Southern telegraph., 1836-08-09

tlRt the district Attorney 0lu ail uial hlS ~
possibility 10 the state required, merely on
the declaration to-tae effect Of twoO or three
editor who doubtless honestly believe what
they declared Ii strikes Us, too tAat there
was manifest intention on the part OF The
Judge, who presided at the trial, p prevent
the exposure Of certain individuals, whose
tesiimuney in the trial seemed certainly
very desirable, if not essential There
was an apparent partiality in the selection
of wilaesses, If not real one, Why was
Young man by the name Of Marston brought
on the stand 10 lestily--tO his Oipa shdmt--
while others, who probably could tell as
much, we're not summoned because they
might lose their characters. Without anyOt
these Witnesses, who might have been obtain
ed, the Times says, the district attorney felt
abundantly able to hsteR conviction upon
the prisoner, and alluded to the letters,
which he was not permitted by the court to
offer to the Jury. 1t adds
Perhaps there never was a case in which
public prosecutor had more to contend with
than our district attorney had on that trla.
For some time previous to its taking place,
among other expcdients reserted to, cOlored
priats, pretending to be likenesses of Rich
ard p. Robinson and Ellen Jewett, were
placed in the windows of all our print-shops,
and in every public place where people
would allow them TO remain These pic
tured Robinson as beautiful, modest youth,
oac apparently incapable Of crime, and El-
len on the other, as a coarse-looking, brazen-
eyed shrew, that would do any thing. Nei-
ther of them we understand, looked any
thing like the original, and, we need not
say, were too probably placed there for Il
certain effect. The minds Of our young
men, in particular, ran, in consequence,
strongly in favor Of the prisoner, the court
room was filled with his friends, ready to
hiss any thing said by the prosecution
against him, or to applaud what his truly
talented counsel might say in his favor.
1t was in vain the court eudeavored at all
times to preserve order; the feeling would
show itself, when every thing that it
consistently could to favor the prisoner, al
lowed evidence to be suppressed at the re-
quest of his counsel, and the whole, put to-
gather, truly made up hill work for the ex-
ertions of the prosecuting attorney,
In regard to witnesses, it will be con-
ceded, we believe, it must have been truly
painful to feelings, and was injurious to the
the reputation of the young man who had
been at tho house to be called upon to
stand 1t was necessary, however, for the
district attorney to bring forward those that
he did, (and his heart must have bled at the
manner in which some.of them implored to
be excused,) in order to strengthen the cir
cumstantial evidence--in particular that of
the cloak, the handkerchief, and the mina-
ture. On this account he brought no more
forward, of either sex, than would have been
serviceable on the trial.
From all that we have read in the New
York papers upon the subject of this extra
ordinary trial, we are led into the belief,
that it was farce-an entire farce-and
nothing but farce-a mere humbug, to
excite the curiosity of the populace with
the show of justice, and suppress the in
dignation of the moral part of the commu-
nifty against those whose conduct, in every
thing but the act of murder, was as offensive
and wicked as that ofRobinson himself.
" After the preceding article was
in type, we received the Commercial Ad-
vertiser of Monday, in which the article
from the Times is ascribed to the district
attorney. The editor presumes, from
full and free conversation with that gentle
man, that it was authorized by him, so far
at least, as the facts are concerned The
editor of the Commercial still thinks that
Mr Phenix "erred in judgement, although
he honors the benevolent feeling which
swayed him, in not bringing upon the stand
the 2aramour of Rosina Townsend. The
object ofthe defence was TO throw suspicion
upon her testimony, by that Of one who
passes as a respectable merchant, it seems
to US that he should have done so. True,
it is said the happiness of an "affianced"
was concerned; but what was a misfortune
which however deeply to be lamented,
ought not to have been allowed to interpose
in the path of duty"
How the editor of the Commercial can
"honor the benevolent feeling" which kept
the paramour ofRosina Townsend from the
witnesses stand, and yet think it misfor-
tune which ought not to be allowed to inter-
pose in the path of duty-we cannot pre-