The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-11-26


we look upon the shattered idol of fond love, it IS
folly to say to the artessn fountain of true heart
peace, be STILL Her sobs were the only answers
she could give to the interrogatories of COUNSEL
She was conducted from the court house-the iden.
tity proven, and the corpus deficit established
beyond the possibility of doubt
There were still other obstacles in the way Of a
conviction yet to be surmounted. The legal barri-
ers by which the prisoners life was fortified not
yet broken down. He was defended by VIM. X.
Poston and Ceylon B. Frazer, Esqs., two among the
most accomplished advocates at the Memphis bar,
who sternIy contested every inch Of ground with a
zeal and ability quite commensurate with the mo-
mentous issue involved. The law requires that the
allegations which are material in bill of indictment
shall be substantially proven as averred. The in
dctmeut, as we have seen, contained but one count,
and that averred that the homicide was committed
with knife. No doubt was entertained upon this
point until the testimony upon the trial began to
tend to the hypothesis that the murder had been
committed with pistols The whole proof was
circumstantial When the body was found, as will
be remembered, the head was severed therefrom,
and was lying some PAGES from it. The flesh was
too far decomposed to distinguish the incisiOn of
Knife, but the fact that the head off tended to
the conclusion that knife used to effect 1t. lt
will be remembered Also that upon the forehead OF
the deceased, there was a deep indentation which
must have been made during the desperate strug.
gle, and which, the witness believed, was made
by an octagon shaped hammer or other instrument
of that shape and also that the prisoner had been
seen with large octagon barreled pistol. In addi-
ton to this of the vertebral bones in the neck
had been evidently disjointed by violent concus-
sion from a blunt instrument. The very intelligent
surgeon who examined the body aud testified to
these facts, believed that this was done by pistol
ball, and that when done it produced instant death
1t seemed then, that the murder actually perpe-
trated with pistol, but knife had been probably
used in the horrible climax the prisoner gave to his
work in severing the head from the body This left
the question somewhat in doubt, until the counsel
for the State asked of the surgeon the question,
whether the dointing of the vertebral bone refer
red to, might not have been effected by compression
between the tusks of hog? He replied, that cit
might have been done in that way" 1t was proven
that many hogs about the body when it was
found When the cause was submitted to the jury
in argument, the counsel for the State argued upon
this point, that iDasmuch as it appeared that the
homicide was committed on the morning of the
Sabbath very near to much frequented highway,
and in populous neighborhOod, the probabilities
were against the hypothesis, that the prisoner
would have rendered himself so liable to immediate
detection in the commission of dreadful a crime,
by the firing of pistol; and that this fact con
nected with the OF the head from the body
and the further pregnant circumstance that the pris
oner had evidently seen and examined carefully the
dirk knife of the deceased, as evinced by the Incl
dent related by Mr.. Merriweather and had SO dis
posed of it as to be enabled confidently to negative
the idea that the knife held before him by that gen.
tleman although its counterpart, was the knife Of
the deceased, clearly established the proposition
far as circumstances could do it, that the instrument
of death was knife. 1t believed by the States
counsel, from all the facts Of the case, that the
highwayman, who, during the night before had
won the sympathy and confidence OF his noble and
unsuspecting victim, had decoyed him into the
wood under some pretext and had perhaps induced
him to dismount from his horse and then demanded
his money or his life. The well known brave aud
chivarous character Of the deceased authorized the
further supposition that this demand was fatty re
fused, upon which a struggle ensued, in which the
deceased attempted to use his dirk knife, and was
Frustrated by blow in the forehead with the heavy
octagon pstol-the knife wrested from his hand and
used by the highwayman in assuring his dreadiu
purpose, by severing the head from the body. The
jury believed with the counsel for the State.
But still more startling scene in this strange
drama remains yet to be unlolded. IT'S hallowed
principle of criminal jurisprudence, as we have
seen, that prisoner il presumed to be innocent o
the charge preferred against him until the contrary
be shown. Imperious justice his guardian spirit
yields nothing of her demands. There she sits il
mute majesty-hgh raised above the solemn tribu
na-her right hand pointing to the prisoners dock
and holding in her left the well poised scales, sens
tive to their gentlest vibration, but beautiful in he
bhndness-and upon her frontlet is written thos,
fearful words: =" By whomsoever mans blood b,
shed, by man shall his blood be shed +" but encirc
ling these, like glorious halo, may still be seen
those gentler, holier words: at were better tina
ninety and nine guilty persons should escape, thar
that one innocent man should be punished" An'
in these few glowing words, is written the who'll
code of criminal justice. prisoner may therefor
be morally stepped in guilt, but legally he is an in
nocent man, unless he be guilty Sin manner an,
form as charged in the written accusation agains
him.
Ia the mysterious compleKity Of fact and circum
stance by which the prisoners fate appeared to b
enveleped, the claims of justice seemed, during tn
whole trial, to alternate continually between doub
aud certainty, conquest and defeat.
Like 10 > ship
That having 'seaped tempest is stgAghtway stranded
And boarded by pirate
As the chain of circumstantial proof would, lin
by link demolish one after another, the strong bu
warks Of the Law, by which the prisoners life wa
guarded, behold yet another and more formidabl