The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-04-26
Especially reported for the Daily Exchange. !
TRIAL OF DANIEL {. SlCKLES.
MURDER OFPHILIPBARTON KEY
NINETEENTH DAYS PROCEEDINGS.
CRIMINAL COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF CO.
LUMBIA-JUDGE THOS. H. CRAWFORD.
PRESIDING.
WASHINGTON, April 25, 1859.

PRESIDING.
WASHINGTON, April 25, 1859.
The Court was opened at the usual hour, and the
prisoner having been brought in, the Jury were
called and severally responded.
Mr. Brady made his closing argument in behalf
OF the prisoner, explaining and urging the proprie
ty OF the several instructions prayed for by the de-
fence The learned gentleman on the other side
MIR. Carllsle,) had urged the objection that these
prayers were of an abstract nature; but it seemed
to him that they were appropriately framed in re-
ference to state of facts entirely uncontradcted
and indisputable. The opening argument of the
District Attorney had represented this homicide
as an assassination, but in considering the case it
was important to take into consideration the pre-
Vlous friendly relations that had existed between
the parties, as showing that for such an act there
must have been either justification or insanity. It
had been said that the two theories relied on by
the defence were inconsistent with each other; but
ne held that they were perfectly reconcilable If
| the act was right in itself, it made no difference
whether the mind of the prisoner was sane or not:
but if on the other hand it was not iustable taen
1t became important to know whether the mind
OF the prisoner was in such state as to render
him responsible for his acts or not Another
matter in respect to which the prosecution and the
delence dfered, was as to the province of the urv
IN examining these questions of provocation, JUS
tltication and cooling time. He had not heard the
| District Attorney express his opinion with very
great dehniteness that point; but the ground
upon which he objected to the introduction Of GER
tain evidence, seemed to involve the doctrine that
| these matters were not within the province of the
jury. Mr.. b. adduced several authorities to show
| tnat 1t was competent for the jury to pass upon
lnese facts, as well as the other facts connected
with the act in question, for which the prisoner at
the bar Is arragned. All the facts must 90 before
the jury, or the effect of trial by jury will in
great degree be lost Next to the integrity of the
}uoiciary is the Importance of preserving the trial
by jury, especially in criminal cases, in tact Much
as ne reoiced that he was born in this country and
as he felt his dearest sympathies identified with her
prosperity and greatness, he would rather live under
the worst desposm the face of the earth than see
TINS great palladium of liberty broken down and des-
| 'royed. Could any sane believe, in view of
all the previous relations of the parties that Mr..
Slckles would leave his home on that Sabbath, and
fr; en- tnS iaGe OF DAY, commit assassination his
friend? He proceeded to daguerreotype the scene
OF the homicide, describing it as a tuSse or n CON
tlct, which appeared to Mr. Mccormick like a
street hight, and in the course of that conflict Mr..
fy ney was shot. Near the scene was afterwards
iound an opera glass and Derringer pistol. There
was no proof that Mr. Sickles had any other wea
| pom than revolver; and in view of the fact that
hey was known to be in the habit of going
armed and prepared for any emergency, it
was reasonable presumption that Key had
and used that pistol in that contest The table
here had been surrounded during this trial with
intimate personal friends of Key, including Mr.
Jones, who had been staunch adherent durinp
the whole of this trial; and not one of them had
oeen shown this pistol, and asked if they
had ever seen 1t in possession of Kew; none of the
servants IN the household of Key had been called to
see II they could testify to its having been in his
possession; and at the same time not a particle of
evidence had been adduced to connect this pistol
with the prisoner at the bar. Here then was con-
met as to the particulars of which no one can tell
US the precise facts-Sickes armed with a-reyolyer
and Key with Derrnger and who shall saw that
the homicide was not justifable one? How can
any one tell but what when these parties met Sick
les accused Key of dishonoring him-Key replied
| LlnsT ,Ifrhf hn1,, .c1
could, accompanying the remark with approbrious
eplthets and insults; encounter ensued when
hey threw down the opera glass which he had been
using ior another purpose, and drew the Derringer
plst0i lor deadly purpose, and in the course of the
conflict Key met his death? Was there ANYTHING in
the whole of the testimony adduced contrary tn
the supposition that this might have been the real
iact OF tne caseI And did not this statement carry
TO the MINDS OF the jury at least doubt, whether
the act OF Sckles act of murder or of iustif
aoe homcldef Mr.. b. read parallel case adiudi-
catea oy Judge Curtis, reported in the Massachu-
setts Reports, where negro named Mingo was tried
1or the Killing of a man named Johnson
The bullet which had been taken from the bodv
OF hey had been produced in Court, but unfor-
tunateiy Tor the prosecution that bullet would n OF
mt the Derringer pistol. The bullet which killed
Key came from revolver; and what became of the
bullet which was fired from the Derringer, which
when picked up, was found to have been freshly ex
ploded lie could not say-no knew; or if
they did it was kept secret as many other facts
Whlch had providentially been discovered bv
the defence at late period of the trial. II has
been proved that four shots were fred and from the
evidence as it stands only three fired from the
pistol of Sickles. Who fired the fourth if it was
not fired by Key from his Derringer pistol? Another
circumstance worthy of notice was that when the
gentlemen from the clubhouse came to the scene
all OF them being Keys personal friends they knew
enough OF the circumstances of the case to acouit
Slckies OF any wrong; one of them cried nmur-
der! No one called police officer or sought to
mo moest MN, but he was allowed to walk away from
Mr. b. proceeded to allude to the DISTINGUISHED
latner OF the deceased and the patriotic song with
which his name will ever be associated, and con-
trasted it with the "banner' of adultery waved hy
the unworthy son. He went on to state the mn
ishmentS which have been awarded, in different
times and among various nations, to the crime of
adultery list of which had been furnished to him
by gentleman of known condition, Prof Dimitrv
They are follows:
l.-Among the Jews, by the law of God the
adulterer and the adulteress were both stoned to
death.
