The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-03-30
Tc~oNrINUED FROM FIRST pAaE.l

CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.
-Ihoot him,=and=th calmly bring him down
! s > the first time they met! It seems to be for.
gotten that when, in that moment of fury, Mr.
Sickles rushed Soat to, kill Mr.. Barton Key, he
staked his own life, too. 1t is true Mr.. Key
was unarmed. But how was Mr.. Sickles to
know this 2 Few men in Washington do GO
SO narmed and Mr.. Key had receivedbut the
Thursday before a letter warning him of the
danger Of discovery, and of the risks involved
in it. His first move, as Mr.. Sickles approach
ed him, was to put his hand to the pocket
where arms are usually carried. Any student
~ of the human heart and its passions, who looks
on the story of that tragedy from the moment
when Mr.. Key waved his signal in front OF
-g5 Sickles, house, to that in which he fell on La
fayette square, must see that in that time Sick
les thought and dreamed neither of conse-
quences to himself nor of the code of the du-
clio. a
The question attempted to be raised as to
whether Mr.. Sickles himself was addicted or
not to licentious indulgences in his youth is
entirely outside the record. His early vices,
If he had such, certainly. did not justify Mr..
Key in robbing him of the honoe of his home,
and his loved and only child of her future.
Few men, / p.esume, including even the
editors of the Erening Post, would like to have
their past lives rummaged, and all the indiscre-
tiens of the heart dragged forth in such an
hour as this which has overtaken Mr.. Sickles.
-0o SAo 49, RASOAAo Aho NANANO O'NA ~
all Mr. Keys friends, that from the time Mr..
~. Key was introduced to his house, and ever
since his first residence here, Mr.. Sickles' con-
duct as a father, as a husband, and as a man,
has been not only blameless, but guarded
blythe most jealous care. NoOne in Washington
lean say that he has ever seen him even in a
gambling house, which here is the favorite
fashionable resort of men whom the country
Z" delights-to honor" or at a bar-room, much
less at any place of a more dubious character.
-
ambition, the advancement of his political
adherents in New York, and the eul ivation of
a happy domestic life. To his parliamentary
duties he was scrupulous. by attentive, and he
was considered by many, among others by the
Speaker. as the ablest member of the present
House. Every Tuesday he set aside for his
wife receptions, and every Thursday for enter
tainments to his political and personal friends,
where were always to be metenuch of what
was most brilliant and best in Washington
so ;ietJ. Is it possible to- onceive that the act
by which he scattered all his dreams, and
rlshed on a risk of life and all that gives it
charm, was not the work of a mad impulse of
passion? or that it was the act of a cool, calcu-
1ating, bad man?
ssss OF Mr.. Sickles' past life, before he entered
upon his strictly political career, I know little.
That the Ereaing Post, Of your city, should be
more ready to speak upon that suJect Is not
surprising, since, during just that period of
LIE JOuti1 nAlEh budO OhIhd
Ssbeen the blacklist and most disgracefGl, Mr..
Sickles was the personal friend and the asso-
ciate in his business and his home of a gentle
man prominently connected with the Post, and
now absent from the country. But in dealing
with the anteeedents of Mr.. Sickles, it is not
necessary to go back to this part of his career.
1t is better certainly, to dwell upon the temper
which has actuaed men like MI. Fernando Wood
and Mr. G. j. Tucker, who certainly have had
no reason to feel tenderly for Mr.. Sickles, to
offer him in this season of his distress their
sympathy and their support.
just structures, were they but justly found
ed, have been passed upon Mr.. Sickles' alleg-
ed neglectful indulgence of his wife in all her
tastes for fashion and society without a proper
controlling care. But it is not true that he
did so indulge her.
When, last spring, the attention of Mr.. Key
first became the subject of remark and scandal,
Mr.. Sickles instantly, on the first whisper
reaching his ears, called upon that gentleman,
and received from him asseverations of the
horo able character of his regard, so solemn and
strong, that, coupled with those ofhis wife, he
oould not, and did not for a moment after,
cherish a suspicion. Mr.. Key went SO far as
to seal his asserveration by bringing his own
pure sister to call on Mrs Sickles, which Mr..
Sickles had a right to feel was a complete
guarantee of the purity of his own relations
with her. Still, desiring his wife to be not
only safe from, but above suspicion, he forbade
her TO receive Mr. hey except when invited,
and on her regular reception day, in the pres
ence of company, a restraint which they both
submitted to and observed. 1t was probably
this which induced Mr.. Key to lease a house
of designation. Nor in any instance, save one, I
has Mrs Sickles been allowed either to go to a
dinner party or ball except in his own COM
pany. The one exception was the fancy ball
of Mrs Gwin, when, on her mothers represen-
tation that her absence might give a color of
reality to what then but wore the shape of :
fctien, he permitted her to attend that ball. I.
Whatever interviews have taken place between /
Mr. Key and Mrs. Sickles since then, have
been in his absence at Congress or out of town, t
at the house which Mr.. Key rented for the
purpose. Had Mr. Sickles imposed any severe
restraint, those who are now ready to accuse /
him q laxity of vigilance would be the first to
brand him as a domestic tyrant, deserving and
provoking by his. harshness the fate he met.
bB-Black Republican Journals and their
sympathizers profess to regard the fact of an
Opposition majority in the House of Repre-
sentatives Of the next Congress as indicative
of the certain and permanent overthrow of
the Democracy. Don't he too fast gentleman