The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-03-04
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1859.

ues TO be the fruitful theme both of conjecture and
of comment. In the newspapers-al the details of
the affar-the nature and extent of the provoca-
ton which Mr.. SICKLES is supposed to have re-
ceived, and the consequent degree of culpability
which attaches to his crime, have been considered
with freedom and latitude of discussion, alto
gether unusual in a case which has yet to undergo
judicial investigation, and the facts of which are
necessarily but partially and imperfectly known.
Even more reprehensible if possible, is the spirit
of evident unhirness in which, for the most part,
that discussion has been conducted and the strong
personal bias which the accounts transmitted from
Washington have for the most part display
ed Those accounts have been received
either from the agents Of the Associated
Press, or from professional letter-writers,
employed at the seat of Government, and
with few exceptions appear to have been prepared
for the express purpose of screening Mr.. SICKLEs
from punishment, aud diverting public sympathy
from the victim of his crime. For ourselves, we
do not hesitate to say that it would be vastly bet
ter for all parties-the public not excepted-that
the newspapers should have little as possible to
say upon the subject, at least, until after judicial
examination shall have ascertaned the facts. The
considerations which restrained us in the
first instance from discussing the details
of this deplorabe affair would, there
fore, have prevented US from recurring
to the subject now, but for the fact, that through
the agencies just referred to- our own columns
have been sought to be used for the purpose of Cir
cuatng a version of the case which we believe to
be as completely one-sided as the sympathy it is
intended to awaken in behafof Mr.. SICKLEs would
be utterly and altogether misplaced. That we
have not misinterpreted the spirit and temper of
the dispatches in question, whether emanating
from the Associated Press or from the special cor
respondents of the newspapers in which they APP
pear, we think will be obvious to anybody who
will take the trouble to compare them. They all
set out with the idea of making a hero of Mr.
SICKLEs-a man, whom many of these very letter.
writers have hitherto been in the habit of denoun-
cling as the very embodiment of everything that is
corrupt in public morals and prohigate in private
life. With this view his passionate devotion to
his young and erring wife-his terrible anguish
upon the first discovery of her infdelity-and his
present mental sufierings almost bordering upon
insanity, are successfully portrayed in affecting
colors He is shown to us pacing, with haggard
look, the corridor of his prison. CHS head between
'his hands," or passing the night in his cell, con-
versing with the Reverend Mr. HALEY, and inditing
'letters of four pages" full of sorrow and forgive
ness, to his unhappy and repentant wife. We
are told how Mr.. BUTTERwoRTH found him, before
the murder, 'lying with his face on his pillow
overwhelmed with grief" and how, after the
murder, he entered his wifes apartment, with
countenance '4ike that of marble statue" and
with the simple exclamation on his lips-'T have
CHILLED him." Then, as if with the idea of gain
ing our sympathy by representing public opinion
in Washington as being altogether in Mr.. SIcKLEs'
favor-we are furnished with lists of his dis
tinguished and titled visitors, and are told how
many Senators, Congressman and Cabinet Minis
try have called upon him in his prison, and how
offers Of bail have crowded upon him from
every quarter. Finally, with the view of magni-
tying the extent of the provocaton under which
he is supposed TO have acted, we are favored with
pictures of the domestic Eden in which he lived
of 'the charming cottage, at the foot Of Ninetieth
''street, overlooking the Hudson, and the house
in Washington, with ''its rooms filled with pleas
''ant company-the soft Spring sunlight pouring
Gin at the open windows and Mrs. SIcKLEs, in
Cher almost girlish beauty, wearing bouquet of
''crocuses-the frstings of the year-the very in
''carnaton of Spring and Youth, and the beauti-
'ful promise Of the year''-and of the serpent
KEY entering this terrestrial Paradse-to corrupt
to seduce-to destroy. Now-as we have here
tofore said and take occasion to repeat-to discuss
att M thp E ;I+
which presented by the facts of this domestic
tragedy. is not within the scope of our duty as
journalists. That is the business of the judicial
tribunal before which the case is to be tried and
we prefer to await its verdict, before indulging in
comments, which, at this present stage, cannot
help while possibly they may hinder the investi-
CATION of the truth. Our object is simply to put
our readers on their guard against the persistent
and systematic efforts which are now being made,
to prejudice the public mind and foreStall the YER
dict of the Law, and to enter our protest against
the false and mistaken sentiment of honor, by
which great public crime is sought to be justified.
For-let our readers be careful to remember-that
no matter what the provocaton may have been,
in the eye of the law, the wilful and premediated
killing OF man, cannot be less than murder, and
murder in the first and highest degree In the
next place. we will venture to remind them, that
whatever Mr.. KEYS faults of character may have
been, and it is not our business to extenuate them,
in the Judgment of those who knew him best, he
was man wholly incapable of plotting or accom-
plishing the ruin of any woman Mrs. SICKLEs'
paramour, it is possible he may have been-but
her seducer, never. Not only does Mr. KEYS CHAR
acter forbid the possibility of any such sup.
position, but the character of Mrs. SIcKLEs is said
strongly to favor the truth of the opposite concu-
sion. Her reputation is said to have been less than
doubtful, and by New York journal, whose state
ments upon that point we copied yesterday, it is
very plainly intmated that her real seducer was
her husband, and that her marriage came
barely in time to cover but not conceal
her shame. The very nature and extent
of that criminal intimacy with Mr.. KEY, which is
relied upon by Mr.. SICKLEs in justification of his
crime, argues woman wholly lost to shame and
to every sense of virtue. In one word-hers is a
case, according to her own showing-not of Sc
ducton-but of prostitution. Butt is not only
pertinent in this investigation, to inquire into the
guilt of the woman, which, in every case of adul-
terry, the law presumes to be at least equal to that
of the man, and which the commonest obser-
walton of life demonstrates to be- in
the majority of cases, far greater-the char
acter of the husband also, who has visited
such signal vengeance upon the alleged
seducer of his wife, is a legitimate subject fol
consideration. Is he man who by his scrupu-
lous and habitual regard for the conjugal rights
of others, has entitled himself to exact such q
Have the sanctities of married life been kept Sc
sacredly by him, that he can afford to stand forth
before the world, in the light of their champion
and avenger? Upon these points, the New Yorl
press who surely best conversant with the facts
have returned positive and most unsatisfactor,
answer. By the Albany Statesman Mr. SICKLE
is characterized as having reputation for every
''thing but integrity, honor, morality and man
''hood;" and by the New York Epening Post, be i
described as "a man who makes no scruple to invad
"and destroy the domestic peace of others, anG
"who, in his own practice, regards adultery as
'Joke, and the matrimonial bond as no barrie
against the utmost caprice of lcentiousness. y
Ofcourse, we do not pretend to vouch for the trutl
of either description We simply wish TO reminC
our readers by the presentation of these view s
that there two sides to every question, and I,
caution them to suspend their Judgment in tn
premises until both shall have been heard.
We have been so long accustomed not TO lool