Year: 1859

| of her ?" a. e., Mrs. Sickles.e do, and have,
ever since her name has been so unfortunately
placed before the public, and, since the trial
commenced my mind has not been within the
cell of the great champion of Virtue" nor
hoyerngover the unthinking dead-but around
| the deselate woman. $40 b. -s,=si itf


As the Hon. raniel is willing to open eyes
and ears to any thing ..anonymous," allow me
to address. him letter under that name, which
j would not do, if he had evinced sterling
nobIeness by burning every scrip unindorsed by
the writer: s54isreas liss -fasa .-3ss.


To tie Hon. Daniel E. ,Sackles: =s -


I do not write this letter without any degree
of interest in your feelings or welfare, for [
have deeply felt for both ever since you came
upon the political arena, as Secretary of 1sega-
ton under our Minister to England, James
Buchanan You belong to my native State,
!, and under the wing. of true Democrat. and
| and itlRas to be hoped that these principles
would lend a helping hand if that State ever
needed your political strength. l was gratifed
when you went to Washington, and have
watched your career in Congress with great
deal of interest and satisfaction.


At the moment that | am writing this L do
not know whether you are acquitted or not
whether you are free-if that can be free
which is isolated and sorrowful-or whether
you are remanded back to await the fulflment
| of dread sentence. 20 5- 4


Either does not affect the past; and it is with
the past that have to do. s@ ~
You have been an honor to the legal profes-
sion, a great politician, but you have not been
IL good husband. l do not mean that you have
been immoral; ] know nothing about that, and
would have nothing to say about it if did
What | mean is your pride of position, your
great effort after political distinction, influence
and ambition, swallowed up your Judgment
| opd tbot cold Eipduccs bich T1rotectS vvh
loves. s


You loved your wife becarse her beauty and
refinement gave YOU ecidt, because her amia-
bility and artlessness pleased your taste, but
you did not love her enough to protect that
] beauty from temptation, 10 mould that refine
lfent into Christian loveiiness. to raise that
amiability toward the divine emotions of the
soul. and. to shield that artlessness from the
cold suspicions of society .a


You are proud of her qualities and in her
/ youth and impressibility you threw down every
! barrier which should have protected her from
the rude experience of the world. You had
not the independence to raise her above the
frivolities and vanities of fashion, because her
accomplishments helped Your influence.
Where was the poor heart to turn for guild
ance? In the path you led her the surer guide
to better life was practically ignored If she
turned to her parents-why, she was the wife
of Daniel Z. Sickles of Washington. and must
sustain her position as leader of the ton! if she
turned to society, her natural acuteness told
her that all was heartless and affected; if she
turned to you, she found policy was the heart
string which moved the daily pulses of your
life, and all the kindness you showered around
her, from her magnificent establishment to
your minutest attention, was to sustain the
present position and strive for greater


You may have had faith in her as q wife,
but it was only the wife of great man who
would not endanger her reputation. You GER
tainly never gained her confidence as wife,
with the magnetic probe Of husbands true
tore, or you would have seen something was
conceaied long. long ago, and that love would
have protected her, without a command, from
all future temptation and sorrow. I do not ap-
prove her course, but have pity for her heart
struggles.


Oh, Mr. Sickles, if you had gone to her
when she lay that Saturday night in her agony
upon the foor writhing and repenting wo-
man, when, probably, every particle of the
glamored affection was wrenched from her heart,
and she despiSed yuur victim as much as you
could, when the shock was over and her feel
ings were flowing back to their true source and
she tremblnsly saw the vortex over which she
hung, then If you had forgicen all, a peaceful
ness and an unknown strength would have





heart You would have raised tempted and
feeling woman to her true place, you would
have brought back the mother to be a fit in
structor to her child you would have re-
turned to society woman whose virtues, bap-
tized in agony and repentance, would have
adorned It.


That very forsivness would have ennobled
yourself, saved your wife, and punished your
victim.
That Confession no woman will ever be-
lieve your wife wrote voluntarily.


In the first place, it is cool and calm; she is
an impassioned Italian 1t is low, she is re-
fined. 1t descends into morbid detail, and no
wife, in the deep abandonment of grief that is
proved in your testimony, could have penned
the deliberate history If she signed it, it
was with the hope, and, perhaps assurance that
it would never pass beyond your control and
might reinstate her in your favor. If 1t had
have been the heart-throbs of a sorrowlng wo-
man. no Christian with sincere affection would
have drawn it into Court to save honor or life
especially when the legal acumen of that hus-
band knew it could not be received as evidence.


Every word tells that twas written with the
purpose to create public excitement somewhere
and somehow, and tic pubitc excitement has
come. The only quiet thing about it, is the
new-made grave in Baltimore.


w hat have you gained? Go where you will
that sod will stretch long and green forever in
your memory. But blessed is the rest beneath
its weight, in comparison to the tortured, strick
en-, weeping heart you have sent back to New
York to live years and years upon its agony,
without one hope. Blessed is its rest in COM
parson to that whirlpool of torment you have
forever raised within your own soul ia


One frenzied moment of yours has saved no |
soul. but crushed thousand virtues. 'Vs.s


She may have broken one of the e1omlmand-
ments of the Decalogue, but did you not break +
another? There is no saying clause to g Thou
shalt not hiH." The inspired words upon the
tablets of stone thunder as much against your
act as against hers, and though the world may
praise you for acting out fully the worlds code,
had rather turn to your wife and say Ego; sin
no more l9Tei t'Tae :.
[ hope the jury will acquit you, and then
hope you will forgive your wife, for, remember &.
he holiest attribute of-our Savior is this: "He
s able to forgive"