The daily Minnesota pioneer., 1854-07-19
DAILY PIONEER.
SAINT PAUL
Public Morals.


have become entirely too frequent of late
There is scarcely paper that comes to us
from any part OF the country, but what
contains one or niore accounts of transac
tions Of this kind Were we TO cl,ronicI,
all of these bloody and revolving dramas
our paper would contain nothing else. anG
our readers would find nothing in our col
unns but evidence upon evidence of the
frequency of these much to be regretted oc-
currcnccS.
This state Of things is wrons-;ll wrong,
and there should be by some means check
put upon it. We do not hold that because
Il man is assaulted, that that is sufficient
reason why he should take life Where the
attack is made not with deadly weapons,
we hold the taking Of life to be highly rep
rchensiblc There is only one case where
we conceive it to Ic justiliablc, and that is,
whore the assault is made with deadly wcap-
ons and with mur,lcrols intent, and when
the intention of the assaultcr is apparent
that he designs, if possible, to take the life
of his opponent In such Il case-to pre-
serve ones own life becomes duty and
10 defend that life the attacked party is not
ancnablc, under the circumstances, if lie
slay the attacker Even in such cases the
utmost caution should be uSed-the party
attacked must become thoroughly convinc-
ell that, unless he take the life of his as
gailant. he must lose his own-bcforc he
deals the death blow. Many cases have &C.
CURED within the past year, where the >lay-
or of another stood in no fear of losing his
own life, nor even Of receiving dangerous
wounds
The practice Of carrying deadly weapons,
III peaceful community, cannot bc too
highly condemned, and is frequently pro-
ductiye of disastrous results. The case of
STORY furnishes an Illustration of the dam
ger, TO persons of quick temper, of this
practice. 1t seems that from some words
that passed the day before, he antici-
patcd trouble with some of his workmcn,
and accordingly armed himself in sclfdc-
fence. That he received gross and repeat
cd insults during the conference, there can
lie no doubt. That Ike was justifiablc in the
eve of the law ia shooting, there exists no
question. The result of the airay our read
crS are familiar with SroEy was ovcrpow-
cred by numbers ard horribly manglcd, and
u1,Hn his body was found a revolver still
soadcd. This pistol he had promised his
wife lie woald not use against the life of any
man under any circumstances. This prom
is" he faithfully adhered to, and died with
.ise weapon l,y which he might have taken
the lives of six Of bis assailantS, still in his
pocket, and undischargcd The consequence
is, that the career Of six men Will meet with
Il bloody termination, Lefurc the affair is
over -Four of SroRY's murtcrcrs are con-
dcmncd to death by jury of their coun-
trvmcn. and the Executive of the State re-
fuses to interfere with the sentence. We
think that this dcplorable result might have
been avoi,lcd-that the matter could have
been adjusted witlont the shedding of
blood. This is but one of a thousand SINH
iar cases, reports of which have met our eye
from day to day ; and if there is not a re-
straint put upon it, the consequences no one
can forcscc, and from the contemplation of
which We gladly turn away.