Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-12-02
and is not found where love is wanting. The

it, embraces that element necessarily; it is
the feeling that one is to be supplanted and
to be deprived of something very dearly
priced. That is jealousy, and where there
is no love there can be no jealousy. No
man was ever jealous of a woman; no woman
was ever jealous of man, unless love exist
ed, it cannot be. He was extremely jealous
of his wife, and had some difficulty; he he'd
brooded over it. 1t had come to that extent
that partial separation had on one occasion
taken place; a reconciliation had followed
it; if not a full reconciliation, very nearly
so. They met at the depot in this city on
the 10Th of September, and the prisoner at
the bar proposed to visit his wife that even
ing. She objected. Her appearance and
her objections were such that they in1amed
him with jealousy, which the prisoner had
INDUCED in for years. His jealousy was all
aroused, he was set on fire, he was con-
WINGED there was something wrong, that
something wrong was to take place that night;
that was the reason why she wanted him to
postpone his visit till the next night, and the
matter operated so strongly upon him. in the
evening he started on foot for Hallowell with
the determination to see if he could, whether
his suspicious were true or false. We will
show you that he went there, took off his
coat and his boots, and while his wife was
fastening the shutter of one of the windows
by the fastening which you saw on the inside.
while she was making a noise doing that, he
opened her sleeping room door and went in,
and secreted himself in that room under the
bed. There he remained; his wife undressed
and went to bed, leaving the outside door
ajar not fastened, with a small light burning
in her sitting room, the door between the
seeping-room and the sitting-room ajar,
and but little. Pretty soon man came
and opened the door, and came in and
| 70 haH hn m
conversation ensued between the parties, and
the man got on to the bed and they kissed
each other and if the act Of adultery had not
been consummated you may think it had not,
but they were there for that purpose, for that
criminal purpose, with all the preparations,
with all the intention to commit it, and there
was the prisoner in that room. Now, gen.
tlemen, whether the ct had bt en- consumma-
ted or not, whether the parties were really in
the act at the moment the prisoner sprang
from under the bed, we contend is immaterial
in law. The justification is just the same, in
law the justification is greater even; gentle
men, when the husband finds his neghbor
with his wife, with all the preparations for the
commission of the crime, his justification is
the greater if he rushes upon him before the
crime is consummated, than it would be if he
waited till it was consummated, and then
rushed upon him; because you would say, it
| was not in human nature for the husband who
loved his wife to wait the contamination OF the
criminal act, and then rush upon his victim.
| Very probably, gentlemen, you will come
to the conclusion that the act had not been
consummated, from the nature of the case,
| from the situation of the parties am i'm
| pressed, myself, with the conviction that the
| prisoner at the bar, in his excited condition,
did not wait for the contamination of that act.
He ought not to have waited. Human ma
ture, the laws of human nature. the instinct
of man, manhood itself, required him to rush
upon that man and strike him down, before
he committed the crime; he did it, and we
say he was justified
Now, gentlemen, l shall call your attention
to some considerations bearing upon this
branch of the case. because in this State this
is a new case. There has been but one, so
far as my information has extended, which
resembled it in any respect in this State
That was the case of Mrs. Parker, who was
| tried in Portland some two years ago, think,
| for a felOnous assault with intent to kill, upon
one Mrs. Baker. and the cause was jealousy
on the part of Mrs. Parker of her husband
with Mrs. Baker. She armed herself with
deadly weapon, with a revolver, and sought
Mrs. Baker in a public place in the city of
Portland, and assaulted her by discharging
her revolver, and wounded her. She was in
|
kill was tried and acquitted. So that, gen.
tlemen, as this is comparatively new in this
State, it is proper l should call your attention
| to the principles upon which we base this
branch of the defense.
/ need not call your attention, to the
Importance of the Institution of marriage, to
| the importance of the sanctity of that institu
ton to the importance of protecting it in all
its purity. You all understand it. 1t is the
| greatest institution that exists among men;
an institution ordained by God himself; an
institution more important than any known to
society or government; an institution which
every government of which we have any ac-
count, as deemed SO important as to take it
into consideration and recognition. 1t is
contract which every government so far as
we have any account of governments, has
recognized its solemniZation, and its abro-
CATION. The government provides the for
malities under which it shall be entered into,
it prescribes the conditions upon which it
may be dissolved, and it cannot be entered
into, the relations cannot exist legally with
out the formalities that the law requires, nor
can it be dissolved except under the condi-
tons the law prescribes. 1t is an institution
which has more to DO with the happiness of
man. with the interests of society, than any
other. Without it you would have no society
worthy to be called society, without it you
would have no State. 1t is the only way in
which the race can be perpetuated honorably.
1t is the institution through which the Creator
designed and ordained that the great com
mand, which he gave to our first parents,
should be fulfilled.
The counsel has told you that it is the
greatest crime that man can commit, to take
the life of his fellow man. 1t is the greatest
crime No man should be permitted to escape
without punishment who does it without prop
er justification. The law which Furnishes that
crime is based upon the great command,
Thou shalt not kill" But Immediately fol-
lowing that and next to it, is the other great
command given TO man by God himself
Thou shalt not commit adultery" Following
that you have the law as given by God through
his lawgiver Moses upon that subject in the
early history of man, and shall quote to
you from Leviticus 10th chap. 10th verse.
"And the man that committeth adultery
with another mans wife, even he that COM
mt,eth adultery with his neighbours wife, the
aduterer and the adulteress shall surely be
put to DEATH