Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-05-05
THE WOMAN HANGER.

4 Z. .
Conscience at Work ON am Ohio
Member of Congress. erv
Washington Correspondence Of the Chicago Times
A stranger sitting in the gallery of the
House win notice upon the floor below an
old man with spare form, wrinkled face
and gray eyes, generally dulled and glazed
in their appearance, but at times shoot
ing out CLEAN such ss one finds common
to the Insane. His manner is peculiar.
He sits rUuch of bis time with his arms
folded, looking in an abstract and gloomy
wsy upon the floo; at others, he wan
dels about in restless manner, and at all
times he seems to be alone.
If we were to follow this man from
the House to his home, we would find,
that on the way, either in his committee
room or at the restaurant below, or at
some drinking house upon the avenue,
he would stop and pour down his throat
nearly full glass of whisky or brandy.
As night comes these potations increase,
and VIXEN be relires to bed at night it is to
be under their influence to such an ex-
tent that he falls into deep, heavy sleep.
During the long watches of the night the
gas burns in his room, and he seems TO
have the same terror of darkness common
to frightened children. aa ia
This'is the punishment of murder
The man thus haunted and tortured
through life has upon his hands the blood
OF an innocent woman. At all hours,
waking or sleeping, she is before him
sometimes pleading piteously for her life,
at other dangling like q bunch of old
clothes on the gallows, while the shrieks
OF her sgOnlZed daughter are never out of
his ears.
The horrible phantom is ever present.
1t sits in grim silence at his board, sleeps
in his bed, walk by his side, and the man
Stunned by his fellow men is never
alone. Against this horrible torment
there is but one remedy, and that is
whisky or opium, that dulls the senses,
while driving one to insanity and death.
When the assassins of the late Mr..
Lincoln were on trial, before a tribunal
organized to convict, the prosecuting at
torney seemed animated by an insane,
devilisb, blood thirsty desire to kill. 10
the mad fury of an excited mob group
of suspected people were driven like
frightened sheep into the military court,
and the head prosecutor had but ore OBJ
jec', and that was to hang them all, and
others too, if the bloody vengeance of
the multitude was not satiated. Instead
of singing out the guilty, and drawing
the mighty arm of law about the innocent,
ne sought only general tragic sacrifice
to satisfy his own and the mob's thirst
for blood.
He had it all his own way. He was
proud to be the fitting instrument, and
the Government gave him unlimited con-
troll A miserable wretch who, to save
his own worthlessness, volunteered the
so-called evidence, occupied the stand,
and was guided in his testimony by the
deVllish ingenuity Of the legal prosecutor,
who knew that every word his witness
uttered was a lie, sworn to with the
moose of the gallows dangling before his
eyes.
Of such guilty knowledge on the part
OF the prosecution we now have abun-
dant proof. One illustration is sufficient:
This Weichman swore upon enc day
that some time in March previous he lad
met Booth at the Kirkwood House, and
gave the details of the interview. He
said he recollected well the room and the |
conversation. After the court adjourned |
for the day, the assistant counsel hurried |
to the hotel with the willing witness and |
asked him to point out the room. This |
the man did, and when asked how he |
knew, he said it was the apartment of q
member of Congress, then absent from |
the city. An examination of the register |
revealed the fact that at that time, no |
Congressman occupied this room, but |
one had been there in December and |
January. SO that, if the story was
tue, the interview occurred during the |
holidays, when the member was absent. !
these facts were communicated to the !
leading counsel of the Government, and |
the assistant urged that he be put upon |
the stand to correct his statement. To his !
utter astonishment the prosecutor posi- |
lively refused. Such correction would |
mar his theory of the case, that swept |
all the prisoners down to one common
doom.
Gods vengeance is slow but sure. The /
blood of the innocent does not CRY in |
van for retribution. The hard-hearted |
man realized the horrible suicide of
crime.
The cruel rope that swung out the in
1ocent woman in that hot summers Gun
before the glOating eyes of the armed
crowd, caught in its moose the neck of
he murderer. In that moment passed
from him all the sweet content that
makes life precious to US, and whether
5sunted by his brother members of Con-
yres as the assassin of woman, or left
% his, own gnawing consciousness of
guilt, life with him is only continuous
horrible death.