The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-16

south has always been SO proud, in the
making of whom many fine characteristics
blended, and whose faults did not lie in the
direction of seduction and murder. DR.. Nc
BOWS position in Charleston was precisely
the same that would have been held in
Gotham by any young man or respectable
but iuconspicuouS country origin, who
came TO New York and married the daugh-
ter of a well-to-do old German grocer, and
had not distinguished himself in any other
respect. 90 @
Ii you had visited Charleston with proper
letters of introduction, in ten years of social
life ycu would not have met DR. Mellow.
Now, these facts were we'll known to every
person who knew anything about the case
Then, by what right could the manner of
McDow's life, or his evil deeds, be used to
illustrate in any respect the gentlemen of
South Carolina to any greater eX-
tent than d similar man would have
il ustrated the class 10 which you belong IN
New York;
Robbed of these stimulating properties,
the story of the acquittal of Mellow, so far
as it represents the feeling of people with
out reference to the feeling of the gentle
men of that people, is just about the same
chat it would have been if he had been tried
IN New York. l presume that | may be
excused from protesting that we are not
fond OF seduction or murder, and do not
naturally ldealize performances in those
roles. But trial for murder is conducted
in most states very much as it is in South
Carolina, with similar privileges to the ac-
cused, similar able and adroit counsel for
the defense, and similar juries onlv too
eager to find somewhere in the states case
a basis for reasonable doubt" and every
week verdicts of mot guilty" are rendered
before your eyes, leaving you aStouis ed at
the weakness or criminality OF the juries.
If cities are to be judged by the verdictS
of jurieS, what community would escape
damnations Did l not know the contrary
to be true, | should suppose from your COM
ments that New York Is especially sancti-
fed in this respect. In the Mellow case you
or [ would probably have been for convic-
ton; but if that case had been tried any
where in this country, and if it had been
known, as was well known 10 this case, that
the slain man was a most arhi-
trary and overbearing person and had
gone to meet his slayer with feelings
strongly irritated, in ever so just a cause,
to bring that person TO task, and to threaten
him with some sort Of restraint or punish
ment, and if the slayer testified, by permits
of the law, that those intentions were exc
cuted, and more than executed, and that
the killing occurred in self-defelSe, and
there were no eye-witnesSeS of the facts
where, in this country, would any lover of
Justice have counted with assurance upon a
verdict of manSlaughter even!
But, with the justice or injustice of that
verdict, neither l nor you-for the fairness
of your criticism of the people-has any
thing to do. The simple fact is that in
these circumstances there was a trial of a
man, apparently worse than most men in
any community; and that in the absence of
conclusive evidence, rebutting the slayer's
testimony, the jury found him not guilty;
and upon this foundation, and some grave
mistakes of fact, you have used the open
ing to express an opinion that 1.-The
whole affair shows US commu-
nifty only half emerged from barbarism,"
and that 1.-THE negroes as well as the whites
have been taught that killing is not murder
unless it Is accompanied by robbery" l
am IRE that very slight consideration will
cause you great dissatisfac ion with yourself
for the hasUy, unfair, and ungenerous man
ner in whicn you have used your editorial
columns for expressions which, as | have
said aud believe, would never have been
written under the same circumstances con-
corning any northern community.
GEORGIAN.
Savannah, Ga, July 10, 1889
[Our statement that DIR. Mellow was
elected surgeon of local military company
while he was still on trial was founded
upon the following paragraph, published
conspicuously in the World of June IS:
"CHARLEsToN, June 27.-J. T. Kama
paux, secretary of Lafayette Artillery, has
to-day made certificate over mis- signature
to the truth of the Worlds statement that
Dr. Mellow was q week ago reelected
surgeon of that organic ition."
The special sig uiticance of the paragraph
arose from the fact that the statement
when first published had been denied as
mere reporters stuff"
We do not care to have any controversy
on the Mellow case. Still less would we
deny that there are as good people in Charles
ton as there are in the world For South
Cardinals share in blood-guiltinesS and
family feuds we refer Georgian" to Red
fields Homicide North and South" We all
know that there were righteous men in
Sodom, and that an earnest effort was made
TO spare the city on tueir account. OF
course, these righteous men were shocked,
Inundated. and mortified by the doings of
the majority, but they were not numerous
enough to save the town from fire and brim-
stone. In place of any further reply to our
correspondent, we reprint few paragra phs
from the Charleston NelCS and Courier of
July TO- which seem to us not to err on the
side of severity:
"We have published during the past week
the views of newspapers i'll all parts of the
United States. There is substantial una
nlmity of opinion in regard to the result Of
the Mellow trial. Good men everywhere
without regard to sectional lines or political
bias, have been shocked by the outcome of
this case. Upon no subject of public in
terest has there ever been manifested so
deep and widespread indignaticn No
verdict ever rendered in a court of justice
has been subjected to so just and whitening
rebuke. Doubtless there are some in this
community who approve OF the verdict just
as there were some who rejoiced at the
murder of Capt. Dawson; but the large ma
Jorlty of the thoughtful, intelligent God
fearing, law abiding people of Charleston
regard the result of the trial of this case as
an indelible stain upon toe administration
of justice. While Snldrting under the
savage assaults of the press % the cOun-
try, they feel that somehow q Just cenSure
has attended the true event.
1T is manifeStly unjust to denounce the
people OF Charleston for the verdict In this
case, and yet it was Charleston jury that
found the verdict. 1t is serious reflection
upon this immunity, and it is false to say
that the shouts which greeted Dr. Mellow
upon his acquittal voiced the sentiment of
its better classes; and yet it is true that this
dlsgraceful ebulition of popular passion
occurred in the Charleston court house,
and IN the gerry presence or the court itself
1t is perversion of truth for any one to
intimate that the people of South Carolina
approve of the finding of the jury The
newspapers of the state have spoken upon
the subject with no uncertain sound, and
the voice Of the press is the voice of the
people. @