The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1806-07-18
The MURDERER Of bis svifs and eight chill
dren.
dren.
What \ piece of work is man I"

What piece Of work Is man !"
HAMLrr.
when we heard fome weeks ince of the muir
der of A. Clements wife and children, our
imagination was bufy in aIigning reafons for
the horrible event. We demanded whether
the unfortunate murderer was not maniac
whether he was not stimulated at the mo-
nnent by the remorfelefs rage of fome ungo-
vernable paf1ion. We a&ed. whether it was
not jealoufy ofhiswife. which prompted him to
bury her and all their ch ",ren in one COM
mon ruin, or whether it was not the ebulli-
ton of demonac temper. How could we
believe that it's agent was other than a mon
tier and that lite caufe was not one of the
mott " wondrous efficacy (" But when we
approach the hiftory itfelf of thefe ftrange G.
vents, what do we fee A man friendly to his
heishbors & attached to his family; melan-
choly, but not infane; without iealoufy, with
out anger, and to all appearance ftinulated to
the preparation of thefe mott " foul and un-
natural murders" by the apprehension of
poverty. He preferred to fee his whole
family bleeding under the axe he preferred
10 be himfelf their executoner, rather than
behold them--aarving No for this fcene is
exhibited in country. which abounts in all
the means of Ea9Gaenee.'' -,
But the following hiitory 10 incomplete, when
taken byitfelf. We are prompted to enquire
into the mechanifm of man, that could
have produced 70 unnatural a cataftrophe !?
Hadhea mind Of vigorous tone, or was it liable
ohypochoDdriac affections? What werethofe
dread Affections, which. preyed upon hia feel
Ings, and turned all the milk of human kind
nefs into gall? What eonla have led TO mo-
phenomenon, aln,of without parallel in
the htory of civilized man?
Examples are to be found of tyrants, rapt a.
bove the common feelings of humanity,
whole crimes would battle all companion
with the hiftory of private life. For by the
eide of the blood.fained Robefpierre. how
poor is even the atrocity of Abel Clements
BUT where in the chronicles of private life
has there occurred fuch deplorable deed |?
Other tales may be told where villainy has
acted with greater fyitem where more milf
chief was done in longer time where
greater variety of agents was called into
play, and where the criminal was gosr,led on
by more hideous motives. But in refpect to
condenfed mitchell; in reipcd 10 the fineff
endcarment, of the heart that mutt needs
have been fnapt afunder before this guilty
deed could haye been Perpetratcd the fate
CT Abel Clements, perhaps, faDds without
arrival. Even Wie!and himfelf is no longer
the vifionary hero of romance
When we read in Smoett's Hittory of Eng
land, of the melancholy fate of Richard
Smith and his wife, murdered by their own
hands, and of their little infant ltrang,ed by
them in the cradle we are divided between
pity and adherence. We fympath;fe with
the defpair, which hurried them into ruin,
,whlfs we deteit the remedy to which they
reiorted, even ftlI more defperate than their
fortunes. But there are other pal'iatons in the
cafe of the unfortunate Smith, which attach US
to the fufferer, without spologifng for bis
fuIcide. He did not, like Abel Clements,
rncanly adafiuate his wife he did not " cut
her of in the bottoms of her fin, unhoufe'd,
Dnanointed, unanepd :" the death which
fhe fufered, had been previouily meditated
by them both, and was inflicted by herfelf
Bat what pleads fill more powerfully for
him. that he 1iared with her the fame cru
81 deftiny, which deitroyed them both. He
did not, like Clements, fra affafiinale his wife
and his child, and then like coward con-
fent to live. He had too noble fpirit TO
owe the means OF his own fubfiftence, to the
blood of beloved family, flied by his own
hand.
IN a New-York Magazine Of 1896, there i.
an account of murder committed by Mr..
]. Yates, upon his family in December.
ISL" which more cloiely refembles the
one before Us. But it was the wldnefs of
religious enthnGafm,. which prompted the
unfortunate Yates. TO murder his wife and
four children. The court admitted the
plea, and the poor blood-ftained enthuiiaft
was confined in the goal at Albany, as H.
sahe.