judgment was affirmed, and the second part reversed. The opinion is written by Judge Holman. It is full, exhaustive, and learned, worthy of the court and worthy of the case. The first sixteen years of its existence the court decided eight hundred and sixty-five cases that are reported, filling the first and second volumes of Blackford's reports. In May, 1836, Judge Stevens resigned, and Charles Dewey of Clarke County was appointed on the 30th of the same month, to fill the vacancy thus caused. About a year later Judge McKinney died; and May 29, 1837, Jeremiah Sullivan of Jefferson County was appointed to fill the vacancy thus occasioned. One of the most important cases before the court during this period was that of Weinzorpflin against the State, in 1844. Weinzorpfiin was a priest of the order of St. Meinrad, which has a monastery in the northeast part of Spencer County, near the Dubois County line, in as wild a part of the country as can be found in the State. It is a German order, and this settlement was made about 1840. At that time Spencer was a part of Vanderburgh County, and in this county he was indicted for committing a rape upon the wife of a neighboring set tler. The case was one that excited great interest, and public opinion was against the accused. He was prosecuted by A. A. Ham mond, afterwards Governor of the State, and S. Major, a famous lawyer of that day; and was defended by B. M. Thomas and O. H. Smith, the latter afterwards U. S. Senator. The case was bitterly contested; but public prejudice was too much for the accused, and he was sent to the penitentiary for five years. On appeal the case was affirmed, in an able opinion written by Judge Dewey, as long an opinion as he ever wrote. It is quite evident that the court felt the weak ness of the evidence for the prosecution. He could not testify for himself; and the only witness to the alleged transaction was the woman, whose interest was certainly as great, if not greater than that of the ac
cused. " In regard to. the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict," said the court, " we can only say that had we been in the place of the jury, we -might, perhaps, have come to a conclusion different from theirs. But, one witness swore positively to the perpetration by the defendant of the crime charged upon him. The jury were, by the well-settled rule of the law, the ex clusive judges of her credibility. If they believed her, they but acquitted their con science in finding the defendant guilty. And after their verdict has undergone the revision and received the sanction of the Circuit Court on a motion for a new trial, we do not feel at liberty to disturb it on a question of the credibility of testimony." Weinzorpflin still lives (or did a few months ago) an inmate of the monastery. The prejudices and passions of the day have melted away; and in the light of sober judgment and subsequent events he is no longer regarded by those cognizant of the facts, and by those who have examined them, as ever having committed the offence; yet he was the victim of a rule long adopted by the courts, and still in force, which is set forth in the language quoted. On the 14th of January, 1845, Blackford was reappointed for a term of seven years from the 28th of that month. On the 21st of January, 1846, Samuel E. Perkins of Wayne County was appointed in place of Judge Sullivan, whose term had expired, until • the end of the next session of the General Assembly; and on the 29th of the following January he was appointed for a term of seven years. On the 29th of January, 1847, Thomas L. Smith of Ripley County was appointed in place of Judge Dewey, to continue until the end of the next session of the General Assem bly; and on Jan. 28, 1848, he was appointed for a like term of years. The appointment of Perkins and Smith was the source of a quarrel between Gov ernor Whitcomb and the State Senate. The Senate desired the appointment of Dewey
