The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1854-05-17
The Ward Murder.

The n. Y. Courier and Enquirer
commenting on the Ward trial in Ken
lucky, after referring by way Of contrast
to the case ofProf. Webster, in NIassachu
sets, says:
Those two transactions are memorable
they are great opponents Of the mora
sense Of two communities They mark
with decided and uncrring hand the
states in civilization at which each peo
pie has arrived. The one places Massa
chusctts at the highest point, the Other
Shows beyond cavil that Kentucky is
at the lowest. Do not wrong the savage
by chasing the Kentucky iurymau with
him. Do not degrade his fierce retribu
tive code by comparing it with that Of a
community which makes its boast Of
chivalry. Better, far better, that mcu
should right their own wrongs by tho
red hand. and every fancicd insult be ex
plated with blood shed at tho peril of the
avengcr, than that such insults should be
80 revenged with the certainty of protec
ton by such jurics rs Kentucky has
shown that she can furnish. There is
some manliness in the savage who Stays
his enemy aud knows that BY the act he
makes family of mortal foes, but what
is the grade Of those men in the moral
scale, who, in country where all are e.
quail before the law, deliberately turn the
wealthy murderer loose upon society
purgcd of his guilt by the mockery of
justice The use of the tomahawk be-
comes honorable when compared with
such use of law, aud even the stiletto
in such light looks respectable.
1t is right to speak thus. This stiff
ling of the breath of justice, the lif,
breath of the land, is not new in the an
nails Of kentucky.She breeds and nourish.
es race of mon who carry c-knives
and pistols; she pampcrs them into a
feeling and an actual position of superb
GRITTY; and theu she protects them when
they use their weapons to clcavc the
heart and scatter the brains of those
beneath them in wealth aud influence
who may happen to offend their high
stomachs by word or look The acquit
tai in Kentucky Of man of position who
struck n man of no position for looking
at him in a way which he did not like
and Instantly shot him dead lest, as i,
was urged upon his trial, lie should him
self be shot, is not forgotten neither has
the memory of other like atrocities yet
faded out. 1t becomes us who have laws
which we respect and enforce, to declare
at once, and in the strong terms which
tho transaction warrants. our horror aud
our Indignation and our shame.
by the world at large the sentiment.
of Kentucky, lying in the midst of oul
territory, the State represented by Hen
ri CLAY, may be regarded as a fair ex
ponent of that which pcrvades the coun
try. Let it then be known that We Of
the Eastern States regard the result: o.
this trial as national degradation, de-
plorablc event brought about by corrup-
ton, by family interest, and by the con
seriousness that all the influence Of a
wealthy md powerful connection would
be used. and could be used TO crush
every Kentuckian who refused his aid to
bring it about. AS TO the man who with
Gains crime has obtained Gains protec
ton for his life, he, like his prototype
will find his punishment greater than hs
can bear for he went forth from that
cour; room fugitive and a vagabond in
the earth.