Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1858-07-14
The Hardy Case at New Orleans

As our readers know, the trial Of G. w.
Hardy for the murder Of @. H. Stone, ter
minstsd in bis scquittAI. The fact Of the
murder was cOnclusiVely shoWu-thst Hsr.
BY bad shot Stone at bis desk 10 biz store
without saying q word. The prOVOeatiOn
was EthAt Stone bad ssduced Harby's daugh.
ter under promise Of OfmaFriAge, which con.
tract be refused to fulfill. This 80 incen-
sed the father that be shot her Seducer.-
The New York Express regards this as es.
tablishing the principle that a man must
marry woman with whom several persons
swear they have had criminal intercourse,
or, as an alternative, he may be shot down
like a dog in the street; the jury deciding
that the species Of killing is no murder;
nay, indeed, that it is rather a meritorious
act than otherwise, and one therefore, for
which the actor is deserving Of popular
ovation.
1t says that It has come to be a recogni.
zed dogma in the doctrinSof equivalents,
that all such deviations, il legally wrong,
are morally right. Hence no jury would
convict Amelia Norman for murder,or man
slaughter, or anything Of the sort, for stab.
biDg faithless lover on the steps Of tie
Astor House, in this city, not many years
ago; hence Singleton Mercer, in PhiIadeI-
phia, was mot guilty" of killing an &C.
quaintauce who had dishonorei bis sister
hence, likewise, Thomas Washington Smith
was not held responsible there for assault
ing the Bank President Carter) for sedu.
cling an unhappy young woman, anterior
to Der marriage with the muderer. These
are but few exempli6cations taken from
the criminal records, at home and in our
own neighborbOod, And the annals Of
criminal Jurisprudence, throughout the
whole country furnish many more in add
ton. II then, the New Orleans case sim.
ply furnish a reaffirmation OF that now
seemingly established princip!e-that xii.
ling a seducer is no nurder-it might be
dismissed as one Of those periodical com
mon places, not calling for special remark
beyond the walls Of the Court, at the time
Of trial, or out Of the dull pages Of law
Yer's magazine. But what are the facts
Ia the several cases specified above, the
heroine was understood to have led ver-
tuous life, and to have made but one false
step, and that one only through the agen
cy Of some vilainous artifee, facilitated by
an unwarantsble confidence in sense Of
honor which no professional seducer eau
be supposed to possess. They were not
like Mss Herby open to the charge of TO-
discriminate intercourse with, not one, nor
two, nor three, but many. Hence, though
the killing of the seducer was murder
sometimes Of the most cool aud deliberate
character feelings of the jury decided
that the seducer was bound to marry bis
victim or be deprived Of his life--and to
these feelings the multitude outside Of tho
Jury box, and the courts, usually responde
ed with approval. The Law called it mur'
der, and as such made it punishable with
death--but the "higher law" Of the heart,
aud the feelings, and the sentiments Of the
jury box carried the day against the law
written upon the statute books.
Now,what the New Orleans case decides
iu coutra-distinction to these precedents il
this: that man is bound to marry "fast'
womau--oue who has as many lovers, ap
pareutIy as she has fingers and toes; who
sleeps night key" who receives noctur
ual visits from notorious ladies' men in be-
fathers parlor; who goes to ice-cream sa
looms with questionable company, at ques
tionable hours; and who goes to church OIL
Sunday as if only to call the roll Of he
lovers. A woman Of this volatile temper
ament, in the course of time, naturally Q
nough, is overtaken With the responsible
ties Of maternity; and (the verdict now is
whoever she may arbitrarily elect from a
moDg her lovers to be the father, that per
son must marry her--or be killed. Clos
it over as we may, this is the marrow .
the whole matter--and the moral Of it al
! is, that all men should avoid fast women
There may be nothing positively crimina
in conversation with them--there may b
nothing but ''tiirtation"-but we see her
how dreadful is the risk of having any
thing to do with them at all
We think that in csming to this conclu
sion the Express is rather "fast." II look
to us as though the result Of fthetrial prove
only this, that the jury believed Miss Har
by's emphatic denial, and did not beiev
the testimony of the witnesses who asser
ted that she was loose women. We ap
prebend it will be found that the wituesse
against her we're friends of Stone,and it wa
doubtless thought that personal friendship
for the deceased swayed their testimony
We do not intend this as an apology 70
"fast women" but as our view Of the tes
timony which probably influenced the j.
y.-Ohio State Journal.
SELF REsPEcr--Keep up agood opir
ion of yourself-uot a vain one, but a goo
solid respect, which shall stimulate you
higher and purer thoughts, words and al
tions. The man who relies on his ow
respect will never be mean, for though nc
body else ever knows of it, he himself wi
and that should be enough to deter hi
s from petty deeds.
t The Washington Union violently abus
9 those anti-LecoInptOn Democrats who da
N N comnlain because theV are prescribed