The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-06-12

memphis Appeal


! The heart of every just man and woman
in all this broad Union will bleed at the re-
cital of the wrongs of this unfortunate
woman. The people of Georgia were sup
/ posed to embOdy that spirit of chivalry and
| gallantry toward women which has been
j applauded as one of the noblest characters
tics of southern manhood. But the convic-
ton of Kate Southern is stigma upon the
people OF Georgia, as it places them in the
attitude OF Furnishing woman for crime,
which, when committed by men, makes
them heroes who receive the applause and
adulation of chivalrous men. The southern
people, in their love and admiration of wo-
men, are too prone to gush like mountain
i spring with all sorts of humanitarianisms
and admire sentimentalisms when women
/ are involved in crime. But the people of
\ Georgia have reversed this southern senti-
ment, and made convict OF a woman for
committing a crime which makes men
heroes. This scrupulous regard for law
which has developed itself in Georgia is to
\ be commended. But it is to be regretted
that it makes its first appearance in con-
victiDg a woman after being disregarded on
/ the trial of men. In all our reading we
/ have never seen a woman subjected to as
many wrongs and insults as was heaped up
/ on poor Kate Southern. She had enough to
/ drive her mad, and if, under similar cir
cumstances, man had slain the seducer OF
his wife, he would have been triumphantly
| acquitted on the convenient plea of Insan-
| ity, and would have been borne out of the
/ court room on the shoulders OF the very
men who convicted Kate Southern. A re-
capltulatiOn of this woman's wrongs will
arouse the sympathy of every just man and
woman. Mrs. Narcissa Cowart was
/ a VIGOROUSLY bad character. She mar
ried a man by the name of Scott Cowart
and lived with him only short while, when
she began acting indecently, and was so out
rageously unfaithful to him that she drove
him away, and openly refused to share his
couch with him. She shortly afterward be-
/ came intimate with a married man living
near her. and by her base conduct separated
/ him from loving wife. She met after this
Bob Southern, and he fell into her snare, and
remained in illegal intimacy with her up to
the time of the tragedy. Bob Southern be-
longed to family of high responsibility.
| He was handsome young man, aud
was besieged by the late Mrs. Cowart
In the neighborhood lived the beau
/ tiful Kate Hambrick, the daughter of
| one of the best men OF the county. Her
forehead Is represented as broad, massive
ana smooth, her eyes piercing ana the
| lashes long and beautiful, while the hair
hangs in massive waves and ringlets. Her
intellect was never strong, but her appear
ance is that of dignifed, Christian lady.
4 Her expression is represented as supremacy
sweet and her whole appearance that OF
/ purity. She was an exemplary member of
! the Baptist church. This happy aud lovely
girl was married to Robert Southern on the
10th of December, 1876. Previous to the
marriage Mrs. COwart pursued Kate Ham
/ brick with a remOrseless fury. She visited
the father and poured into his ears all
sorts of falsehoOds, and threatened 10
kill his daughter if he permitted her to
marry Southern, by whom she was soon to
] have child. After marriage she resumed
! har Ia m % Ot1pDdlnO
many were the threats that Southern was
forced to leave the neighborhood in order
to save the life of his wife. Under this
mental and physical torture Hates healtc
became impaired, She was thrown into
spasms from mental anxiety. During a
visit of Kate to her fathers house an i'm
promptu party was given her and her hus-
band To this party Narcissa Cowart, I'M
/ invited attended. She tainted Kate, who
Stunned her and finally commenced the at
tack on the miserable girl and was right
eously killed in self-protection. After the
murder Kate was PROSTATE, insane, helpless.
! Goarded to desperation by woman who had
pursued her and was endeavorIng to renew
the former dsreputable relations with her
Il husband she in an hour of frenzy and des
peration slew the destroyer of her peace.
4 The conviction of Kate Southern under the
circumstances has shocked the American
| people, whose sympathies are aroused for
|
| Cowart, then by the verdict of the Georgia
| jury With half the proyocation under
| similar circumstances, if an Infatuated hus-
| band had slain the pursuer of himself and
| his wife, he would have been triumphantly
acquitted. We have never espoused the doc
\ trine of woman's rights; but such uni lust
/ discrimination as this against women shows
that injustice is done them, and that it is not
/ surprising that they should look to the ballot
box as the only bulwark for self protection.
/ When Dan Sickes waylaid and cOwardly
assassinated Barton Key for causes not half
/ so provoking as those That nerved the arm of
poor demented, crazy Kate Southern, he
was acquitted and canonized as hero. Even
! the president of the United States visited
him in his cell, and gave him his sympathy
and promised him protection. Thirty
| years ago, when governor OF
Alabama hunted down the man
who had debauched his household, as
Mrs Cowart had debauched the husband and
household of Kate Southern, and murdered
the destroyer of his happiness, he was &C
Quilted and borne through the streets upon
the shoulders OF the excited populace, who
| Endorsed the murder and the murderer.
We do not complain that the people of Geor-
gla have manifested determination to en-
force the law which makes murder a crime,
| but we insist that the same public sentiment
| which acquits man FOR numbering the Sc
Queer of his wife should acquit the woman
who, under great provOcation, murders the
seducer of her husband, and tauntingly
boasts of her purpose and achievements
Kate Southern was the first woman in the
south who had committed murder for the
same cause for which thousand men have
committed murder and have been
acquitted. Why should she be condemned
TO the galows or sent to the pen
itentiary for a crime which, if her husband
had committed, he would have been acquit-
ted, and taken his place by the side OF such
heroes as Dan Sickles, who was recently the
American minister TO Spain? The early
history of woman is one of degradation.
The frosts of antiquity benumbed the out
/ gushings of female intellect. With the adj
! vaucement OF civilization woman has been
liberated from slavery, and she is now re-
garded as the equal of man Intellectually,
and his SUPERIOR morally. But if kate South
ern should be permitted TO anguish in the
penitentiary, it would show that the south
ern people are about 10 lapse back into the
days of barbarism, when women were logged
/ for cri mes which men cculd com NIT with inn