Grand Jury Accused of Drunkeness

MAGINNIS, NIEMAN

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 9/18/2009 at 16:35:43

Bellevue Leader, Bellevue, Jackson County, Iowa, May 8, 1884

Theodore Nieman, Sr., one of the old settlers of this section, was a caller last Saturday. Mr. Nieman was a grand juror at the last term of the District Court, and says he believes that body was made up of sober, respectable men, and that they in no ways merited the reckless slander uttered against them by Hon. W. A. Maginnis, in a speech before the law and order convention recently held in Andrew, when he said that four or five of the grand jurors were drunk during the entire term, and that two of them were so drunk that they could scarcely get aboard the cars to go home at the end of their term of service. Mr. Nieman wishes to state that Mr. Maginnis has either been misinformed or that he has brought these false charges of his own volition, and with malice aforethought and without reference to the facts in the case.
Editor: Have you not learned Mr. Nieman, that Mr. Maginnis is a demagogue whose inclination to distort truth has never been questioned by his most intimate acquaintances? It is evident that the slander is a manufactured fabrication, and when the source is considered, will do no harm to the many upright citizens who were on that jury.