Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-30
A CRIMINALS WIFE.
A weary walk on mission Of nrerey.

A Weary Walk on q Mission of Mercy.
Yesterday afternoon barefooted woman
scarcely able to tread the hot stones, was
seen ascending the Capitol hill, and stop
ping a gentleman, was heard to ask if Gov.
Harrison lived there, pointing to the State
house. Upon conversing with her it was
found that she came from Franklin,
having walked that distance without
shoes, from the effects of which her
feet were bleeding. Her husband, Richard
Dow, was in jail at GAINESVILLE, and
she had come to see the Governor
and get pardon. The history of Richard
Dow would doubtless be interesting More
than year ago he was convicted Of muir
der in the Circuit Court Of Montgomery
country, his Honor Judge James E. Rice
presiding, and sentenced to be hanged.
The trial lasted several days. during which
the ablest legal talent of that excellent bar
was employed in the defence and prOsecu-
ton. Hon. Gus A. Henry, ''the Eagle Ora
tor was one of the attorneys for the de-
fendant, and bis mastery speech in
behalf of the prisoner, was so
sublime and tOuchingly beautiful
that all present yet remember its potent
graces well. The plea for the defence was
that of insanity, and to have looked at Dow
as he sat before the tribunal Of legal justice,
it were no idle fancy for one to have be-
lieyed him entirely bereft of reason. Pale,
emaciated by disease and writing under
the torture of a long confinement in tie
Montgomery county jail, not the best in the
State, the man presented any other appear
ante than that Of a rational creature.
Still the circumstances attending
the murder were most shocking. The old
man who was murdered had been friend
of Dow's and gave him place TO sleep
in his house and work to do. Dow severed
his head from the body, Topped of the feet
and arms of his victim with an axe, and yet
no motive was there Of malice prompting
the dread act. The plea being insanity,
moral insanity Of which law books speak,
and @Ram. on Facts" discourses of strange
" enough. The Judge in his charge
to the Jury held that it was in
cumbent on the defense to satisfy the
Jury beyond doubt as to the prisoners in
sanity, viewing this testimonial apparently
in the light of any other fact where the
onlLs prObdRdi deVolved upon the defendant,
An appeal taken to the Supreme Court at its
last Sitting for the Middle Division of this
State reversed this cause and held that
where the plea of insanity was made if
doubts ofihe prisoners sanity were thereby
created such doubts was to 60 to his bene-
/ fit as much as any other doubt, as one aris-
lug from The fact a. to the murder, etc,
thereby more clearly defining what has been
regarded as very unsettled rule in relation
TO tbs plea. Dow now awaits his second
trial, and what the result we know not.
His wife, when relating her mission, was
deeply affected, and spoke but incoherently.
She, ike he husband, is 7ery ignorant. and
did not know who was Governor, thinking
his name was Harrison. Poor Wo-
man, though poor and ignorant, her
love for her husband is strong, and
though with bleeding feet she walked over
rocks and along dusty ways, seeking one
whom she hoped could pardon the criminal
and liberate the sick prisoner from his lone
" cQnfnsmaat, Sha vas doomed to dis
appointment; yet that Wife's heart has more
of Heavens nobility, and far deeper love
that is pure and ever true, than are found
often in the lady Of wealth or
are treasured in the feelings Of
the great and the rich. The gOdlike Jewels
of character too frequently are hidden by
poverty and unknown to the public, yet
in the conceaIments of truest affections, and
the unhaard sigh of virtues woe is a wis
dom that must eventually be realized for
the GOOD end elevation Of humanity.