The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-05-21

vert ner from neE great SORROW, she wept
and moaned incessantly Gill her mother
thought her reason would give, way Was
it not already dethroned2 This, long sad
brooding on one fixed, torturing idea was
it not already monomania9 This great
agony was added to the natural irritability
and nervous arrangement of pregnancy. =
Then came the perils Of that hour for which
prayers go up in all your Churches every
Sunday. The hand that should have
smoothed her way, had ruthlessly crushed
heart and brain. Her child that should
nave been a new bond was but new and
constant source of bitterness and woe.
This is all in proof and ask you, strong
men as you are, if such agony could he
yours, how would your brains have born 1t
all Would you have been sane3
She never left the house until the 10th
OF April, and then she killed McComas.-
What was her manner9 Did it indicate
her sanitya Passing rapidly through the
crowd-all her neighbors-s speaking to
none-seeing no one but him whose image
was burned into the raoked brain-she
killed him. You are told hy the State that
she aimed deliberately, was extraordinarily
cool. Well, she aimed at man on the floor
OF the porch and struck the ceiling.
Mr. Rutledge said it was the third shot.l
care not what shot-the five were ali
| fired you say in half minute-and one of
them deliberately aimed, struck the ceiling
If there be shade of doubt as to her SAM
ty, the books say she is entitled to the ben
eft. Is there not already yyino jaeis case9
And what say tho witnesses g. Smithson
says she looked like q maniac--a woman
escaped from mad house-he said SO at
the time, and that she would be corpse
before morning. Clark says he was i'm
pressed by her look and manner as that of
an insane person. Hutchns says, from the
expression of her face, the glaring of her
eye, and her whole manner he thought her
lnsane'% They are not experts, but they
know, Couldn't any one Of you recognize
the eye and demeanor of madmanl Is
there no reasonable doubt Of her sanitv2
How has the State disproved it? The
Attorney General, in his opening, stated
she had on two thick veils-deliberate dis
guise. The proof is she had but one, of
ordinary texture. The witnesses at once
recognized her on the road. Mrs STREET. did
not; she was engrossed with her duties and
| did not expect to see her, and it was tow ards
sunset when the prisoner entered. When
invited she took of her skirt and fixed her
hair, and at Ayres' answered ordinary aues-
tions. These things are done mechanical
| ly. So she asked Jarrett 'if Nick was
dead" and Ayres "if they had removed
| Nick"-nn words of reproach, but as if he
had never been aughs-than the senseless
| clay he then WIS Is this natural? In
passion yop'may strike down your friend,
but the Instant impulse would be to raise.
! If q sane woman had avenged wrong, at
the next moment she would have forgotten
all but that she once loved him, and would
have struggled to raise the dead.
Her brother told her to put on her skirt,
get on her horse and go home. She obeyed
mechanically. So at Ayres when told to
| go home she went without remonstrance -
without hint that it was something less
than kind so turn her out at night. But
why was she wandering at night with her
child about Ayres'? Not because she was
driven from home. Her mother sent for
her the moment she knew where she was
Can it be said she was evading justice b
| charge you for the sake of your man
hood-yopr humanity-of truth, do not
make this answer.
But the Attorney General has proved our
point. He has made an expert of Hutchins.
He has reoounted to him, not as my col
league says, all the facts but only those on
which he relies-has arranged them in the
most forcibe manner carefully excluding
all that would tend to modify, and asks
Hutchins, if he had known all these facts
at the time of the act, what he would then
have thought of her state of mind. The
prompt answer was, ~ should have thought
her insane" Hutchins is as intelligent as
any of you, but on weaker state of facts
yon are expected to reverse his Judgment.
We might insist that the State is estopped
by it. He is their only expert, and they
have given his opinion in evidence.
We are asked why not prove her
state of mind by her friends and Dr. Jar
rett2 She saw no one from November
You have, through McComas, forced her
into a. dark vault and taunt lis with not
flooding it with sunshine. Her mother
can't use scientific terms, but she has told
you what she thought. DR.. Jarrett saw
her only at the time of her confinement.
A mans face, although he came as ply
sician. was not a welcome sight to Martha
Cairnes. .,..t
In my judgment this girl ia no heroine
do not credit the calm courage--the steady
hand-the unwayering purpose attributed
to her 1t was an act of phrenzy; then
followed, in the reaction, apathy, 'torpor-
she could neither feel nor think.
You have heard the opinions of the ply
sicians who testified. Have you no reason
able doubt as to her sanity a~ r.
Mr.. f. in his argument explained by ex-
amples the causes character and manifes-
tations of insanity, and the views of Drs.
Raw and Drouet. -. ...
The hour for adjournment having arrived,
the speaker proposed to conclude his ar
gument the next morning. at which time
Mr.. F. resuming said; His colleague,
Mr.. Archer, would examine fully the second
part of the defence that proyocation could
be shown to reduce the grade of offence
He would not touch it, only asking the
jury, in passing, if reason and feeling did
not alike revolt from the proposition men
toned BY the State, that Implication of
malice could not be rebutted by positive
proof Of its absence. ~
He would devote the time left him to
what he considered the true ground of de-
fence, that the homicide was in law justif.
able. The Attorney General has told you
that civil government is decreed by God,
and can only be maintained by adherence
to the law" in certain sense this is
truism very well expressed, but in the Ian.
guagc of the common law, 80 much lauded,
you must not stick on the bark, but go to
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