American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper., 1845-11-18
Correspondence Of the American Republican,
WAsHINGToN, Nov. II, 1915.
-Y,FIr, f,ag,1 ON N-nITNf, III yn1Nyp

The CASE Of YOUNG ELLlOII.
observe that your attentive correspondent
alluded a few days ago, to the refusal, by the
recently appointed Judge Of our Criminal Court,
to admit young Elliott to bail upon the printed
testimony which was elected, on the examina-
ton of his case before the magistrates. Their
decision upon the hearing of that testimony
surprised every sound lawyer, if not every uli-
preiudicod mind in this community. Notwth-
standing the excitement which then pervaded
the community at tho fatal result of the unlor-
tunate afftay was of the greatest intensity, yet
those who could put aside their prejudice on
the ore hand and deeply felt sympathy ON the
other, readily conceded that the case was a bail
able one There might be some apology found,
for the then decision, in the conflict between
duty and sympathy and prejudice, where the
doubt was gwen against instead of for the pri-
soner. The minds Of Il greater portion of our
society then could not be, owing to the preju-
dice naturally excited by their sympathies, pro-
perly impressed with the justice and right of
the case. The magistrates, though just men,
were like other men, affected in greater or
less degreo by tho circumstances which sur
rounded them. In conflict between opinion
and feeling, necessarily growing out of those
circumstances, it might not have been expected
that the decision Of tho magistrates could be as
favorable to tho prisoner as it would be under
cooler and camer state of things. doubt very
much that tho Same magistrates would now, if
their minds could be unbiased by strong rel-
gous feeling, decide that the case was one of
premeditated and deliberate murder, or murder
at all. do not now find single man, woman
or child, with any degree of liberaiity and in
telligence, or with minds uninfluenced by some
one of tho baser feelings or passions OF weak
human nature, who would be willing to decide
upon oath that young Elliott, i'll shooting that
admirable but unfortunate young man, com
mittcd murder; on the contrary they would be
more willing to render a verdict of justihible
homicide | doubt whother--Eo, ! do not
doubt, because know it could not be done-a
Jury can be empannelled in this District that
would render a verdict Of murder against the
prisoner. Yet what do we see: A young Judge,
very recently appointed from the State OF Penn
sylvania, lin compliment to the young and in
tcoctual and wse and hoary headed gentle
men of tho legal profession herc) to preside
upon the local criminal bench in this District,
decide in the face Of all legal men here, with
one erceptioa, and against the we'll founded OPT
Mon and strong sympathies of this community,
that tho case is not bailable one, or in other
words. in coincidence with the improper and
unpuarded expressions of the District attorney,
that the case is one of murder in the highest
depree. do not question tho parity OF the
learned Judges decision, but should be graft
fed much if the country were enlightened by
its publication, without amendation and revi-
sion. should like them to analyze the argu-
ment forming its basis, and determine upon its
lucidness and its competency, and the charac-
ter Of the legal mind from which it emanated.
understand that he gave no legal decision,
but n moral one, that is, that lie declared that
he could not, in his "conScience," asmlt nm
(the prisoner) to bail What has his conscience
to do with the matter? 1t was nice question
of law and facts upon which he was called 10
mako up just judgment. 1t the lite and
death of prisoner is TO be suspended upon the
conscience of man instead of being detemin-
ed by that great and moral standard fixed by
the law. God save me and my friends from
= ;udonnents thus founded. The law is the mea-
sure by which the conduct Of man is to be
tried: and tho law, which s conservative OF So
ciety and sound mora Is, is the best measure
The standard Of the law IS Uniform, but thit
of the conscience would be always irregular
and fiuctuating. Conscience is not the same
in eyery man. Whilst the standard OF one
would let a prisoner 90 "scot free" that OF an
other would hang him; and yet both might be
wrong. The conscience of the bigot and lana
tic. religious or political, would be as dangerous
and destructive to society and the rightS OF
man, as the conscience of the predatory savage
of the woods, or the sapgunary cannoai VINO
would eat his enemy. The bigot, fanatic, sa-
wage and cannibal have 4 conscience, or man
has by nature no conscience or moral sense IL
he have none by nature, it shows the impor-
tance ofapponting to the bench men who nave
that kind OF conscience which is made up OF a
thorough ledge Of the law and the prlnci-
ples of its action, and an acute and delicate
sense of Justice and the rights of man, temper
ed by love Of mercy. If the conscience OF
man is to supplant the law, it will require,
hereafter, no legal knowledge to make the
Judge. trust that the President, in ccmpli'