Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-04-12
The Trial of Sickles in Washington.

May please the Court, gentlemen of thu
jury: This is To me time for solemn
thoughts; and | rise to address you laborins
under severe struggling feeling. Ii is /
beautiful sentiment, better expressed in the
Latin than in the translation, ''imicOs re-
opim~ pariunt, ddrersH probonf.' Pros
perity is the parent of friends: bad fortune
is the fire in which they are tried. Friend
ship il the most sacred of all artificial. Il,
distinguished from natural, attachments
1t stands next to those which, by the hand
of nature. have been interviewer with the
objects which she herself creates. tpOr
the altar OF this relation ! cast my present
Offering. 1t carries with it the JUNCTION of {
warm heart May it prove to be an etfica
ciuus tribute in favor of my client have
been the companion of his sunshine, and
am now called here to participate in the
gloom of his present affection.
Trouble is a mysterious visitor; il secm'
to be the unshunnable doom of man. II
has been well said that
although affection cometh not forth OF
the dust, neither doth trouble spring out Of
the ground: that man is born unto trouble ~
the sparks fly upwards"
pressed laws upon all the departments OF
creation: which has studded the heavens
with their fires, and ordained the boundary
line between the day and the night: that
same great influence which stretches over the
face of nature springs green mantle, and
again supplants it for the less pleasing dress
of winter: that same great influence which
has designated the time for the dropping OF
the leaves and the falling of the sparrow, is
the will which guides and the hand that
holds the rod with which in this life we are
punished.
As we pass from the proceedings in which
we are here engaged, may we be permitted
to repeat over their result. which confident
" anticipate as congratulation TO this de-
PENDANT for the severe ordeal through which
he has passed
Behold. happy is the man whom God
correcteth: therefore despise not thou the
Christening of the mighty-hc maketh sore
and he bindeth up-he woundeth and his
hands maketh whole: he shall deliver thee
in six trouble,--yea, i'll seven there shall no
evil touch thee
4 few weeks since the body of a human
being was found in the throes Of death in
one of the streets of your city. 1t proved to
be the body of confirmed and habitual
adulterer. On Il day too sacred 10 be pro
famed by worldly toll; on day when he was
forbidden to moisten his brow with the
sweat of honest labor; on a day when he
should have risen above the grossness of his
nature, and though on no other day he had
sent his aspirations heayenwards, he should
have allowed them then to pass in that dl-
rcction, we find him besieging, with the
most evil Intentions that castle where, for
their security and repose, the law had pla-
ced the wife and child of his neighbor.-
Had he observed the solemn precept: Ike
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy,
he might at this moment have formed one of
the living.
The injured father and husband rushes
upon him at the moment of his guilt, and
under the influence of frenzy executes upon
him a judgment, which was AZ Just as 1t was
summary. The issue which you are TO de-
eide is. whether this act renders its author
amenable to the laws of the land. In the
decision of this issue, gentlemen of the jury.
you have a deep and solemn interest; you
are here to fix the price of the marriage bed;
YOU are here to see in what estimation that
sacred couch is held by an honest and intel
ligent American jury You are favored citl-
zens; YOU live in a city which constitutes
the seat of our federal government; city
consecrated to liberty above all others; but
not to the liberty of the libertine; city
bearing the name of the illustrious Wash
ington, the father of his country, OF whom
it has been emphatically and truly said, that
he was First in war, first i'll peace, and first
in the hearts of his countrymen."
You may feel pity, in reviewing this oc-
currence, for the life which has been taken
YOU may regret the necessity which con-
strained that event; but, while you pity the
dead, remember also that you should extend
commisseration to the living. That life,
taken away as it was, may prove to be your
and my gain. You know not how soon the
wife or daughter of some one OF you would
have been. in fact you know not but what 1t
had been, marked by the same eyes which
DESTROYED the marriage relations Ut this de-
PENDANT. You know not how soon the gar
dens of lovcliness, over which you now pre-
side, had that life been spared, would have
been called upon to supply their flower, to
satisfy tnr lnShtlatc appetite vi TIE u'Sc"H'"'
An interference with the marriage relation
must strike every rejecting mind as the
greatest wrong that can be committed upon
a human being. 1t has been well said that
afliction, shame, poverty captivity are pre-
ferable: and do not know that ] can ex-
press the sentiment more happily than IN
reciting the lines which the great dramatst
has placed in the mouth of the Moor, over
the supposed discovery Of the Inconsistency OF
his DesdemOna:
"Had il pleased heaven
To try me with affliciun had he rain'd
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head;
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips:
Given 10 captivity me and my utmost hopes:
/ should have found in some part of my soul,
4 drop of patience; but ialas to make mc
A fixed figure, for the hand VI scorn
To point his slow, unmOSing finger at
o o!
Yet could | bear that too: well. very well;
But there where have garner d up my heart:
Where either must live, OF bear no life
The fountain, from which my current runs,
Or cae dries up; 10 be- discarded thence
Or keep il az a cistern, for foul toa1s
To knotand gender iu.--turn thy complexion there
Patience. thou young and rose lipp'd cherubim;
Az, there, Look grim as hell!'
You are here to decide whether the deten-
der of the marriage bed is murderer
Whether he il To be put upon the same foot
ing with the first murderer, and il Ia be- pre-
.ented in his moral and legal aspect, with
the same hue Of aggravation about him.
Gentlemen, the murderer Is a most detesta-
bic character. Far he it from me to defend