The Portland daily press., 1879-09-16
THE CHISHOLM MURDER.
Arguments and Evidence in the Case.

Arguments and Evidence in the Case.
JACKSON, Miss, Sept. 15.-The argument of
Judge Morris for the prosecution in the case OF
the State of Mississippi VS.. Henry j. Gully. al
legged that a conspiracy was formed to kill
Chisholm and Gilmer. In order to carry ont
this design the conspirators had an affidavit
made before magistrate charging Chisholm,
Gilmer, Rosenbaum and Hopper with having
murdered, or aided and allotted in the murder
of, John w. Gully five days previous. The OBJ
ject of that step was to dsarm their victims,
Chisholm and Gilmer, and thus place them in
such condition that they could not defend
themselves nor be defended by their staunch
friends, Rosenbaum and Hopper. The sole
purpose of the Imprisonment OF these four men
was so that the conspirators could more easily,
and with less danger to themselves, take the
lives of Chisholm and Gilmer.
The principal facts sworn to i'll support of
this were the shooting of Gilmer on the streets
while on his way to Jail in the presence of de-
PENDANT; declarations made by two young men
that day to two negroes, a short distance from
town, that they had better turn back and not
90 to town, that "hell was to pay that day.
the killing of Mcclellan as he left the jail, who
had been acting as one of the guards of CHS
holm, Rosenbaum and Hopper in the jail, and
had been discharged by the sheriff; the taking
of the Jail keys from the sheriff; the final
wounding of Chisholm as he came down the
stairway from the second floor of the jail at the
alarm of fire. at which time Cornelia was
wounded: and finally, the declaration OF the
defendant soon afterwards that they chad done
what they came to do" and, according to one
witness. ''if there is any hanging to be done
here is my neck This last declaration was
testified to by two friends and one relative OF
Chisholm others standing near did not hear
the remark.
Mr.. Woods, in his argument for the defence,
called the attention of the jury to this fact, and
requested them to consider why the prosecu-
ton could produce no other witness to this dec
aration than the relatives and friends of CHS
holm. The theory of the defence was that
these men all came to town armed simply to
assist the sheriff in the arrest of the parties
charged with the murder of John Gully in case
they should resist, with no design or conspiracy
to take the life of any one; that the declara-
tons of the young men to the two negroes in
the road short distance from town, if made at
all, for the credibilty of the negroes was af-
fected, meant only that Chisholm and Gilmer
would probably resist the arrest, in which
event there would be 'hell to pay" that on
the shooting of Gilmer by some hot blooded
young man-for the one who shot him was al
most boy-the flame burst out among the
younger men which the elder could not con-
troll, which resulted in the death of Chisholm
and his daughter; that the defendant did a
moment before the shooting of COrnelia and
Chisholm close the stairway door in front of
them as they were descending the stairs so as
to shield them from the mob, at the same time
telling Chisholm If he valued his life to turn
back that the defendant had no gun at that
time to himself, and that he urged the crowd
who were just about starting to shoot at CHS
holm, to leave the Jail and go away.
Judge MOrcis closed for the prosecution and
the case was given to to the jury, and within
less than an hour they returned with verdict
of not guilty.