Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/525



Early in the session an effort was made to impeach Thomas W. Clagett, a judge of the First District and a special committee was appointed to take evidence and report. Petitions and remonstrances in large numbers were presented to the General Assembly from Lee County, for several weeks for and against impeachment and a large amount of testimony on the subject was taken by the committee. It became evident that Judge Clagett was arbitrary in his treatment of attorneys practicing before his court but there was no evidence impeaching his integrity, and the non-partisan committee finally reported: “That we find no cause of impeachment,” and the House concurred in the report.

There was a bitter controversy existing between the residents of the old city of Des Moines and the people of East Des Moines over the location of the new Capitol and, early in the session, a memorial was presented to the General Assembly, charging fraud and corruption on part of the commissioners, stating that they did not act for the best interests of the State in making the location. A special committee was thereupon appointed by the House of Representatives for the purpose of taking evidence and making a thorough investigation of the charges made against the commissioners. The committee made a careful examination of the evidence obtainable in support of the charges and gave the commissioners opportunity to testify and bring witnesses to exonerate them from the allegations of fraud and corruption. The evidence, with all the papers and documents brought before the committee, was reported to the House just before the close of the session and ordered printed in pamphlet for distribution among the members and one copy sent to each newspaper in the State.

The report was signed by four of the five members of the committee and may be summarized briefly as follows: