Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-03-27
MORAL INSANITY.
A Plea for Ketehum, the FOrger-
Wealth and High Station Suing
GOr his Release.


Wealth and High Station Suing
EOr his Release.
The Cincinnati Gazette says:
A pressure from wealthy, respectable
(Wealthy and respectable seems tautologi-
cali and, Of course, influential men, is be-
ing brought TO bear for the pardon of Ed
ward Ketchum, of New York, convicted
about two years ago for forging his fathers
name to gold checks for a large amount.
The reasons are several, each sufficient in
Itself, though somewhat conflicting with
the other. He was morally insane. He is
very penitent. He was morally unaccount-
able. He condemns his conduct without
extenuation, which is proof that he has re-
formed.
Rev. Mr.. Tying, his minister, says he
has spoken of himself as having sinned
against the law of God and man; as truly
deserving the penalty which belongs to his
ofense." Indeed, he says, "no deeper or
more sincere sense Of sin, deserving pun
ishmeni, could be made manifest TO exte-
rior observation than have found in this
young man." On the other hand, mer-
chants, bankers and capitalists, who are
most timorous toward this doctrine of
moral insanity in those who handle the
money of other people, freely give their
opinions that he was not morally response
bic, and ought to 60 free.
Moses Taylor says that "in the whirl OF
excitement by which he was surrounded,
with the mental anxiety Of every hour
weighing upon him, and constantly inten-
sifed as his misfortunes thickened, his
4 L L. "a, Ill 4 bo al, ,aa
into the commission of an act in which
conscience and reason could have no pow
err George Opdyk thinks young Ketch-
um's mind was so unsettled by his vast OPP
erat.ons, and by the circumstances in
which he was placed, that he was not ca
pable of approaching the quality of his
actions. Jonathan Sturges chad no idea
that Ketchum ever meant to defraud any
one, but that he acted under stupelactiOn
of mind, amounting to a species of insani-
ty or monomania."
John J. Cisco, Senator Fessenden, Peter
Cooper, Secretary McCulloch, Samuel
Hooper, and many others give the same
opinion. lnasmuch as all crime is the re-
suit of mental or moral alteration, and az
these alterations are because the degree Of
temptation is too great for the mental or
moral balance, and as the temptation was
too great 10 permit the expectation that an
ordinary mind could Withstand it, it is
strange that this concurrent testimony of
so many material capitalists TO his moral
unaccountability, coupled with this spirit
ual testimony TO his penitence and moral
reformation, did not bring his pardon.
But the New York Citizen has the most
complete theory of young Ketchum's inno-
cence. 1t holds, first, that the gigantic
monetary business which he was carrying
on, broke down the brain of the unhappy
young man, and made him morally insane /;
second, that if he could have carried along
a week more, his speculations would have
succeeded, and he would have come ont all
right, morally and mentally.
We quote this ingenious theory from the
Citizen. 1t is hardly necessary to say that
the editor is a true Milesian;
carrying on the gigantic monetary bust
ness Of his father, there can be no question
left in the minds of any who will dispas-
sionately study the testimony of our lead
ing merchants-many of whom were heavy
sufferers from the temporary insanity which
they now plead in the prisoners behalf
that the brain of this unhappy young man
gave way under its crushing and perplex-
ing burdens That he had no deliberate
intention TO commit fraud, we are well as
sured-the quotations of the stock market
showing that, if he could have carried
along his fatal and maddening secret for
another week, not only would he have
saved the credit of his fathers house, but
have been enabled TO meet every gold-bond
he had uttered, and with handsome over
plus"
From this touching and morally sane
article, it appears that if Ketchum could
have carried along his speculatiOns with
forged gold checks a week longer without
discovery, the turn of the stock market
would have brought him out with a sur
plus, and his moral insanity would never
have been discovered. To punish him
would therefore be to hold him morally
accountable for the tardy movement of th'
stock market. If the absence of mora
accountability, and deep penitence for it
and the weight of bankers and capitalists
and public fnanciers, all failed to procure
his pardon, certainly that mercy would be
highly strained which could resist Thu
overpcwering style of reasoning.