New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-05-18
THE CAIRNES CASE ONCE MORE.

THE CAIRNES CASE ONCE NUKE
We published on Thursday last the letter OF
"An Old and Constant Reader" who thinks
that" the law provides no adequate redress to
the injured party, or, in other words, does
"not infict adequate punishment for seduction
"and adultery" While we agree with our
correspondent that well marked Offenses OF
this character are deserving of severe penal
ties, we beg leave to suggest that the dell
cheney Of the law probably arises, in meas
ure, from the difficulty of determining upon
penalty which shall be no more than adequate
and equitable About most crimes there is a
mOnotonOus uniformity of character; one theft
or one forgery is almost exactly like another
But in cases of seduction and adultery, it may
well happen that the man of weak will and OF
rotous passions is really the tempted and in
iured party. To send him to prison, while his
paramour remains at large, receiving the SYM
pathies of an indignant but rather thick
headed public, is to treat man with injustice
and woman with unmerited leniency. 1t
does not follow, because woman resents the
faithlessness of one who has stolen her virtue,
or because she waylays and assassinates him,
that she is not herself at all to blame. Proba-
bly, there are as many Dallas now as in the
days of the unfortunate Samson, who said:
"How cuuninCly the sorceress displays
Her own transgressiOns to upbraid me mine"
Now, in order to arrive if we can at a dispas-
sionate estimate of the prOpOrtiOnate delln-
quency on each side, in cases like these, let us
look at the late case of Martha j. Cairnes In
Maryland. There is no evidence that the woman
is or has been at any time insane. For vic
tim of cruel deception, she appears to have
been all along unCOmmOny strong-mnded.
She shoots her faithless lover, and, mauger the
remonstrances of the Judge, she is found mot
"guiltyn she is feted and caressed as heroine,
she marches away free, and by the fiction OF
the law innocent amidst the applauding shouts
of a mob of fine ladies and gentlemen. The
man she sent suddenly to n stricter than any
earthly account, with all his imperfectiOns on
his head, is in his grave and cannot tell his
side of the story. But here is certainly
woman who, according to all the rules
by which we ordinarily determine character,
has degree of mental energy which might
have protected her against the wrong OF which
she complains, and to ayenge which she COM
mitted q thoroughly murderous murder. Ac-
cordng to all fair prescriptions, which, IN TINS
affair, was the tempted and betrayed party
What man, unless of a courage unusually IN
domtable would care to marty woman ca
pable Of doing this thingl Yet, while juries
insist that women under the influence OF rage,
modification, and disappointment may XIII
with impunity, we shall continue to read IN
the newspapers that Miss a. yesterday shot
Mr.. b. for refusing to marry her rs he had
promised to do We say distinctly, that this
is TO make felony fashionable.
Jurcs, of course, refuse to hang women
guilty Of taking their revenge into their own
hands; and so instances OF this really lnde-
feasible crime, contrary "a il is 10 the whole
spirit Of the law, are multiplied. But suppose
Martha j. Cairncs had been found guilty
and sentenced 10 twenty years imprisonment
Is il not plain that this would at once have
taken the romance out Of the whole affair
But verdict Of guilty meant the halter,
and the Jury shrank from strangling the wo-
man. By the theory of the law she should
have been put to death, and she simply goes
scot free-a lioness Of the rarcst description!
Nobody, we fancy, will accuse The TRIBUNE
of being indifferent to wrongs against the yir-
tue of woman We have always, to the best
of our ability, urged that seduction and adul-
terry are crimes worthy of suitable punishment
But ordinary punishment was not what this
Maryland woman wanted Nothing less than
the life of her victim would satisfy the stom-
ach of her deep revenge. IL is not by any
means certain that she would have been salts
fed with the consignment of the faithless man
to the Pentcntiary. Such an expiation she
would have regarded rs grossly inadequate.
We hold all human life, whether under condi-
tions of guilt or innocence, to be inexprcssbly
sacred. We are glad that Martha j. Caimcs
is not to be hanged but whoever undertakes
to convince us that she deserved ovation in
stead of discipline, will find the labor of his
logic lost
SP1NISH-AMERICAN QUESTIONS.