The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-09-11

I Narrr ana AAdA MAKES II ALllrA- an
Then again the mother OF the slaIr
boy sits behind me expecting me Il
answer one OF the most brilliant argu
nents I have ever heard. II is pain
I'm 10 me that the man who IS slain
must still lie in the grave. his body
molderiug in the dust. his lips sealed
forever. while the man who slew
him can sit here. defile him and his
name and his counsel can say all man
ner OF evil things Of him.
Then there is this innocent. pure
woman. the object OF ISLANDERS and idle
reports and yet whose very presence
is Objectionable to the law It Is not
enough turning to the defendant
that YOU have slain a man, but you
must turn your assaults upon the life
and the character of your wife. If
YOU killed him, face the Issue like a
man; but for Gods sake don't assault
woman and then say that you had
to do it. You make the tragic state
ment or your lawyers do that we shall
not drag this woman's name into
the mire of a lawsuit, and yet for two
and one-half hours your lawyers have
held this woman UP TO the public
gaze as an impure woman; and you
have attempted to utterly wreck and
destroy her character. But thank
God your effort will not avail.
"You utterly failed in your efforts
to show one single act that the wife
had done which would have justified
suspicion, then you tried and failed to
establish brain explosion, and then
you declare that your wife was DIS
graced woman. Don't come here full
of such deceit. Make your defense and
then have the courage of man to
stand upon it; don't veer from one
position to another.
4 feel the great responsibility that
has deyolved upon me in this case; a
great responsibility to the State of
Tennessee to thwart the effort that is
being made to establish precedent
here in Maury county that will give
a man the right to shoot down another
without warning and without reason
Or justification. l do not say what /
would do if a man were brought here
Who had killed the man who despoiled
lis home, but l do ask you, gentle
men of the jury, shall this man kill
Ind go unwhipt of justice without
more reason than he had?
Il have a great burden of RESPONSE
'ility to this people. might under
he circumstances above enumerated
esign my Office before / would prose
ute the man who had slain the de-
poiler of his home, but in this case
only hope that shall have the pow
r and the ability to show how utterly !.
nfounded is this defense. Their own /
heory establishes that the plea of the
nwritten law is utterly false and
:.
Now listen to the argument of the
efense and let me show you how \
tterly untrue, how base and how !
ruel in this case is the plea of the
nwritten law Here is a pure, good
an; they say that no man since the
avior ever led a purer, better or
ore correct life. He has wife who
as chaste and pure as virgin, as
,od and faithful and true and loyal as 70
~ woman who ever lived. They were ~
lppy and contented; they loved each W
her as few have ever loved in this III
e. Thus it is in this condition of VI
We and peace and contentment and =
Ippiness that they go to the home a.
Mrs. Long, woman just as good "a
d pure and virtuous as is to be al
und anywhere within this county. "
i'd yet they tell you that this sweet, On
re, good woman, pregnant with ar
lid begotten three months before by
Is defendant, sick in bed nearly all Tn
the first two weeks she was In this Lo
good and true that she his
allows little nineteen-year-old he
etch to come into her life and with did
two weeks destroy her virtue. How ne
lei, how absurd, how false this all xii
he's
They tell you that, but they cat
ve failed to prove one single on
to justify this terrific charge, 'hi
damning to the character of nat
good, pure woman. Not a line wa
proof that would convince. a gibber- gu
fool. Not a syllable OF proof to wn'
se any man even to suspect his oef
e of improper conduct. And yet p"
e they come and tell you that with ref
ess than two weeks this mans con- wht
nee in his wife had been utterly ban
troyed forever. Notwithstanding has