The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1855-01-25
LIBERTY, EoUALITY. PIX oGREssIoNl ,ll
Celebrated Trialsin Kcntuoky.

s Celebrated Trials in Kentucky.
The termination Of the Ward trial in
Kentucky will pardon, if il Should not i'm.
part interest, to the account which follows,
of some Of the most remarkable cases o
murder and street assassination, which
have occurred in that Commonwealth
within the memory Of the present genera
ton. A late number of the Louisville
journal remarks upon the fact, that few,
or no Instances of violence in open. day,
resulting in death, are capitally punished
either in Kentucky or any other portion OF
the south or southwest. This, for the
peace Of society, is unfortunately so; but
we doubt whether in the bloody catalogue
Of this description Of crime, there is sim
gle instance 50 nearly approaching wilful,
deliberate and unproyoked murder, ID the
first degree, without the apology Of sud
den heat. or the maddening influence Of
drink, or the manly plea Of an equality Of
chances, as the shooting of Professor But
Ter. The case of Shelby, at Lexington, to
which we shall presently refer, is the near
est approach to it, and this has the extern
uation Of drunkenness, which its parallel
has not l
The killing of Benning, the editor of
the Kentucky Gazette, in his own office,
by young Charles Wickliffe, in 1898, was
one of the Unhappy results Of the violent
political exeitement'of the period between
the respective adherents Of Mr.. Clay and
Gen. Jackson. This excitement about
Lexington, as about the Hermitage, ram
into bitter personal animosites The
Wickliffe family were then divided in pol
itics. Robert Wicklifie, Senior, whose son
was embroiled in this difficulty, was pro-
fessedly friend of Mr.. Clay, which led
to a phillipic'against his family in the GA.
zette, the Jackson organ, over the sigma
ture of Dentatus. The editor, although
he had every reason to know that the au-
thor would be held to responsibility, refu-
sed on the demand Of young Wicklife, to
surrender his name; an alteration ensued,
and Bennington, the editor, was shot dead.
The greatest possible excitement, both Of
a personal and party nature, followed, and
the trial of Wickliffe was not permitted to
take place until many years after when the
Adams administration had given place to
General jackson, and Mr.. Clay had retired
to his profession atLexington. That gem
tleman, in whose cause Wickliffe had, in
a measure become involved in a murder,
appeared atthe Bar in his defence. His
speech on the occasion was one of remark
able fire and eloquence-appealing less to
the sympathies of the jury on behalf of
the prisoner, than exciting their prejudi-
ces against and contempt for the men who
had left Benning on the post of real dan
sset, -rl;ei- tirvy irssd uiIs nIltiiiness ~
occupy themselves, though willing to use
through his columns, the weapons Of the
skulking bravo. These men were Mr.
Clay's bitter prosecutors, in the canvas Of
1928, and he had little reason 10 respect
and less to spare them on a capital trial,
involving the life of his friend, and which
their work had brought about. The re-
suit was the acquittal of Wicklife; but
neither his culpability as principal, nor
Mr.. Clay's position as counsel, will COM
pare with the Ward case, or its volunteer
defence by Mr.. Crittendeu. Neither the
motive to the killing nor the duty Of the
advocate was the same. .ls.
We do not know that Mr. Clay was
repaid in after years, for his service in this
remarkable trial, by the gratitude of the
Wicklife family, The "Old Duke" Rob
ert-as the senior, because of his exten-
siye landed estate, was called-never low
ed Mr.. Clay overmuch. Personally, they
had been cotemporaries at the Lexington
Bar, and leading and active members of
the same influential Community. But Mr..
Clay was the superior in commanding In
fuence, irrespective Of politics, and Mr..
Wickliffe was rich and ambitious, but not
popular with the masses. The young
Duke, Robert Wicklife, Jr., like his faith
er, fell into the support of Gen. Harrison,
in 1840, and after his death become a Ty-
ler-man, was sent to Turin as Charge d AT
faircs, at which court he married an Ital-
ian lady, and was continued at the same
post, asa Democrat, by Mr.. Polk, and died
some years after his recall by Gen, Taylor,
His father deceased, if we mistake not,
only year or two ago. Young Charles,
who was acquitted for killing Benning,
met violent death himself, some years af-
ter, in a duel with young Trotter, of Fay
ette county. They fought with rifles, and
Wickliffe fell on the first fire. The affair
ruined Trotter. He became a desperate
and unhappy man, and was subsequently
involved in personal difficulty with Mr..
Prentice, of the Louisville Journal, and
came off second best in a street attack up
on that gentleman with pistols.
In 1898, just ten years after the occur
renee at Lexington, to which we have al
luded, desperate and wholesale butchery
took place at the Gait House, in Louis
vile, for which the homicides were so ex-
ecrated by the community, that their coun-
sci moved change of venue to Harrods-
burg, where they were tried on two counts,
murder and manslaughter, and defended
with great ability by s. S. Prentss, Of
Mississippi, Of which State the prisoners
were citizens, and acquitted on the plea
Of self.defence. A case Of justi6able hom-
icide was certainly made plausible, if not
entirely conclusive. as the prisoners were
called upon by a party said to be armed,
for explanation or redress, at their own
hotel, for an assault ope,of them had made