The Portland daily press., 1872-11-21

when the history OF social ethics Is written.
That incident marks what ought to prove the
elimination of very singular, but almost
prevalent popular delusion, in re-
gard to the proper method of regulating the
relations between the sexes. Beginning with
the murder Of Key by Sickles, committed
with perfect impunity, long and almost I'M
interrupted series of judicial decisions has
established the principle, so far as vicious
principle can be established, that homicide,
committed to avenge any real or fancled
wrong, slight, rivalry or indiscretion, where
love, courtship, marriage or an intrigue is
concerned, is justifiable and unattended by
retribution of any kind. These precedents
are opposed by the conviction of Hoswell for
the murder Of Latin in Kennebec County,
Maine, and, so far as we know, by no other.
1t is almost impossible to imagine case
coming within the wide limits we have de-
scribed which is not covered by the prece-
dents. The Sickles, Mcfarland, Richardson,
Cole, Hiscock and half dozen other widely
famous homicides have so resulted as to
cause it to be generally understood that a
man who with or without reason suspects the
fidelity of his wife, may reestablish the moral
equilibrium and restore domestic harmony
and confidence by letting "auroral effiuence"
through her supposed paramour. The ac-
qlittal of Mrs. Parker of the crime of shoot
ing and dangerously wounding Mrs. Baker in
this city, when maddened by jealousy, shows
with what exceptional impartiality the new
code is applied This case admits women to
all the rights, privileges and immunities of
men SO far as destroying persons of whom
they are jealous is concerned. The case OF
the young woman that killed her unfaithful
lover, the Treasury clerk, extends the license
to murder considerably. The marriage
:lation is by no means necessary to enable
very man to be his own Jack Ketch. For
everal years past it has been the custom of
le young man on whose suit ladies have not
not smiled to ignore "the woful ballad made
to his mistress eyebrow" the signs, the tears
and the ming away of which we read in all
the romances from the Arabian Nights and
Decameron down to George Eliot. Instead
of writing stanzas he buys pistol, and in
stead of signs, the short sharp bark of the
Derringer is heard. Where Alphonso or Da-
mon or Alexis would have complained of
the hard heart of his mistrass, the prosaic
John perforates that organ with an ounce
ball. Mrs. Fair has gone step further and
killed her man because he would not continue
to be unfaithful to his marriage VOWS. Be-
yond this it is impossible to go. The fact
that she triumphantly carries off from the
court where her conduct has been indicated
the instrument of slaughter shows that she
puts proper estimate on her importance as
a historical parsonage, as the founder of a
new era.
Shooting, then, is to-day the specific for
all the ills Of love. The old, the young, the
rich, the poor, the ignorant and the learned
all assauge their amorous sorrows by a
draught of blood. This is done with such
safety that the result must finally be that
longer have any hesitation about destroying
the lives of their enemies. A murderer
will merely take the precaution to allege
that his victim has insulted his wife, deserted
his sister, proved a successful rival or in some
other way, no matter how, interfered be-
tween him and person of the opposite
sex. As the person killed is necessarily alb
sent when his taking off is judicially invest
igated, he cannot, of course, contradict his
murderer's account of the affair. And if the
lattar il narriad man who spiIlS blood -,
revenge for the alleged dishonor of his wife,
the law steps in and carefully puts out of the
way what is often the only evidence touching
the alleged justification, by declaring that tie
wife shall not testify against her husband,
such testimony tending, so our remote an
cestors thought, to disturb domestic harmo-
ny! This singular prohibition is still en-
forced in Maine, where so many of the alb
surdities of the rules of evidence have been
swept away. II has held out against the en-
ergetic protests addressed by the present
Acknowledgement to the Legislature for two
or three years in succession. But of course
it will ultimately share the fate of the law
excluding the testimony of interested par
ties in civil suits and of persons arrested for
crime. The absurdty is too fragrant. The
the happiness and harmony in the married
state of the Hoswells, for instance, would
have been materially impaired if the woman
who had been accused by her husband of the
most disgraceful crime had indicated her
honor before the jury that listened to the
story of her shame.
Whence, then, is this craze for blood
among people whose sensiblities have been
wounded? Is there an occasional reversion
to remote ancestral types-to the passions
forth naked from his cave, armed with club,
to butcher whatever animal of his own or
another species he might first meet? Are
there men who enjoy killing for its own sake?
in whom the passion for slaughter, once in
stinctive in man but now become rudmen-
tary in the greater number of human beings,
flames out in all its original strength and fe-
rocity? Do the Mrs. Fairs and the McFar-
lands and the Hoswells merely avail them
selves OF the present liberation of violence,
NuOh Lh<euc eoO VI III ouC vi lOfc, W
crafty an innate thirst for blood? If so, it is
about time TOR the American juror to reflect
the injury he infcts on the race by
letting such murderers go free is not some
thing more frightful even than it has general
ly been considered, and whether the Thugs
who now excuse themselves for slaughtering
their fellow man will not eventually dsdain
all other explanation and plead mere in
sane impulse to kill. And by way of assist
ing the juror in his efforts to reform, the cap
it'll punishment laws of every State should
be repealed. Then no terror of booming
fellow mortal to barbarous punishment will
'estrain judge or jury from doing justice.
BANKS, FARNSwoRTH and GRosvENoR,
he three Liberal Republicans running for
Congress, all came to grief; the pious hopes
If Fenton, Cochrane, Blair and Tilton are
all turned to the bitterest disappointment;
Mr.. Greeley is overwhelmed by the Demo-
ratio tidal wave; but all is not lost, for the
llustrious Warmoth will succeed by I'M
leard-of audacity, in reaching the United
nj of fhn,