Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-03-07
THE EXPRESS UPON THE MADISON PLACE
TRAGEDY. 90.

Yesterday, while reverent voices in places of
public worship were pronouncing the prayer in
the litany of the Episcopal Church,
From battle and murder and sudden death
Good Lord, deliver us,
dreadful homicide was committed at W ash
lngtOn by person who, to the diseredit of this
city, Il one OF its Representatives in Congress
The Wretched man, Daniel K. Sickles has in
his career reached the stage of assassination
and dipped his hands in human blood A Young
man, hitherto one Of his associates PhiliD Bar
ton hey, was, according to an account from
source not uhfriendly to Siekles. detained by n
fnend oil the assassin IN conversation, at a
convenient spot, until Sickles could have time
10 arm himself and prepare for putting him to
death There Is one incident related which
PFe5 TO the circumstance n peculiar pathos
Key was unarmed; he had no means of defence
and implOred his adversary not to kill him
The prayer for mercy was unheeded; SickIes
WAS armed with one of those deadly insiru-
ments which carry several instantaneous
deaths; he fired three times in succession. and
two of the balls took fatal effect
The prOvOcation which Siekles alleges, was
the criminal intimacy Of Key with his wife
The friends Oi hey, it Is said, deny the charge;
but the accounts from Washington affirm that
Mrs, Sickles has fully acknowledged her guilt
We should not wonder if this were true Mrs
SIckles was married To her husband at a time
when she was not yet out of her grlhOod The
character Of the husband too often corrupts
IL
BILE period of early youth. Curses il is said
IN the old proyerb, . come home to roost;'
and so, it may be said with equal truth, do
adulteries Sickles was excluded from decen,
sariety in this city. long ago and it would be
almost miracle if, in the school to which he
he took his young wife, with her character vet
uniformed, she should have preserved her inno-
cence.
We do not mean 10 extenuatc the injury done
by hey to the man who so cOOlly took his life
1t Il one OF the greatest that one man can COM
init against another. But there arc states of
social existence in which mutual liberation is
the rule of conduct, and SickIcs in acquiring
50 perfectly the morals, should also have a.-
qulred the philosophy of the class to which he
belongs. 1t i'll became him, who is So careless
OF his own conduct, to set on foot Investigations
into the morals of Others and to ayenee n false
step with death. No matter how nearly the
offence touched him, he should have treated
him as he treated criminal intrigues Of the
same nature in which his own wife was NOT
concerned, as a trihing matter as a pleasant
jest, As thing to be passed of with sly allu-
sion and knowiI look. in short us something
which the adulterous intriguer was welcome to
chronicle among his triumphs.
Ihe maEslayer does not seem 10 have acted
on the prOmptings of any sudden impulse but
TO have perpetratei the deed with entire pre-
meditation. He is represented as talking of
the :. dishOnOr'' that had been done him a
Z
man. 1t is very likely that the desire of dis
tngulshing himself by a deed Of startling the
atTlcal effect. has some place in his motives
The Washington correspondents of the morning
papers seem desirous Of placing his conduct in
light which will acquire for him the public
sympathy, and TO divert that sympathy from
the victim Of his crime-the young man who
Was, doubtless, as 1T to live rs Sickles, but
who is
Cut of, even in the blossoms Of his sin.
InhouSeled. unaAointed. unaneled;
No reckoning made. and sent to his account
With all his irnPerfectiOns on his head
From the New York Times
The New York Times has a reply in behalf
OF Mr.. Sickles. which is very sharp and very
personal towards the Post. We quote what i
not personal, and all that is relevant to the
merits Of the case
In whatever event of the pending inouiry
into his conduct. Mr.. Siekles must stand before
his country a breaker of the laws which it was
his high function to make. a SLAYER of his fell
low-nan, marked and set apart from his kind
by this sanguinary stain.
That such condition should be the work
man : OWE hand. and of the hand of man
who had everything to lose by violence, and so
much to save by fOrbearanee, ought to BE- an
adequate ground for presuming that his con-
cuet was the result, not of any deliberate pre-
meditation, but Of n sudden fury. generated
under the sting of passions SD closely inter
Win DcjIcT Instincts. that the
custom of society regards with Ieniency the ex-
treme OF incorporate acts on the part of men
IN whom those passions have been aroused
seemingly irresistible, of wrongs which Shaks-
peare thought though the Evening Post does
not. must make them
The fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow, unmoving finger atr
For such an offender Society, as we hardly
need say. must and will have not condoIation
but pity and forgiveness-such pity and for
giyeness n OthellO-madde aed by .itriHes LIGHT
rs air''-fOund in the heart Of the greatest of
poets. who, fortunately for the world and for
himself had never dashed his poetry with party
politics
There is a young and most unhappy woman.
too, to be considered in this case-if indeed il
be not over sentimental to bestOw a moments
thought upon the anguish of outraged woman
hood. and the blighted beauty of youth There
sr5 two families Of innocent children who are
Yet To learn from the lips of the law, whether
one father il to be branded as a heartess sedu-
Ger, and another ~ a deliberate murderer To
assume the final utterance Of a solemn verdict
Ia such a ease can hardly be pleasant task
for th"se whose Judicial duty imposes it upon
them.
From the New York Tribunel
III Mr.. Sickles's past career especially with
reference to female purity and the sanctities of
welded life. HIS been pure and exemplary.
then his deed Of blood will justly wear more
7pSSN tHdu the opposite case. IL.
on the contrary, he has been systematically
reckless OF those sGnctities-if that wife has
seen in her connection with him very much to
mIsiead and corrupt, little TO admOnish and re-
strain her from the reckless Indulgence Of pas
siOn-Shy. then, the ease is BRAY ely altered.
and the claim to immunity and sympathy set
mp IN has behalf has not n leg to stand upon.
We dlsclaim all knowledge. we withhold our
Judgment IN the premises, but we insist that
The Justification attempted TO be set up shall he
complete and untaintei, or it will not serve the
intended purpose.
from the Wash. Cor. Petersburg ExpressI
In other days. when gentleman's honor was
wounded in the tenderest point, he was aceu4-
t,lhed TO call his adversary out. But now, as
SiSSinalJn i the fashion. il seems. In England
Sickles would be convicted of murder in six
h0urs. Here, his trial will probably last week
or fortnight, and end in the jury's not agree
ing
From the Springfield. Mass, Republican,
Tue sIcisl and political positions of all the
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