Newspaper Page Text
2.
HE ATLANT A W EE KLY bua-
SUPREME COURT DECISIONS.
Reported for the Daily San.
Atlanta, Jaly 25, 1871.
John Neal, etal., vs. George Patten, etaL
Relief act 1870—from Mitchell.
McKAY. J.
Where a bill had been filed to marshal
the assets of an estate, and under an in
terlocutory decree of the Court the assets
had been reduced to money, and held in
the hands of a receiver, it was error in
the Court to dismiss from the parties in
the proceeding such judgment creditors
as had judgments upon debts contracted
prior to June 1,18C5, on the ground that
they had not filed the affidavit stating
that all taxes hod been paid upon the
claim, as provided by the act of October
1$, 1870. Judgment reversed. *
Lyon, deGraflfenreid & Co., Vason &
Davis for Plaintiff; Wright & Warren,
Seward A Hammond, John Rutherford,
for Defendant.
Moses P. Hollis vs. John Williams.—In
junction—from Calhoun.
WARNER, J.
When a bill was filed by the
plaintiff against the defendant, alleg
ing that he purchased certain proper
ty, including a steam mill and turnpike,
of which the defendant represented
himself as the owner, and having
a good title thereto, when, in fact he
did not have such title, but that there
was an encumbrance upon the steam
mill, and that he did not have a good
title to the turnpike, which was one of
the main inducements to plaintiff to
make the purchase, and that complain
ant had been deprived thereof by a su
perior title, the plaintiff relying solely
upon the representations of the defend
ant upon the soundness of his title to
the steam mill and turnpike; and
the prayer of the bill is, that the defend
ant may be enjoined from the transfer
ring of the notes given for the purchase
of the property, and that the notes in
the bonds of third persons, due the de
fendant, may not be collected, alleging
that the defendant is insolvent. The
Court granted the injunction. A motion
was made to dissolve it on the filing of
defendant’s answer, on the ground
that there was no equity in com
plainant’s bill, and if there was, it was
sworn off by the answer. There were
various affidavits which were conflicting
as to tho equity of the bill. The Court
refused to dissolve the injunction, and
tho defendant excepted.
Held, That tho question of retaining
or dissolving an injunction, rests in the
sound discretion of the Court, and in
cases where the affidavits are conflicting,
and especially when fraud is charged,
this Court will not control the discretion
of the court below until tho final hearing
of tho case; though this Court would
have been better if the injunction had
been confined to the notes given for the
property in the hands of the defendant,
but, inasmuch as tho court below has the
discretion to modify or continue the in
junction, in its discretion, we will not in
terfere with that discretion,
D. D. Morral and H. A. Hawkins, for
plaintiff in error. Lyon do Graffenreid
and Irwin, Wooten and Hoyle, for-do.
fendant in error.
McKAY, J., concurring in the judg
ment of the Court.
The act of October, 1870, requiring all
legal taxes then due to bo paid before
any judgment or verdict to recover the
same shall be had, and requiring the dis
missal upon failure to file an affidavit
that such legal taxes havo been paid, im
poses no duly upon the plaintiff incon
sistent with that clauso of the Constitu
tion of the United States, prohibiting
any State from passing laws violating
tho obligation of contracts.
act of October, 1870, only requires
the performance of a legal duty imposed
by the laws of this State at the date of
the contract, which legal duty, being the
payment of taxes, may be performed un
der section 866 of the Code; and it is
clearly within the power of the Legisla
ture to impose upon suitors the perform
ance ot' a duty for the collection of a
debt upon which the dufy arises. Such
penalty is not for the past delinquency,
but for the refusal to perform a present
and continuing duty.
\VARNER J., Dissenting.
This was an action brought by the
plaintiff against the defendant on a pro
missory note dated 28th March, 1864, on
which there is due four thousand and
odd dollars, besides interest. When tho
case was called on the docket in the Court
below, defondant’s counsel made a mo
tion to dismiss it on tho ground that the
plaintiff had not filed an affidavit,
that all legal taxes chorgable by
law had been duly paid upon the debt in
accordance with the provisions of the
act of the General Assembly of the 13th
October, 1870, denying the plaintiffs the
aid of the Courts to collect their debts
contracted before the 1st of June, 1865,
until the taxes thereon had been paid.
