The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1910-12-22
ROBIN COOPER.

VerSy between senator CaTmack ant
his father, and, whether right or wronl
from an abstract legal standpoint, bu
few men who have viewed the matte
from fair and magnanimous stand
point have ever refused to let thei
sympathies and kindly feelings go ou
to this victim of hard situation, which
he not only did not contrive, but which
by the whole weight of testimony
strove TO avoid and prevent. At tht
last, when he had discharged every
duty of pacification and prevention
which the most exacting code of ethics
could in the least expect or demand al
his hands, when he had exhausted
every means of preventing fatal en-.
counter, when the hour came to choose
between his father and another, with a
calmness and precision born of manly
courage, not the courage of brute fierce
but the courage born of mental pro.
cesses and the power of WILL he struck
in the open and then uncomplaingly
accepted the full responsibility for his
deed.
A pale-faced boy he sat through a
long and bitter legal battle where the
ablest counsel the state could command
cried for his life and his blood, sur
rounded and involved in the heat of
political partisanism and the tiercer
conflicts of factionalisms which beat,
and battled and broke about his head,
but never once did he complain. 1t
was known all the while that at the
time he was engaged to talented
young lady of high station in life, and
necessarily there was added to the anx-
iety of the trial and its results in the
ordinary the deeper feelings born of the
peculiar facts and circumstances under
which he labored, and yet from the
pale depths of his boyish face there
came no intimation of his inward suf-
fering. There are things which men
sitting in ease and comfort are hardly
capable of passing upon, and they
often fail to appreciate the moving and
springs of the human soul.
He answered the challenge of the
law, heard the verdict of the jury,
to the judgment and sentence
Of the court, and then as he had
right to do, right guar
anteed to every man under our law,
white or black, rich or poor, guilty or
innocent, regardless of his past life or
even though his sins were as scarlet,
he appealed to the highest court of the
state and asked for reconsideration of |
the whole case. For seventy three
lays this great tribunal, composed Of
hose who were politically arrayed
with the faction that fiercely cried for
lis blood, held his case and then de-
:ided that he had not had fair and
In impartial trial such as he was en-
titled to under the law. He went back
o answer again and appeared at the
Judgment bar, but in the meantime
he people had elected different
udge and different attorney general.
When the case was again called, the
Ittorney general elect by the people
rose and stated that in his judgment
t would be useless waste of money
o have another trial, and that he did
lot believe the facts were sufficient to
stablish legal guilt. And thereupon
jury was empaDneled to formally
ass upon the case, to the end that it
night not return TO plague the peace
{ politics and the good of the state,
hat 1t might be put at rest where de- {
igning men and scarlet politicians {
Tho trifie and traffic with the most 7
acred things, might not resurrect it at I
ill as goblin of discerd, plaything '
l the hands of men whose object was ]
error and whose end was personal I
ain and political power. A verdict I
not guilty was therefore entered.
Young Cooper was then married to !
le young lady who had followed him
own into the valley of sorrow, down
ito prison house, and who had I
'hispered to him in the very darkest !,
our, when he was tasting the bitter :
ess, the gall and wormwood of his {
fe's sorcst travail, TO be of good cheer \
the one who had followed with an n
step self.wiLled if need be =
} any sacrifice. Young Cooper's life 4
seemed was emerging from its b