The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-10-27

excuses for the deed, his desire for bail, his
anxiety to attend Il wedding, all forbid the
thought?
Who saws that Ferguson ever had epilepsy?
We are told that the disease is hereditary
that 1t is transmitted from father to son. Is
tn ere a particle OF proof that either the father
or mother, the grandfather or the grandmother,
ever had this Giscasc2 How, tnen, can he
have it? Unless you can trace it back to those
from whose blood he comes, he never bad it.
Tell me, my friends, if IL mans father or
grandfather never had it, how is he to get it?
Suppose his unclSs to have had it, how is he
to get it from them? If all of \ mans cousins,
his aunts and his uncics had it, how is that to
affect him? Her mother said that his sister
Lizzie had it tor six mouths; that she was
cured. The doctors who have been sworn on
this stand say that the disease is incurnblc,
and that it goes on from bad to worse as the
paticut grows older. The proof is that the
parents did not send for u doctor TO see Fer
guson when he was in any Of his spells. The
mother ~tcstiiies that she never saw John with
an attack of epilepsy. Will YOU tel, me that
Il lady. having Il year-old child, which is sub
jcct I" epileptic fits, would trust it with n ne
gro girl seven or cight years old? There ives
not Il mother in all South Carolina who has II
chi'd subject to cpilcptic fits, that would not
Keep a constant watch over it. No mother
could be found who would trust such All it,
FAINT To Il negro girl wandering about over the
farm. All our instincts forbid us to believe it.
t school he couldn't spell--looked pale.
When he went to lift a log, he set down
awhile. When he went to other schools he
acted like every other boy every time he didn't
want to studv; once he looked pale at DR..
RIiey's table, and was unconscious for 4 time.
At Nlnety-Slx he was drunk at the wedding.
I DoeSn t he seem to have IA fancy for getting
on a drunk ut wrddings?) Wasn't his bcha-
v'or perfectly natural on the night he returned
to his fathers house from Ninety-Six? His
liquor begins to die out. When his mother
and his wife demonstrate with him for his con-
duct he feels bad, and it is perfectly natural
fnr u half drunk man to think that all the
world is against him, aud to say that he
wished he was dead. AT such time by their
repr"achcS, our wives and "ur mothers some
times make us feel very uncomfortable. At
such times there is usually left in us enough
ct sentiment, enough of liquor and enough of
remorSe to make us laugl, and cry by turns,
while there is enough nervousness in us TO
keep us from sleep. They called it Insomnia.
The State puts up it's doctors, as we'll as
the friends of the prisoner, but no one of them
comes IN drum-bcato of proving that Ferguson
ever had epilepsy.
All ms acqunlntanccs are put upon the
s'and-t"rt the State and for the defcnse-bnt
not a single one of them ever heard Of his hav-
ing epilepsy until the homicide.
ii on your oaths you believe this man to be
crazy, and that he believed Benedict was try
ing to kill him, was coming down on him,
Was trying I" cut hum, then you should acquit
INN. Ii | thought he was laboring under such
would acquit him myself.
No argument could convince YOU of the
talSity OF the charge that Benedict was trying
to Kill him If the testimony does not do it
Crime cannot be punished except by juries.
Public opinion must sustain the law. Then
law cannot be enforced except by the approval
of public opinion. No lesson is written in
deeper characters than that communities
which allow crime to 70 unpublished assume
the responsibility for the crime.
The moral standards Of Il community which
refuse to punish crime must become lower
and lower, until they are gone.
AawlessncSs should not be allowed through
the weakness of jurics.
l have always regarded Abbeville as the
Attica Of South Carolina. 1t is the mother of
Judges, and it is not done making them yet.
1t has been the home OF distinguished LAWYERS
for ages. The people are remarkable for their
Intelligence, and their obedience to the laws
in the past have been most exemplary. II
iawlessness is to take the place of this desira-
Bile condition of affairs-if lawlessness is to
reign-Iet it be at the hands of an usurper.