Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-01-10

witnesses, refractory persons to be sum-
moned to Washington.
In the House, the Legislative Appropri-
alton bill was discussed in Committee OF
the Whole, motion to increase the Presi-
dents annual salary from $4,000 to $780,
900 being ruled out. There was some de-
bate in regard to the Bureau of Education,
but nothing was contaminated.
Stokes Convicted and Sentenced to be
Hung.
Contrary to general expectation (says
the Baltimore American), Edward s. Stokes
has been convicted of murder in the first
degree. On the 9th of January, 1872, he
shot James Fisk, Jr., at the Grand Hotel.
At the time the murder was conceded to
be wilful and deliberate The circumstan-
ces as seen and understood by those who
were standing near when the shooting oc-
CURED seemed to admit of no defence
There was nothing in the declaration of
the prisoner at the time, or in the state
ments put forward by his friends, upon
which the presumption that he acted in
self defence could be based. During the
five months preceding his first trial there
was great deal of discussion and specu-
lation in the newspapers as to what line
of defence his counsel would adopt, but it
was generally supposed that they would
be compelled to resort to the emotional
insanity" dodge. One great point for the
prisoner was to gain time, and his counsel
availed themselves of every possible expe-
dent to delay his trial. First they put
in issue the legality of the indictment
found against Stokes, charging that the
Grand Jury by which it was found had con-
tinued its sittings beyond the term allow
ed by law. After an exhaustive trial this
point was decided against them. They
then resorted to the usual dilatory motions,
and when these failed they demanded time
to procure the testimony of witnesses sup
posed to have gone to Europe. 1.-THE end
of five months they had exhausted their
resources and the patience of the Court,
and peremptory ruling compelled them
to 60 to trial. In the opening statement
for the prisoner, made after the evidence
for the prosecution had all been given in,
the finding of pistol supposed to have
been Fisk's near the spot where he fell was
first asserted. Upon this fact, whether
real or assumed, the defence was based
After long trial the jury failed to agree,
the majority favoring conviction for muir
der in the first degree, and the minority
holding out formanslaughter. Thesecond
trial lasted seventeen days, and has result
ed, as above stated, in verdict of guilty
of murder in the first degree"
The jury brought in the verdict on Sat-
urday, and on Monday Stokes was brought
into Court and sentenced to be hanged on
the 2Sth of February. People, however,
who are disposed to weep over so early a
termination to this poor, dear gentleman's
life, may as well dry their eyes. His coun-
sci will take out bill of exceptions, en-
deavor to obtain new trial and apply for
a stay of proceedings. In all these ways
some means will probably be found to save
his life Foster, who killed Putnam in a
street car and was sentenced to death near
ly two years ago, has been kept off the gal
lows by these sort of legal lodges, and it
is not likely that his eminent counsel will
fail to give Stokes the benefit of them in
full.