lin Greece Lycurgus decreed that adultery
should be punished the same as murder
ll.-Ihe Saxons, by their law, burned the aduter-
ess to oeath, and over her ashes reared gbbet,
on which the adulterer, her accomplice was hanged
lN.-Some of the Northern nations of Europe
suspended the aduiterer to a hook-"'istis q,tiJus
pecasset parfibus"-and left him sharp knife with
which he was compelled to infict selfpunishment,
or rexpend his guilty life in protracted torture
V.-ln England, in the reign of Alfred. the we-
man was shorn, and stripped to the waist driven
away from her husbands house, and in the presence
OF all her relations was scourged from tything to
tything until death ensued whilst the adulterer
strung up to the next tree
Win France, under the laws of Louis the Da-
bonair, both parties suffered capital punishment.
Fl.-Constantne enacted law infiicting capi-
tai punishment against adulterers of both sexes and
Justinian, in his reformation of the codes left the
same penalty menacing male adulterers,
Nlll.-ln the Vicissitudes of time adulterers
were condemned to be scourged and vanished or
| and tOr E. :fu
of France.
IA.-The Spanish laws deprived the adulterer of
that through which he had violated the laws of
society, and the sanctity of the marriage bed
A-ln Portugal the aduterer was burned to
death with the adulteress. But if the husband chose
to save his guilty wife from this fearful chastise-
| ment she set free with fine
Al.-in Poland the adulterer was taken to the
nearest bridge leading to the market town. in or
near which he resided, and was there nailed or
hooked to the main bridge post a knife being at
the same moment put through his hand, to enable
him to free himself by the mutilation of those
parts, qut6us presumisset peccare
Kiln the Kingdom of Bohemia, the penalty
OF the adulterer was decaptation, and that of the
aduteress was perpetual secusion spen. in menial
drudgerles, and IN penance on bread and wa
ter.
| &lll.-ln Roman history, instances frequently
occur of adulterers being put to death and until
| the enactment of the lee JULIA the husband had
the right of summoning all the relatives of the
/
the hearthstone of the household-and then and
there adjudging her to death.
And he remarked that in this District the penalty
was worse than useless. He was glad to find that
the District Attorney had testified his abhorrence
OF adultery by attaching to it in the "Revised
| Code" which he had assisted in preparing a far
| heavier penalty than had heretofore been visited
| upon 1T. No pecuniary recompense can adequately
| satisfy the wronged and injured husband and the
offer of such satisfaction is but adding insult to in
| jury. Mr.. b. cited several cases from various au-
thorltles; among Others reported in the Jour-
nal des De6dtS, which occurred in France in 1857,
to show that even in the loose state of French
ais, husband is held to be justfable for shaving
the seducer of his wife. He also quoted from Pro-
verbs chapter vi, q to 35 ending as follows:
"Whoso committeth adultery with woman lacketh
understanding; he that doeth it destroyeth his own
soul. A srou,id and dishonor shall he get; and his
reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy
IS the rage Of man; therefore, he ,uiI
not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not re-
gard any ransom; neither will he rest content,
though thou givest many gifts.' The Almighty
has implanted into the bosom of animals that in
stinct which will lead them to defend their conjugal
rights: and travellers inform that in Africa the
most terrible combats take place among lions on
this account, both of them never leaving the scene
alive. What would Key have done if his family
had been invaded and his wife seduced from her al
legience? He would leave it for the Court, for the
District Attorney, for all Keys friends, to answer
that question. No one doubt but that he would
have visited terrible vengeance upon any one who
had thus wronged him. Key was acting as spy
| on the house Of Sickles when he was prowng about
Lafayette Square with opera glass in hand. Major
Andre condemned to death and hung on glib
bet by the great, good and wise man from whom