Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1865-08-01
Crime and its Punishment,

deliberation of ten minutes by the jury, fur
another evidence OF the disposition of
jures everywhere to refuse to convict females
with %offenses to which they are sup
posed to have been melted by disappointed atfec-
ton. The defense set up by Miss Harris coun-
was " paroIysmal insanity" The evidence
showed that she was warranted in expecting to
marry Burroughs, and that he at one time ex-
pected to marry her. His conduct toward her,
while the mutual expectation of marriage ex-
listed, was perfectly honorable. There were,
however, two letters used as evidences in the
caSe-nOt signed by Burroughs, and which the
brother Of Burroughs, a clergyman in Chicago,
testified positively were not in his handwriting
which Miss Harris had received, inviting her
to meet the writer at an designation house IN
Chicago. A female friend Of Miss Harris testi-
fed that she believed these letters were written
by Burroughs and this was all the evidence OF
any value on that point. Burroughs married
another lady and went to Washington to reside,
where he held a ~clerkship in one Of the depart
ments. After this event Miss Harris was
moody, depressed in spirit, at times furious.
She was, however, put under no restraint, and
the evidence of her condition came chiefly from
an intimate female friend. She procured a pls-
toll, wen. from her residence in the West to
Washington, sought Burroughs, found him In
the department and deliberately shot him.
When she was arrested she Immediately tele-
graphed Miss Dsylin, the " friend " upon whose
evidence her disturbed state of mind was proved,
to come TO Washington. She has just been tried,
has had the benefit Of eminent counsel, and has
been acquitted.
1t is, doubtless, Of no use to quarrel with the
jury which returns a verdict of not guilty +"
10 such a case, or with the psblic opinion which
s~ustains it, and therefore renders it possible
but it can but b0 the duty of the press to speak
a word for the laws against murder which are
outraged by such a decision. Murders are rare
y committed except under the stimulent OF
some passi IN that for the moment usnrps the
place Of reason. Shakespeare describes the
fierce passions which ragged in the bosom OF
Macbeth, and which led to " most sacriligious
murder " visions, frenzies, hopes, fears, duty
ambition, commended for the mastery, until hit
brain seethed like the witches cauldron, and
ghosts affrighted his disturbed fancy and yet
no reader of the tragedy ever judged Macbeth
innocent of the murder OF Banquo and Duncan
Shakespeare by his wonderful genius succeeded
in bringing to the light, and laying bare to ouI
gaze, the contending influences which struggle
for the mastery in the mind Of murderers and
1t is just because the mind Of the criminal il
agitated bv The stormiest passions, which finally
get the mastery OF what we sometimes call hi
better judgment, that murder is possible. TIT
natural healthy &C tiOn of every we'll BALANCED
mind never results in crime and, therefore
crime itself is primd face evidence that there i
something wrong in the mental and moral or
ganizltion Of him who commlts il. One OF tn,
principal facts relied upon to prove the " par
, oxysmal insanity of Miss Harris, was tina
she had furiously assaulted another person will
a knife, without cause and strangely enougI
this was regarded as evidence that when sh
muir dered Burroughs for refusing to redeem hi
promise OF marriage, she was then I" paroIys
f mally insane" 1t is apparent, however, tina
Q the plea Of insanity was only a pretext tina
= the jury believed she Was entirely sane when sh
committed the crime, aud that they acquitte
her because Burroughs did mt marry her afte
n having promised to. The cheers in the coul
room are evidence that The spectators receive
the verdict in that sense and even the tragi
i affection Of the prisoners counsel, which induce
them to kiss her in open Court, shows that the
regarded the conclusion OF the Jury as evidence
not that their client was insane, but that he
conduct had been fully justified by the fndin
of twelve men.
u This tendency toward acquittals Of person
charged with murder, cannot DO too strenuousl
ID resisted by oil who desire that law and ordt
d should prevail, and the redress of gil grievance
DO left to the legal tribunals where it belong:
Ii Miss Harris had beeen convicted, - paIoxyI
NAL insanity " would not be recognized as a di
~ ease 50 far popularised and contagious as to q
feet men or women whose affections have bee
r wounded. Now, however, We may REASONABLE
40 expect that every woman, who has %suffoier
* nerve, will feel al liberty to shoot a faithlel
u lover and, as tho rule ought to work both way
10 we pres ume the lover whose heart is woupde
Nv because the woman upon whom he had place
nd his affections finally marries some one else,
also at liberty to shoot her at sight. This wi
=. bring about a pleasant state of society, in whic
lg blighted affections and "paroxmysmal insanity
nd will bring shooting to high degree of perfec
Oh ton, and perhaps reduce it to a fine art.
Ii. The charge of Judge Wylie in this case, o
on question Of insanity, was as follows
nd If at the time of the commission of the act
Al The party was %laboring under an insane impulse
II. produced by either physical or moral cause sui
" heient to dethroue her mind, or il frenzy ha
No surmountej the throne OF reason, 30 as for tn
nd time 10 dethrone reason, the party was insane
he The second prayer is grant ID, with this quali6
= cation to be added Or was impelled to the &C
', by an insane impulse produced either by dis
NJ eased physical condition or by moral causes oI
sh Grating on u diseased state OF her system, sting
re ing her to madness, and for the time displacin
reason iron it's seat. The third prayer is no
' granted. II the act in question was commits
10 while the prisoner was insane in the sense al
IL ready explained, she cannot be made responsible
of for 1t by any conduct, declarations or behavio
j., on previous occasions when her mind was unde
= the government of her reason. The iourtI