The daily gazette., 1878-03-23
SECOND EDITION
Press Opinions.
WHAT THE CORRESPONDENTS SAL
ABOUT THE EXECUTION.

WHAT THE CORRESPONDENTS SAID
ABOUT THE EXECUTION.
The Philadelphia Times correspondent
who was present at The execution of
Chambers and Collins, at New Castle,
yesterday, writes as follows concerning
the efforts male to secure a pardon for
the condemned men:
1t grew to be question whether the
negroes We're not more sinned against
than SHINING. Application was made to
Governor Cochran for respite-that the
whole truth might come to the front
andI no man gainsay it. His Excellency
called attention to his lack of power
The narrowness of the common law
would not warrant a reprieve. Gentle
men well representing the excellence of
the Wilmington bar passed upon it that
the trial could not be reopened. Then
il must be pardon or hanging. Applica-
tion was made fora a pardon. The Gov
ernor heard paJlentlv all statements and
all suggestions. He said, with the en-
phasis of final Judgment, 81 am conviuc-
ed that the menare gully" To this de-
cision many ciUizens, probably most per-
sons in the county-cerUain more than
two-tllirds of the people in this town
bowed. Again, Others asked then and
now ask, "Can one man, chief executive
or not, take upon himself the RESPONSE
bility of sending two human beings out
OF the world? If the Governor has faci J
in his possession that are all sufficient
proof of guilt, why not out with them
and be done with it ?"
| Though the principals are no longer
interested, this question is to be argued
further, according TO the belief of gem
| tlemen who are warmed up to the point
of disputation. Chambers and Collins
whether guilty or by misadventdre hung
will, it thought, not only stand as a bug
aboo and scarecrow of right to the more
stockish of their race, but as warning
to the servants of the State itself.
The New York Herald correspondent
vidently fell among one-sided advis ers,
his report containing the following allu-
\ sions:
The case was remarkable one, and
has attracted much attention from the
fact that there are strong reasons for be-
lieving that the finding of the Court was
a mistake and that The men were in
nocent of the crime imputed to them.
The woman who swore their lives away
is confessedly of the worst character.
Some of the most influential men OF
the State have sought to save their lives
and to secure at least commutation of
their sentence, based ON the petition OF
, the abandoned creature whom the con.
demned were alleged to have outraged
and who now confesses that she commit
ted perjury in so testifying. The mos
strenuous and earnesG appeals were
made to His Excellency Governor
Cochran, to prevent what hundreds o
: honest people consider nothing short O
a double murder and even as late a
Thursday afternoon a large deputatioI
waited upon him in behalf of the unfor
, tuuate men. But from the first the Gov
! e3 1or has refused to interpose, and thi
policy he rigidlv adhered to.
1t is an open secret that had they beel
white men they would not have beel
Y hanged, even in Delaware, and it
equally true that in no other State in tn
; North would they have been refused
r chance to prove their innocence, wha
ever their crime and whatever thei
a color.