Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-04-12

THE SICKLEs TRIAL.-Mr Graham, in his
opening argument for the defence, consumed
the whole of Saturdays session of the Court,
and spoke two hours Monday. His plea, SO
far as it has been received, is one of great pow
er, and in some portions strikingly beautiful.
His positions are
lst-Human laws do not shield us from the
endowment of human rights; 2d-Love by divine
law is perfect, though not regulated by human
law 3d-The divine law attaches responsible
ties, to execute which do not constitute crime.
By the law of God the adulturer is allowed to be
slain. There were seven points he proposed to
argue, namely 1st-As to how far the govern
ment is bound to make out the case against the
defendant, and what amount of proof should
satisfy the jury 2d-How far the old rule of
malice was presumed to prevail at the present
time in the administration of criminal justice,
and how far it is controlled by the fundamental
presumption that every one is supposed inno-
cent till proved guilty; 3d-The Nervousness
of the crime as declared by the Bible; 4th-
The reason or principle OF the old rule that
palliates the act committed by the husband
who discovers the adultery; 5th-What was
the effect of the rule which lowered the offence
to manslaughter, and made it equivalent or
tantamount to an acquittal; 6th-How far the
provocation of the deceased to the defendant
acted on or affected the defendants mind, to
shield him from all the legal consequences /;
7th-As to whether sufficient time had elapsed
for his passion to cool
Counsel commended that Mr.. Sickles, at the
moment of the occurrence, was laboring under
such state of frenzy as deprived him of ac-
countabiIity for his act. He quoted Lord Frs
kline, as having established the insanity of de-
fusion on one or more subjects; that it is par
tial intellectual mania. He divided mania into
I
that Mr.. Sickles was acting under the infiu-
ence Of moral mania. He quoted Deane' s
Medical Jurisprudence, pages 498 to $40. He
denied and spurned the idea that Sickles S
mind was in mere state of passion. He must
have been transported at once, when he saw
the man who had wronged him, and knew that
he was around his house to lay his train of po-
luton to it.
The proposition of the defence, he said was,
that if the provocation given by the deceased
was of the aggravated character conceded by
the law, and it, as the consequence of it, the
detendent for the time being and while under
its influence, was in the same state of mental
unsoundness as, if the result Of disease, would
excuse his act or exonerate him from account
ability, he is equally unaccountable under the
circumstances of this case. The cardinal in
quiry is-was the deceased in the peace of God
and of the United States when killed, and was
Mr.. Sickles moved and seduced by the instiga-
ton of the devil when he killed him That,
said counsel, is the language of the indict-
ment. Remember that if you convict him I'M
der this Indictment, you have got to find that
Satan set him on, and that he did not act UNI
der the enrolling influences of his nature.
Unless the devil set Mr. Sickles on, he COM
mitted no crime. If he was set on by the in
stincts with which his Maker has invested
him, he yielded to the control of the highest
of all influences, and an influence which he
could not resist. If he has no other crime to
answer for at the great judgment seat, his
atonement would be light indeed.