Year: 1867




its own sorrow for anything more. 1t
lay crushed and wrung under the keen.
est anguish Are you father who
has lost dear and only child upon
whom your affections centered In a
peculiar mannerY You may go little
way in your appreciation of my feel
ings. But tnat other pang of having
been in some sense the cause of the
death Of your own child, unwittingly
indeed. Heaven grant that you may
never know that feeling. As the time
wore on, and the averted looks of men
met me, shut out almost entirely from
sympathy, which seemed most pre-
cious, and false public sentiment rest
ing on me with crushing weight,
while my heart was still bleeding with
its own grief--all was like daggers
piercing me. At first my friends
feared that reason would be dethron-
ed. And to-day language cannot de-
scribe my yearnings for my child when
my mind reverts to him. Perhaps |
ought to say something in view Of the
conviction and sentence passed upon
me- 1t may be inferred from what |
have said, believing as / do that for
mer sickness had to do with this mat
ter sickness the severity and par
ticulars of which could be but imper-
fectly presented ia courts, being for
years under the most powerful tonics
and narcotics daily, sickness from
which my physical constitution never
has recovered and never can, it would
be strange indeed if my mind had the
same vigor which it had before. Ny
own judgement is, that had il not been
for this sickness and subsequent ne--
vous prostration more or less connect
ed, being SO for mouths after came
home near four years ago, that1 could
not look into a newspaper, that this
thing could never have occurred. But
as to the conviction If did not know
that | was not angry, if l felt that
from hard, unfeeling temper toward
my child / recklessly hazarded his
life or health; il felt that | was de-
termined to conquer him at all haz.
ards, come life or death, would suf-
fer silently, and feel that / deserved
% suffer. But il | was actuated by
the highest motives Of any mans ma
ture, in pain performing what / be-
ieved to be duty; if il was the very
love felt for my child which caused
that intense solicitudc; if felt after
saw the result that could have Civ
en- my own life for my child, then you
may judge how / felt in view of. the
sentence. The judge says the majes-
ty of the law must be sustained.
had always supposed that human crimi-
nal law must be founded upon the law of
God, and derived from it alone its force.
Does God hold n man responsible for
anything more than wilful wrong-do-
ing in the present or in the past, or
for a neglect to do right arising from
culpable Indifference TO the right or
preference for the wrongY Is crime to
be determined by the consequences OF
an act, or by the intent of the heart 2
Can you make crime without you can
prove some unlawful and criminal in.
tent in some form Can you make
crime Of an error in Judgment though
it be very serious onel I But the
judge says the majesty of the law must
be sustained. ! cannot see tho point.
Such an application instead of sus-
tanning the majesty of the law, in my
opinion, saps its very foundation. |
feel that my home has been desolated
by the death of dearly-loved child.
The consequences of my own act here
comes upon me with a crushing weight
in that loss which many could never
have lived through. | frankly con-
fess my great error in this. Ny flmi-
ly has been broken up. My property
has been swept away by the necessary
expenses of my trial and / greatly
fear that the life of my wife is at least
jeopardized in her present feeble and
critical state of health. If ycu ask
me what | think of the sentence and
conviction, in view of all this, must
say that l feel it to be unjust and un-
worthy the code of an enlightened
Christian nation. In saying this ]
do not at all impugn the integrity of
the Judge or jury who sat upon my
trial. While my reputation is as pre-
cious to me as to any man, yet feel
that character is infnitively more i'm.
portant than reputation; and this
has been my only support, my hope
in God in all my trouble that truth
would sooner or later bear sway in the
minds of my fellow-men. | have just
read in the Republican the remarks
upon my trial, myself, and the sen
tence. / thank Mr. Beach for his
frank statement and manly acknowl-
edgment of the error into which he
had been led in my case, and for his
appreciation in some sense of my suf-
ferings. The gist of his closing re-
marks, | think, is that though | in
tended nothing wrong, and though in
the immediate circle of relatives and
acquaintances it might do to let the
case rest or penal sentence might
not be necessary, yet in view of the
public sentiment Of the country, the
prisoner should have been convicted
and sentenced. 1t may be / have not
fully stated this, but, whatever are
those closing remarks, all have to
say is, let Mr. Beach or any other man
take my place he would feel much as
| do. All | ask is that the law, do to
Others as you would be done by, be
applied to me by individuals and The
public. JOEL LINDSAY


The Erie Gazette has the following
among its "locals :" ave notice that