Jonathan W. Cattell is hereby appointed Auditor of State, to have and to hold the same until the next general election in November, 1886; and upon his qualifying thereto by giving bond and taking the oath of office, as required by law, he will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

Buren R. Sherman

A legislature was elected that fall, and as the only opportunity for a hearing and a vindication of Mr. Brown, he sent a communication to the house of representatives requesting an investigation and an impeachment, to the end that he might have a trial before the senate.

The insurance agents of the state who had been wounded by the investigation of their affairs, Sherman and his political adherents filled the lobbies of the legislature, and were anxious also for Brown's impeachment. Finally the house of representatives brought in articles of impeachment, containing thirty counts, and the senate ordered Mr. Brown arrested and brought before them for trial. As I had been Mr. Brown's counsel throughout all of these difficulties, he came to me for aid and wished me to act as his counsel. In the meantime he had received a number of letters from "Tom, Dick, and Harry" throughout the state, lawyers who wished to do some cheap advertising of themselves, offering to attend to his case without compensation. I told Mr. Brown that I would undertake his case on condition that I might select my own assistants. I realized that the court, to-wit, the fifty senators then entitled to seats in the senate, was of rather peculiar construction. We had in the first place a large majority of republicans, but we also had a number of very able and influential democrats in the senate. We had some Germans and some opposed to prohibition. It was necessary, in selecting attorneys, to consult the peculiar constitution of the senate and its make-up, and political partialities and proclivities. Mr. Brown agreed to my terms and I named Mr. J. C. Bills, of Davenport, and Mr. Fred W. Lehmann, of Des Moines, as the attorneys I desired to assist me in his defense. Mr. Lehmann was an excellent lawyer and a rising young man, very popular at that time with the democrats of the state. Mr. Bills was then nominally a republican, but had opposed the prohibitory law and stood well with that political element, besides being a good lawyer.

Acting upon my theory as to first impression, I made an opening statement to the senate giving them a very careful and detailed history of the case, and of the facts that we expected to prove upon the several counts of the indictment or impeachment. In addition to these two counsel we also had the assistance of E. S. Huston, of Burlington, a relative of S. F. Stewart, the deputy auditor. Mr. Huston especially looked after and cared for the interests of the deputy during the trial. The managers upon the part of the house of representatives were Messrs. S. M. Weaver, John H. Keatley, L. A. Riley, G. W. Ball, J. E. Craig, R. G. Cousins, E. C. Roach. The trial continued about three months. I found I had made no mistake in selecting my assistant attorneys. We had a room set apart for us in the capitol, where we were in counsel arranging the program for the day's work before the senate, and assigning to each attorney his particular share of the work of the day. I always dreaded in coöperating with attorneys in the trial of causes, having some one to assist me who would be an annoyance and a drawback rather than a help, but I found in Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Bills two good lawyers and men of good judgment and discretion, and we had a most agreeable as well as a successful time of it on our side of the trial table.

The trial had not progressed more than a few weeks before we were able to turn the tide of feeling and sentiment in our favor, or rather in favor of our client, and the case, instead of being a prosecution of John L. Brown, actually became an exposure of the petty tyranny and foolishness of Buren R. Sherman, and the managers on the part of the house were forced into the position of recognizing Sherman as their client and recognizing the necessity of defending his conduct rather than of convicting Mr. Brown of any serious offense against the law.

It also was apparent before we had proceeded very far in the case that the managers of the prosecution did not entirely agree from time to time between themselves as to the part that each should take in the proceedings. Some of the men had evidently hoped to make a great reputation for themselves as lawyers, and were being disappointed in the result as to that particular.

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."

After all the evidence had been put in, both upon the part of the prosecution and the defense, there remained one important question for us to decide—as to whether or not we would put Mr. Brown upon the stand as a witness in his own case. The only thing we had to fear from our client as a witness was his sensitiveness and pride and his determination to resent any insult or imputation against his honesty and integrity in office. We knew he had some enemies in the senate who were at the same time his judges and were to vote upon the question of his guilt, and these senators had the right to ask him any questions upon cross-examination they might see proper. It would not do for his counsel to object to the relevancy or propriety of any questions that might be asked, as it might appear if we did so that we had something to hide or from which to shield our client. We had a long conference with Mr. Brown before we decided what course to pursue upon this question of making him a witness. He continued to vow to us that he would not consent to submit to any insulting interrogatories, no matter from whom they came, and that he would talk back if any such were propounded. I finally had a private conference with Mr. Brown and urged upon him the absolute necessity that if he went upon the stand as a witness, of being perfectly cool and dispassionate and not manifesting any passion or resentment toward any of the senators who might question him. After a long conference upon this point, he finally promised me that he would do his best to suppress his indignation and his feelings, and would quietly answer any questions that might be asked him. The next day we put Mr. Brown upon the stand as a witness, and to his credit it may be said that he behaved himself most admirably, and won the respect and esteem of the senate by his dignified and courteous behavior.