Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-30
MEMPHIS APPEAL
THURSDAY, {: MAY 30, 1873.
Il ATE SOUTHERN SHOULD BE
PARDONED.

he sympathy for this unfortunate woman
j. universal. 1t peivddes all classes in all
communities. Indeed, the case has become
one of national interest. This sympathy has
not been evoked because the victim is a wo-
man, but because woman should not be ex-
ecuted for n crime oh men are never
punished for committing. Governor Colquitt,
at Georgia, has committed the death sentence
of Mrs. Kate Southern TO ten years imprison-
mant in the penitentiary. But it is hoped
he will extend to the unfortunate woman an
unconditional pardon. New and important
evidence has been discovered since her con-
vietion, which, if presented on the trial,
would have produced a different verdict.
Governor Colquitt has already saved this
woman from the hands of the grim hangs
man, and he should save her from the peni-
Tertiary She was tortured to a frenzy by
the conduct of lewd and unprincIpled wo-
man. Maddened by her victims utter disre-
gard of warnings to keep away from her
husband, she stabbed her to death,
but not until she was attacked.
There is everything In Mrs. Southern's case
to excite sympathy and to justify generous
clemency. Her victim invited acts of vio-
lence by acts publicly defying the right, re-
quests and warnings of the wife. The deed
itself was sudden, like flash of lightning, a
resentment which any true woman, any
woman of high spirit and virtue might carry
out and with justification, SO far as there can
be any justification of crime. A man who
would act the same under similar circum-
stances would be acquitted in nine cases out
of ten. There should be no law more severe
for women than for men. In fact, taking
their delicate nervous organization into con-
sideration, their acts of violence should in
general be more leniently judged and pun
ished than those of men. The series of prov
ocations which Kate Southern endured at
the hands of her victim were enough to
drive a stronger woman to that emo
tional insanity under which she acted when
she slew the vile wretch that had foully
wronged her and then made a personal at
tack upon her. The victim had been her
husbands mistress before their marriage.
she had resorted to all the wies and arts at
her command to prevent the ceremony. She
had threatened Southern with an exposure of
the fact of their criminal intercourse if he
married Kate. The failure of her efforts to
accomplish this object did not relax her pur-
pose to destroy the happiness of the woman
who had outstripped her in the race for South
ern 8 affections. Four nights after the we'd
ding she succeeded in getting the bridegroom
so completely in her power that he did not re-
turn to his home until two o'clock In the
morning. Her plots never ceased until
the miserable wife was driven almost
crazy, and upon the fatal evening of
the party (she being enciente at the
time), her reason seems to have been COM
pletely overthrown by the presence under the |
slme roof of the hated cause of all her |
wretchedDess. She declares solemnly that |
she has no recollection of the details of the |
stabbing-that it was all a whirl and chaos |
to her-that she was blindly impelled by an |
impulse that mastered every emotion but the |
dreadful ones of jealousy and revenge. Her |
story is entirely credible, because it was not |
in her weak human nature to suffer what she |
suffered and make no sign. The revelations |
made since the trial will be laid before the |
governor of Georgia, with an application for
unconditional pardon, which the whole coun-
try unites in hoping will be granted.