The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-10-05
An Amazing Argument.
Ingenuity Stretched to the Breaking
Point in Defense of TiIlman.

Point in Defense of Tillman.
One of the most ingenious argu-
ments ever advanced in mitigation of
the crime of a murderer is to be found
IT. local paper under the head "a
Side Light on the Tllman Case" 1t
begins with the statement that the Till
man attorneys are giving especial
prominence to the fact that the de
tendant was known to be carrying a
revolver at least two days before he
shot Gonzales We are then told that
''in some parts of the country the de-
Selopment Of such fact would oper-
etc TO the injury of the homicide"
but that IN most of the Southern anG
western States it viii relieve Tillman
of the charge of having murdered in
gold blood a man whom he knew to be
unarmed. The writer then goes on to
say that If Gonzales was not armed
he ought to have been, and that in
these circumstances Tillman cannot be
considered guilty of the murder of a
defenseless man.
This Is one of the most extraordi-
nary examples of the tortuous path
which the human reason can take on
occasion, which ever appeared in the
columns of a newspaper. On this
theory. any murderer is more or less
excusable for his crime if he allows
1t to be known beforehand that he IS
armed and angry. Hitherto it has
been supposed that such a course
showed deliberate intention to com.
NIT crime, and was proof of greater
instead of less guilt on the part of the
murderer. But we are now offered
the calm explanation that the threat
Is TO be considered a chivalrous warn
ing on the part of the murderer, and
ii the victim is not armed, when he
knows that somebody is planning to
kill him, he ought to bel
We arc further told that the unfor-
tunate editor had denounced his as
sailant in language so bitter that "no
one in South Carolina could submit to
Il and retain the respect of his neigh
bors or Of himself" Are we. then.
tO suppose that in this civilized eoun
Try there is a State IN which vitupera-
tive language, whether justified or
not, is to be held a capital crime. the
sentence to be executed by the object
Of the attack Obviously, If all that
Gonzales said was true, his fate must
still have been the same if the object
OF his attack was a better shot than
he Is 1t not possible to tell the truth
about a villain in South Carolina
without risking ones lief Is Islander
a matter, not for libel suit, but for
the revolver, and is the object Of the
attack to be the only judge whether
murder is required IN the case or not 7
To state, as the "Post" has stated,
that an alleged slanderous article
must be resented by shooting the au-
thor, on pain Of loss Of self-respect
Is to imply that citizens of States in
which this principle is not recognized
are lacking in self-respect, and will
ing to submit quietly to vituperation.
AS a matter of fact the peculiarly
venomous journalism Of which Con
zales' attack Is an example, hourishes
like a green bay tree in the States in
which the pistol-toting habit is most
common. As a preventive Of vituper-
alive writing, murder is not effective.
Those who talk about self-respect IN
South Carolina requiring one man to
kill another when the latter has said
something offensive, suggest either
most unpleasant fre-eater as the typi-
cal citizen, or a condition Of society
50 foul that only by such drastic
measures can respectable men protect