The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-02-04
COMMUNICATIVE.
\ review os ;hc Anderson Tragedy.
rirt VERDICT or the couNuslrr

THE VERDICT OF TIE COMM NlIl.
Some lilc time aga The GLonn con.
tanned full accounts Of the murder Of Col.
Thoma, Stllwcll Of Audcr-on Indiana,
10y the hand OF John Colwiu, former
well known resident OF Rutland Tho legal
investigation, as well as the verdict of the
communiiyin which it occurred cXculpatcATr
Corwin. Indifference to the wishes of Mr.
orwins friends, IA, well as for publa infor-
nation, the following is published from the
special correspondence from Anderson In
diana, under the date Of January 23d te-
viewing the whole affair in the light of the
facts brought by the legal examination
and the circumstances surrounding the
case:
The people of Madison county may now
calm themselves. The tragedy upon whose
details they have supped their full of IN.
wonted excitement is no longer Il thing Of
Yesterday. OYcr the dead charity and the
grave may soon throw their mantcl of 81
lence, save as to his honorable career in
public life, his enterprise in behalf of his
adopted town, his unstinted generosity, and
MS Hnt oOIidi JutilllNs' A VI tllC Nv lli- tIN
law of the land has been invoked, and after
an investigation more exhaustive than is
common in preliminary examinations, even
in the gravcst eases, the result stands be-
fore the public for approval or disapproyal.
ilcart-rending descriptions of the blouse
of Mourning" of "Thc Last Scene of AL
pen-pctures of 'The Man who Did the
Deed" highly wrought descriptions of the
widow and orphans. tributes, however well
deserved, to the choice spirit that has gone
all may be dismissed. They can not qui k
en- and bring back Thos. n Stilwcl nor dry
the eyes ofthe bereaved ones who weep for
him, any more than thousand rumors or
published falsehoods can be built into one
truth concerning John + Corwin. The
cold, naked, aye, cruel facts are before US,
and on them we propose to review the
case.
THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS.
Your readers are already familiar with
the history and status of one of the princi-
pal actors, but for the better understanding
of what we have to say few words of plain
truth as to him will be of value.
THOMAS y. sTIILwELL.
Thomas n Stillwell was at one time Il
rising Republican politician, and of the
means at his command was SO lavish in
charities and public and private benefac-
lions of all kinds that success and popular
ity followed. One of those men who are
their own worst enemies, and who scarcely
knew the value of money, possessed of n
bright mind and ready will, he naturally
drew around him those numerous friends
who cluster around heart that is too i'm
pulsivc, too little held in check by sense
of present and future responsibility, for its
own good or that of those dear to it. State
and national honors were his, he beng
elected to represent his district CTwelfth)
in the legislature, and subsequently in the
Ihirty-ninth Congress, and being appointed
by President johnson in 1861 Minister to
Venezuela. He was always power in the
politics of Madison county, and, joining
the Greeley movement, served as II mem
her of the Liberal Committee With a
wife, whose maiden name is the well-sus-
tanned guarantee of womanly devotion and
accomplishments, and six interesting child
rem, it is no wonder that the bullet which
sent death to him sent also thrill of horror
and dismay through village where every
man, woman and child knew him and his
family. That the leaden messenger of fate
found him not the Tom Stilwell of iew
years before, but desperate man, broken
IN spirit and body in mind and fortune, witt
disgrace and early death hanging over hi,
head, is not the fault of him who fred the
fatal shot. Neither can the exposure Of
these sad truths, or of the saddpr one that
his social habit had mastered him as il had
mastered many noble man before him.
until the erst heightened gentleman min.
gled with his frequent threats of death tt
his enemy, language far beneath him, be