Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-03-10
Passion and Crime.

the session of Congress, is not suspected of be-
ing more pure than it should be. 1t is composed,
in addition to the politicians and their wives
and daughters, of the gay and too often disso-
lutte and debauched. And the politicians are not
thought to make morality and virtue special
ty. They spend so much time taking care of
the nation that they have little leisure to attend
to moral duties, and 50 the virtues Of CONT
noncy and fidelity are too often choked by the
rank growth of the weeds of passion with their
blossoms OF sin
Their best conscience
Is--not to leave undone, but keep UNKNOWN"
But on the last Sabbath in February, even
Washington society was startled by tho cry Of
murder, and the secret history of passion and
crime to which that homicide was but the Sc
quel. One of the busiest, most active, and un-
scrupulous of New York politicians member
of Congress, and an intimate friend of the Pres
ldent. in the broad light of day, in sight of
tho White House, and in the principal street of
the Capital of the Union, shot Philip Barton
Key agaimand again, till he was assured that
his victim was dead, end then coolly took his
friends arm and.wasked, awaf. from the scene of
the deliberate ard ,ilsisd Che lnusdercd
man was Y tstss Astsras for the District
Of Co. aa intimate friend Of Mr.. Blu
ch u nephew Of chit Jasti;sr1ii lspn,
n<1stk With plomineaa
J! E general
tbs ,lerpetratio
place. i
A virtuous, honorable and pure husbapd,
when he finds that q dsQr and mucb-loved wife
has been seduced BY Hardened and villainous
libertine, hike Key that the peace and sanctity
of his home have been invaded aud DESTROYED by
the devilish wiles of the accomplished lecher,
and on its threshold--eyen in its inncrmost
sanctuary-is left forever the foul slime Of tho
poisonous serpent; that d child he loves, and
believes bis own, must yet never again, other
than in grief and the bitterest pain, utter the
name of her mother; and that he himself must
Danish from his heart-though he never can
from his memory--the image that he has ever
cherished there, as the dearest idol Of his afec-
tions when such painful and agonizing
truth comes home to such q husband, he
would DO less than man who did not on the
instant, strike the villain dead.
Public opinion would not Judge such hus-
band and father harshly. Though the revenge
would be crime both by the Divine and hu-
man law, yet the provocation would be regard
ed, in human Judgment, as the greatest that
could be offered; the seducor as an outlaw en-
titled to none of the protection guaranteed by
the law to good citizens; and the husband as
the justified ayenger of the most outrageous in
dignity and wrong that tender-hearted and
high-spirited man can suffer. And, at first, MIR.
Sckles was almost unanimously, by those who
did not know his private history so excused
and so justified.
But little by little the private life of the man
who thus summarily dismissed the adulterer,
with his sins and his crimes, to his final &C.
count, has come to light. He IL shown to be al
man of no purer morals no moe careful life,
than his victim exhibiting in his own conduct
the corruptions, vices and crimes for which he
took such terrible vengeance on Key. Sickles
honor receives no stain by the adultery of his
wife. 1t was already too much sulled to adj
init of it, The chastity Of his welded life was
not Invaded, for it never had an existence The
purity of his home was not destroyed, for a
home Of which he made part was never pure.
And if, in this case, the cup was bitter, it
was one that he had too often mixed for
others, to make its bitterness an excuse for
murder when commended to his own lips. But
his pride was touched. He who has brought
others to shame dslikes to wear the badge him
self. He does not care to meet the ribald lest
and sneer of those who have been the compan-
ions of his vices. Sickles was slung, no doubt,
by the publicity of his wife's shame, and the
knowledge that the disgrace he has brought to
other households has at last come to his own.
But this is no excuse, or palliation, of murder.
The broken heart may find merciful Judgment
when in the intensity of its grief it yields to its
human nature and aveDges its great wrong-but
wounded pride should be no apology for crime.