man may be guilty of larceny and embezzlement at the same
time, or of larceny or embezzlement separately, and without being
guilty of the other, and the district attorney representing the people
might be uncertain, not that he was not guilty of both, but that it
might not be possible to present the evidence under one count, so as to
insure his adequate punishment for a crime which in a way involved
both. In such cases, gentlemen, it is customary to indict a man under
separate counts, as has been done in this case. Now, the four counts in
this case, in a way, overlap and confirm each other, and it will be
your duty, after we have explained their nature and character and
presented the evidence, to say whether the defendant is guilty on one
count or the other, or on two or three of the counts, or on all four,
just as you see fit and proper—or, to put it in a better way, as the
evidence warrants. Larceny, as you may or may not know, is the act of
taking away the goods or chattels of another without his knowledge or
consent, and embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation to one’s own
use of what is intrusted to one’s care and management, especially
money. Larceny as bailee, on the other hand, is simply a more definite
form of larceny wherein one fixes the act of carrying away the goods of
another without his knowledge or consent on the person to whom the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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