Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-07-12
run PARDoN OF BOWEN.

Grant having psrdoned Bowen, the
question arises az to the status in which
il leaves him. There is no question that
he is paldoned of the crime of bigamy,
of which he had been convicted, but does
the pardon of The President do any thing
more2 TIE telegram announcing the re-
ception OF his pardon, says he 'wslked
out of Jail in company with Mrs. Petit
grew King Bowen" through whose eff
forts the pardon was obtained. Does
the pardon make her his wifeE
Does his conviction and pardon
annul the marrisge of his former wife
and make him the legal husband OF the
one for whom he was sentenced as haV-
ing committed bigsmy with2 He was
convicted upon the ground that he had
not obtained divorce from his second
wife. and now after conviction and par
don, he goes to live with the woman
with whom he had committed bigamy
before. II cannot be claimed that
the pardon of the President an
nuls the former and legalzes the
last marriage. Is he not then guilty
of bieamy again, just as the burglar who,
pardoned out of the penitentiary-or be-
fore being sent there, after conviction,
for that matter-commits burglary
upon the same premises as before9 This
scandal is being enacted in the capital OF
the nation, and Grant knew before he
pardoned Bowen that it would be. Mrs.
Pettigyew King Bowen, the third wife,
appears to be infatuated with Bowen, and
seems determined to defy public opinion
as well as law in her efforts to live with
him as q wife. 1t is disgraceful affair
and would not have been tolerated in the
''better days of the republic"
The s.. Louis Republican gays it
might reasonably have been supposed
that Tfigamy Bowen, and with him the
South Carolina Radicals, had been suffi-
GENTLY disgraced by the exposure of his
recent trial. Bot the grounds on which,
according to the Washington correspond
ence Of that good Radical journal the
New York Times, public opinion in the
The national capital will sustain the Presi-
dent in pardoninghim sink him still lower
than his mere conviction did. He
is lot even a fascinating villain,
ike most gay Lothsios: the
women he had married, except the
last, Mrs. King, Gall seemed glad enough
to be deserted by hin!" They had no
hand in getting up the prosecution against
him: It was the work of. rival scalawsgs
of his own South Carolina, who cngi-
neercd the whole proceeding il the hope
of thereby killing him politically. There
upon Washington morality concludes that
to let him 60 to the penitentiary 'fnstead
of iustifying the law, would make it
the instrument of villsiny." In its view
Bowen's case is simply question
whether q man who merely runs
away from several women who detest
him and lives with one who seems devo-
ted to him, is to be sacrificed 10 his home
political enemies, merely because he
went through too msry marriage cere-
monies, or too few divorces, in changing
his aflniGes. Il can scarcely be doubted
that there is a great deal Of villany smong
Bowen's Radical rivals in the Palmetto
State; but that their getting up the prose
cution Of man for unquestiOEsble bigs-
my should be new ''sum of all villain
les" is something piqusnt in morals, even
in Washington Radical circles.