ARGUMENT OF HON. HENRY L. STONE.



and tell me from their appearance which is the oldest in your opinion 
They are produced by the same witness. One is dated the 5th of
March, i866, and they are filed as exhibits in his deposition. I ask you
to take that memorandum so far as its appearance is concerned, and
compare it with my license, dated February 28th, i866, compare it with
the license of Mr. W. V. Prather, compare it with the other exhibits
filed in this case shown to have been as old as i866, and I venture the
assertion that nothing can be argued from the appearance of that meni-
orandum.  But they say Tudge Hargis wrote his name T.J. F. Hargis
in i866, while in Ham's memorandum it is writtenT. F. Hargis. But
Judge Hargis did not write that. If Judge Hargis had been writing it
or having it done, it is very likely that a man-of his intelligence would
not have written it in that way. I ask you to take this minute made by
Cyrus Alley, the Clerk of the Rowan County and Circuit Courts, in
i 866-take the examiner's order. Cyrus Alley knew how Judge Hargis
spelled his name. He knewv his initials, and when he qualified as exam-
iner and wrote it " Thos. J. Hargis. " ' Upon recommendation of the
Bar, Thos. J. Hargis is appointed examiner." When he enters that
upon the order book, I have not time to refer to it at length, you will
find that he writes it TAos. J. Hargis, leaving out one of the initials
then of the defendant. So it seems to me nothing can be argued from
that discrepancy in the memorandum.
  Again, when Judge Hargis is sworn into the Carter Circuit Court, in
i867, the entry in that court is entered up Thos. J. Hargis. I suppose
they are forgeries too, because they do not have all the initials. This
memorandum made by Ham does not even state that Judge Hargis
obtained his certificate of honesty, probity and good demeanor, but in
the rough, uneducated language of Chris. Ham, "got recommendation
from Stevens Roe, County Judge of Rowan County, to obtain his
license. " If that had been forged, don't you know that he would have
put the word certificate in it  He would have used one of the three
words honesty, probity and good deoeanor, but none of them are in that
memorandum. That fact shows to me that it is the original composition of
Christopher Ham, made in 1866, without a thought or apprehension of
any controversy, without undertaking to follow the language of the cer-
tificate, but the substance of it, as he recollected, or was informed of it
by Judge Roe, on that occasion when he took it down. He thought
it was defendant's recommendation to practice law. That is all he
wanted to know about it. He did not know that it was necessary to
record these certificates. There are some lawyers in the country that
don't know it. He was not a lawyer. Judge Bullitt argued that it is
absurd that 'Squire Ham would take a memorandum of that which was
bound to be on the record. That is the argument of his client. The
court don't say that it is bound to be on record. There is no such law
in this country. Christopher Ham did not know it. All he wanted
was to take the memorandum down or the substance of it, and the time
that it was done, so that he could use it against Judge Roe in his can-
vass. Judge Bullitt stated a hypothetical case to you. I want to put
one. If Judge Bullitt. believed that Judge Hargis was a forger, that he
had procured Joe Norvell to go out to 'Squire Ham's in the month of Sep-
tember, 1879, and get up this memorandum; that he had stood by and
taken the testimony of a man like 'Squire Ham, sixty years of age, put
him upon the witness stand, and had him swear what was false, I ask



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