The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-08-21
to whom ,,olle proseq,,i was entered as q
rnSrn I'd fo.. i; A..r,. Gtnknlr

to whom nolle proseqai was entered as q
reward for his turning States evidence.
From the weight Of testimony it does not
appear probable that either of the parties
convictetl-Tolar, Powers or Wask;ns--had
anything to do with the shooting: but it
does appear that Phillips, who was ac-
Quilted, probably fred the pistol. Three
members of the commission recommend
Powers and Walkers to executive clemency.
The Judge-Advodate Of the second dis
trict, upon review of the case, recommends
that the death sentence be mitigated to i'm
prisoment for twenty years. General Candy
directed that the accused be imprisoned in
Fort Macon for fifteen years, and they are
now executing that sentence in that prison.
The Judge-Advocate of the second district,
in reviewing the case, says that while the
brutal outrage committed by Beebe was not
a legal palliation of the murder Of which
it may have been the exciting cause, yet it
is competent and reasonable for the review
ing authority to consider these facts in de-
termining the character of punishment that
shall be inflicted upon the prisoners.
Ten thousand Of the most respectable
citizens (many of them members Of the
Masonic ORDER in North and South Caro-
lima, joined by great many ladies and CO.
lored persons, send petitions to the Presi-
dent to pardon the prisoners. They do not
believe the accused guilty, and say they
know Tolar to be peaceable, honest, and
moral. A highly respectable Christian gen.
tleman, and q near relative Of the outraged
young lady, says that Powers is the uncle
of Miss Massey, and her nearest male pro-
tector, her father being dead !; and the petit
TONERS argue that if the prisoners did shoot
Beebe, they submit that the outrage COM
mitted upon highly respectable female, a
near relative, was in itself q circumstance
which should mitigate the punishment Of
the accused, who have already been in
prison for over year.
That the negro Bebee was guilty of the
outrage is admitted by all, and he received
as punishment for his brutal act the pc
| nality provided by the law-death-and
| the only objection to that result is found in
the mode by which it was accomplished.
| 1t is further argued in behalf of the de-
| PENDANTS that there was no reasonable
ground for the interposition of the military
court that no respectable officer of the
United States army has ever intimated that
Justice has not been invariably admins
tered fairly and impartially in the Supe-
rior Court Of Law to which Beebe had been
committed to answer, and that in this case
the military, by order Of General Sickles,
thought proper to take cognizance before
any civil court having power and jurisdic-
ton of the offence could act-when, too, the
jurisdiction Of civil courts had already at
tached nearly one month before the passage
&c ~ ~, - ,n1ar ruh iah Gnna-
rel Sickles claimed to get his authority :
and, further, that a jury of the vicinage
could have much better decided the case
than q military commission composed Of
strangers and, in conclusion, it is argued
that according to the showing of the tes.i-
mony, as made by the military authority
themselves, this military court has reversed
the we'll settled rule of criminal law, name
ly, "that all doubts shall be resolved in
favor of the prisoner" Upon full conside-
ration of the case the President on We'd
lay sent to the Secretary Of War the fol-
lowing order:
"The unexecuted portion of the sentence
| in each of the cases of William J. Tolar,
| Thomas Powers, and David Watkins, as
mitigated On the 9th day Of November, 1867
| by Brevet Major-General E. R. S. Candy
while commanding the second military dis
trict, is hereby RENTED, and the Secretary
of War will issue the necessary orders fol
their release from military Imprisonment
| "ANDREw JOHNSON"
Hon. Henry NJ. Watts, Minister to Aus
tria, and his wife, left here to-day at noon
for Philadelphia, having received his in
structions from the State Department. Mr.
Watts will sail for Europe in a few days.