Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-04-19

trial, (no body doubts, of course, what it NiH
be- 1t is pretty certain that Sickles, himself,
will not come out of in very enviablc aspect
There is no doubt but what he worded his
wife's confession to suit himself-albeit he is so
sorry that it got into print A correspondent
of the \. y. Post makes point of this kind:
The penmanship Of what is called the CON
fession Of Mrs Sickes" may be hers, but every
sentence in it was filtered through the mind Of
n LAWYER before it tricllled from that womnn's
men. No person familiar with the phraseoOgy
OF professional gentlemen in taking minutes oil
testimony can for moment doubt 1t Inc
habit of the mind called style is unmlstaKeaoie
as the habit of the fingers called handwriting.
Haste to keep up with witnesses leads to omiS'
sion of words which the witness never omlts
and would never omit though he We're to write
instead of speaking his testimony. Such are
the fifth, sixth and seventh sentences oil tins
confession: "Commenced going there the
latter part of January. Have been in alone and
with Mr.. Key. Usually staid an hour or more.
Here the nominate is dropped as no person, IN
speaking or writing of himself, would drop it.
but US lawyers universally do in taking min.
utes Again: "Have met half dozen times;
would arrange meetings when we met &ci
"neyer would speak to him when Mr. Sickles,"
&c; chad nothing to eat or drink there" have
walked there together, say four times, went
in at the back gate" "went into the same" &c;
"as general thing have worn black and
white, &c; arranged the interview for We'd
nesday," &c.
She describes the whole of it, so as to make
an exact tally. Never, in the history Of crime
were proof and confession more admirably dove
tailed. Yet in parts, the proof had no
greater intensity than that of suspicion or pro-
liability. On such points the confession ought
to be explicit and full. When did the guilty
intimacy begin? She says ''in April or May.
- tod hnrn KrDh spS
Not only, she says she will not deny" it, but
she names the room where it occurred and the
article of furniture employed for couch. But
as to what occurred at the house in Fifteenth
street the statements are quite remarkable: the
time, manner, place and presence duly consid.
cred. At first she said: II did what is usual
for n wicked woman to do" But then, as if her
legal acumen had detected that wicked woman
may do many things which are not adultery,
she, in speaking of the meeting on the 23d of
February, not only says it was an improper in
terview, but states some particulars showing
that improperly in rather striking aspect
Yet, surprising that nothing happened MoTe
than was described, the scene was only little
worse than that between Joseph and Potiphar'S
wife, and might by some imaginable possibility,
have terminated without the final guilt But,
lest charity, which hOpeth all things, might
hope even that also, She recurs, or is made to
reCur, to ii again, few lines lower, where the
residue is described il words like all the others
of this confession, cold, so Gallons, SO beyond
expression shameless and unwomanly, that ilthey
are the spontaneous words of Teresa Bngioli,
deliberately by her reduced to writing, and it
Daniel Z. Sckies has lived with her six years,
deeming her chaste, it is not quite unnatural,
perhaps. for him, in awaking from so delirious
q dream, to awake insane. But on the contrary
if those words are not hers but has, il those
statements are but answers to questions he put,
aud in the order in which he put them-an-
swers sometimes uttered in words, sometimes
in silence, and sometimes in tears wrung out by
the torture of detected guilt and Shame-ir,
with his quick eye on all points of his situation,
conscious alike of its weakness, and awake to
the necessity of Strengthening by whatever
means what was weak and Of certifying more
strongly what was strong, lac was awaiting NM
self, by his superior power, by his greater calm-
ness and by his lar-reaehng Sagacity, of what
ever truth there might yet remain in the guilty,
crushed and ruined creature before him, and
putting it down in the words and in the order
best adapted to his purpose, then all becomes
clear-every doubt is removed-thc legal formu-
las are in place-the naked shameless Language
is fifty employed to describe conduct equally
Shameless and the aduptedness of everything
in the confession TO everything outside of it
ceases to be the miracle we must Imagine if
that adaptedness were the mere product of the
maddened whrl in the mind and heart of the
desoate creature, thus high and thus fallen,
head against chair
Now Mrs Sckles had already confessed. On
her husband telling her the terrible facts within
his Information, she exclaimed, 81 am betrayed
ruined" and then tainted. OF course, il hc
had any doubt before, none aftzr this would be
left But ull-snfficient as her confession would
be for that purpose, it was utterly useless for
any other. If he were to repeat what she had
said, hc might not be believed. If Interior pro.
ceedings were contemplated, something else was
necessary. II must be in writing-signed, at
tested-moreOver it must be all her writing, and
none of his, otherwise it would be exposed to
remarks quite obvious, and not altogether favor
able But, above all, it must embrace tho
whole case, the exact, case, and nothing but The
case. Now every one of these requisites is sat
istied Not MIR. O'Conor or Mr.. Cutting himself
could have been more crcumspect to get in
everything wanted and TO keep out everything
not wanted. 1he writing Is all her own, and
not only is it her own, but in formal attes-
tation clause, as formal as that of u will, she
says she has written it herself. And as if the
facts stated might be questioned, she says they
are true" and then, followed the exact formn-
la in all law books treating of confessions made
by culpritS she adds that they are made with
out any iadueemeHt being held out 6y ar. Sick
les of forgiveness or reward, and without any
menace from him" Then she adds, what none
of thos formulas contain, but what is certainly