The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-06-16
THE DuREs.NUrr TRAGEDY.
A Calm and Di.passlopate View Of the
.--- p0nble Murder.

4
A Calm and Dispassiopate View of the
Double Murder.
Philadelphia Pres
Wronged justice in Uniontown has given
birth to fresh wrong. Murder is present
now because the bapgman was absent last
January. The fretting sense Of wrong, a dead
father and dishonored sister have worn
away the checks and guards Of daily life,
and blood has followed blood and murder
murder. The pistol Of the assassin seeks
to keep the outraged peace Of the people
and hloodguiltiness again stains streets In
which Justice looks upon innocent blood
and passed by on the other side. Forced
from boy to man by his fathers death,
daily witness Of the daily presence OF
Dukes in the place he disgraced and in the
community where his very life bIszoned .
sisters dishonor, young Mutt has acted
where the law failed, and Dukes is dead.
Thus violence rises up as the rod Of wick
edness where law is contemnEd and natul-
al justice writes up its sure and certain
| Judgment against every community whose
courts miscarry and whose juries set the
murderer free. From these consequences
there is no escape cave in the Just obserT-
anee OF law. The executioner is needed
in. Uniontown to put down the assassin.
The place needs less murder and more
hanging. II the reign Of law is to remain
in Pennsylvania neither private revenge
nor public wrong can be allowed to make
less than crime the cold-blooded murder
Of yesterday. With profound appreciation
Of the deadly provocation. with deep SORROW
for the lad worked by brooding months to
wreak at last vengeance his wrongs and
her greater wrong will justify TO the hearts
Of men-the law must take Its course.
Now, as last January, justice is demanded
in Uniontown, and the lack then deepens
and doubles the demand now For the
issue which stands broadly separate before
the people Of this State in yesterdays
murder Is not whether murderer may
live, but whether law shall perish. Putting
to one side the passing passions OF men
and the petty protests OF sentiment. the
Law in which all rights rest, in which our
Commonwealth was founded, by which
stands the right which Is older than man
and the eternal justice which outlas;s men,
REQUIRES and must have the punishment It
exacts for the murder OF yesterday. Woe
to him that buildeth town with blood and
establishment city by inquiry!
The grievous hurt which Justice felt and
law endured in the scquittal Of Captain
Nuts murderer, could be healed in some
scant measure by the stroke and line Of
that wider Justice which fell on Dukes and
crushed him. Verdicts might fail and the
law be baked, but no writ nor appeal
could stay the sentence CT universal con-
domination which sprang from the people,
stripped Dukes OF his honors, scourged
him from among reputable men, and made
his name a Kissing and byword,
detestation and q reproach through
| all the land. This saved the
Justice (which dismissed Of
tense would after gall" but for this last
murder no such remedy lies. Pity cannot
be shown 10 an act which has clothed with
pity and stripped Of scorn the poor body Of
Nicholas Lyman Dukes, because with 1t
fell the riddled majesty Of the law.
But one course is possible, and only one
path open. Justice must be done and the
law upheld, though. it puts on the scaffold
man for whom the hearts Of men will
well in sympathy. u.r
1