THE RECORDS OF THE TRIAL FROM THE CITY COURT OF MOBILE.
The Clerk of the City Court of Mobile has twice been applied to for particulars, or for a copy of the records of the trial. In his first reply the present Clerk freely confesses the records of the case to be misty, suspicious, deranged, and altogether unsatisfactory, without venturing any further opinion on the matter. In his second reply he confesses in still stronger terms, if possible, of the confusion of the records; important papers not on file; much missing; more deranged, and very hard, with any amount of application of labor to make anything of value intelligible for rigid comprehension—one case, Shoemake’s, entirely disappearing from the docket, and no circumstances or account left to show the cause for the same.
In substance, here follows an extract from the Clerk’s replies: “I find by the Clerk’s indorsement, that in the November term, 1858, the Grand Jury found bills for four cases of libel against J. R. S. Pitts, and four indictments were framed accordingly in the same term. They are found docketed, numbers 61, 62, 63 and 64, to be prosecuted severally by G. Y. Overall, C. F. Moulton, G. A. Cleaveland and S. S. Shoemake. There are four appearance bonds for six hundred dollars each, dated January 25, 1859. The writ of arrest is dated January 15, 1859. But the indictments are all missing. There is nothing here on file or on record showing any action of either the Governor of Alabama or the Governor of Mississippi with respect to the processes for arrest. The case number 64 has entirely disappeared, and no trace left to account for the same. In the February term, 1859, the trial of J. R. S. Pitts commenced on the 23d, continued through the 24th, and on the 25th was given to the jury, who on the 2d day of March rendered a verdict imposing a penalty of fifty dollars, to which finding the Court further ‘ordered that the defendant be imprisoned in the common jail of the county for the space of three months, and on the non-payment of the fine and costs that he be further imprisoned until discharged according to law.’ The case tried must have been that of Overall, 61, the papers of which have entirely disappeared, as I cannot find them on file. The two remaining cases, numbers 62 and 63, were continued from term to term until February 28, 1863, when a forfeiture of bond was taken against the defendant and his sureties, Colin McRae and James H. Daughdrill, and then continued through several terms to 21st of March, 1864, when judgment final was entered, and execution issued, which execution was ordered to be returned by the Commissioners of Revenue on the payment of all costs, the costs being paid by said Daughdrill said execution was returned. The matter remained in this condition until January, 1867, when the defendant and his sureties were finally released by the Commissioners of Revenue.
“The names of the Petit Jury who tried the case are Wm. B. Hayden, James B. Post, George Mason, George M. Brower, Edward Guesnard, John R. McBurney, W. H. Marchan, Henry T. Eatman, Walter L. Young, Benjamin F. Hunt, John A. Bevell and Wm. H. Vincent. The only witnesses I can find any record of are the prosecutors for themselves. The attorneys for the prosecution were R. B. Armstead, solicitor, and Anderson & Boyle, while Manning and Walker appeared to have conducted the defense.
“Imperfect as this history of the case is, it has cost me much search and labor to collect from the disconnected, confused and garbled materials left me for reference. The whole affair is a myth.”