Year: 1870

NJ anu AhAuFuef Case.


The argument of Attorney General Reed


for the government fills six closely printed
columns of the Kennebec Journal, and from
it we select few of his remarks upon some
OF the important points in the trial:


Gentlemen, Mr.. Latin was a respectable
man-past the middle Of life; a man of ire
proachable character, a man against whom
naught had ever been known. Mr.. Hoswell
had no relations with him, nether-as trust


shall show you-did his wife. He was there
lnneently; he was there Tor. no purpose of
WRONG, as shall show you by the evidence.


They say lie destroyed the peace-they say
he destroyed the harmony OF the family, or
was about to do it. Gentlemen, was there
any harmony there? Was there any peace
there? Was there any happiness there for him
to disturb? For two long months they had
not lived together; from his own testimony
she had been utterly cast out-she had been
driven from his house-he had refused to live
with her. Gentlemen, ask you for one in
slant to consider what is asked of you here.
Here Is man, who, according to his own
showing has driven his wife out of doors in
the midnight; whose life with her has been
perpetual quarrel; who for nine mournful
years has heaped upon her insult ard abuse
in the malignity of his heart, and after he has
turned her out, and has nothing more to do
with her-now the counsel for the defence
want you to say that he shall have right by
law to lie in wait by that barn or under the
bed and to shoot any man whom he thinks
has come to commit adultery with her. l
ask you, gentlemen, to consider this thing for
moment. Suppose you were seated in the
legislature of the State, and the proposition
was made to you that after man had COM
mitted all these atrocities upon his wife,
after he had turned her out OF doors,
alter he had refused to live with her,
that he should have the right to
prowl around her dwelling and shoot
any man, however innocent, that he suspect
ed OF having intercourse with her. And mark
me, that goes further: it Hoswel had right
to kill Mr.. Latin, surely Mrs. Latin has a
right to kill Mrs. Hoswell. ask you, would
one man of you, if you sat in position of re-
sponsibility like that which have depicted,
would you for moment think of giving law
like that your sanction and support? And
shall you do indirectly what no one man of
you would do indirectly? Gentlemen, it is
well enough to use broad general terms; it is
we'll enough to deliver eloquent passages
about the happiness of family, about the de-
stroying of peace. 1t is well enough that the
sanctity of the marriage relation should be
presented to you: it appeals to your finer and
better sympathies; but do claim that when
the sanctity of the marriage relation is set up
in any particular instance, that sanctity'
should te shown, that marriage relation
which is worth defending should be put up.


Gentlemen, that Sickles trial
has led to that mans ruin. AS policeman
in the city of Lawrence have no doubt he
became familiar with such scenes, and trials
and defences like that. 1t was right in his
mind, and when he arrived at the Jail, not
wlthstanding his frenzy, he knew enough to
call for counsel at once.


That prisoner went down from the city of
Augusta for a purpose. His counsel indig-
nantly repudiate the idea that the man could
have gone down there expecting to find any
thing wrong; but he went down armed to the
teeth with revolver in his pocket aud knife
upon his person. Whatldid he 60 down there
for? He went down there intending in his
heart to kill any man that he should find
about that house. l might examine his char
acter, but it has been fully displayed before
you by his examination and cross examina-
ton. Can you doubt it? Not for an instant.
He went down, he took his station out of
sight where he could command observation
of her door-where he could see all that


went on in that place. But lest the sound of
his tramping might be heard he removes his
shoes and leaves there the impress of his
fevt i1tvh has beer, described to yo,, bv a re-
spectacle and honorable witness, Mr.. Nash, a
man of honor. He stayed there pacing to
and fro, watching and waiting. He saw Mr..
Latin come out of the shop with the carpet
under his arm-he sees him pass along the
pathway and enter the house. At once this
man said: II have found the man'-here is
something for me, and while the man stopped
there few moments, Hoswell came out and
PAGES along the self same path. He stood at
the door, put down his shoes-drops his coat
so as to give himself facilities for the fatal en-
counter.


Did ho come down to Hailowell to protect
his home,-h marital relationship save his
wife from destruction? No! he went there to
see her in disgrace,-to wait until the dis
| grace was presented. Would a husband that
loved his wife tenderly, and thought that she
was to be led astray, would he have waited
No; he would have pushed from her the fear
| full act-he would have rescued her, not want
| ed to see it cOnsummated here. He tells yor
that as he went along there he took off his
clothes. understood that he stood at .he
and took of his clothes, but on cross-examin-
alton he states that he took them off at the
barn. He says that when his wife put up
the shutters, he knew she would turn the
bolt. As she was turning the bolt-an in
stantaneous action almost-yet according to
OuC VI LIS oIdIciucutS uc uau ttIuc tO lake Oh
his shoes and his coat, and walked up to that
door and crept in and under the bed. Marx
you is was low one, he says so himself for
| his own purpose. He could not rush in there


he had to go with some sort of care so as moi
| to disturb his wife, and then post himself un-
der the bed. What for? For the purpose ol
| finding man, an adulterer, with his wife
| That must be his own statement. Now tel
| you as rule of law-and / make no doubt
| that it cannot be controverted-that where
provocation is an excuse, and where provoca.
| ton is a justification, if man comes deliber-
| ately forth and seeks, he is out of the pale Of
| the law. II a man comes deliberately armed
where his nose is to be pulled, and he knows
it, the provocation is no justification what
| ever.


Think of a man putting himself in such .
position, for an innocent purpose, 1t has beer
said to you here. Do you suppose that mar
| didn't know his own disposition? Do yor
suppose that these repeated acts were kinduc
| ed, as he says, by jealousy? Do you suppose
he didn't know what would be the resultif h,
| found any one there? Of course he did. Ac


cording to his own story he is guilty of Lawful
murder, and no frenzy can save him.