The Court sustained the motion and
fUsmis^ed the case, and the plaintiff ex
cepted.
My opinions in regard to this class of
Legislative enactments have been repeat
edly expressed, and this act is quite as
obnoxious to the fundamental law of the
land as any of the others.! It imposes
conditions on tho legal rights of the
plaintiff which did not exist at the
time the contract was made—it is ex post
facto in its character in ns much as it
assumes that one class of the citizens of
the State are gnilty of a criminal offence
and it prevents them from the enforce
ment of the legal rights in the Courts—
invades the legal rights of the plaintiff
under the contract at the time it was
made—and impairs the obligation there
of, within the true intendment and
meaning of the provision contained in
the 10th Section 1st Article of the Con-
_stitution of the United States, and is
’therefore void.
Centra! Railroad and Bunking Company
vs. Mayor and Council of the city of
Macon, etal., and Mayor and Council
of the city of Macon, et al., vs. Central
Railroad and Banking Company—In-
jnnetion from Ribb.
WARNER, J.
Hold, That tho State of Georgia and
the city of Macon, on the statement of
the facts disclosed by the record, were
not proper parties to complainant’s bill
of complaint.
Held, also, That the Macon Sc Western
Railroad Company had legal power and
authority, under the provisions of its
charter,'to lease that road to the Central
Railroad and Banking Company of Geor
gia; ami that the latter company had the
legal power and authority, under the pro
visions of tho act of 1852, to accept said
lease as specified in the contract set forth
in the record.
Held, further, That the Court below
erred in granting the injunction prayed
for in complainant’s bill.
Judgment reversed.
Lochrane, C. J. concurred in the opin
ion of the Court
McKay, J., dissenting,
Held, That under the act of 1852, and
under the charter of the Macon & West
ern Railroad, the Directors of the Cen
tral Railroad Sc Banking Co might, with
the assent of the majority of the stock
holders, have the &>ad of the said Macon
Sc Western Railroad Company for the
term of the existence of its charter; but
a lease of said road, having for the consid;
eration covenants that on certain events
the Macon road shall cease to exist, is il
legal, nnless assented to by all the share
holders.
Held, That a railroad company to
which the leased rood is an important
feeder,.has such a pecuniary interest in
the result as to make it'and the stock
holders proper parties to the bill, charg
ing that the lease is illegal, and praying
that it may be enjoined.
Jackson, Lawton & Barringer, Lyon,
deGraffenreid and Irvin, and B. H. Hill
for Central Railroad; Whittle & Gastin,
A. O. Bacon, Nisbett Sc Jackson, C. An
drews, W. Phillips and B. B. Hinton for
the city of Macon.
Correspondence of The Atlanta Daily Sun.
Cbawpordvilte, Ga., )
July 22,1871. j
Editors Sun: The weather has
been dry here for some time, and crops
are needing rain.
A called session of the Superior
Court for Wilkes county was held in
Washington this week—Judge An
drews presiding. At this session,
Willis Beckwith, of Warren county,
was tried for murder. The case had
been removed from Warren by order
of the Judge. The trial lasted two
days. , The result was a verdict of
acquittal by the jury.
The State was represented by So
licitor General Morton, and the priso
ner by Col. E. H. Pottle, of Warren,
and Hon. Linton Stephens, of Sparta.
The verdict gave general satisfaction
to all who heard the testimony.—
Willis Beckwith is one of the parties
so long confined in the barracks in
your city, by military order, on the
charge for which he has just been
tried and acquitted.
In conversation with an old citizen
of this place to-day, I was informed
that just thirty-seven years ago, 22
July, 1834, Hon. Alexander H. Stc-
pnens was admitted to the practice of
law in his village, upon which I
might moralize, hut forbear at pres
ent. - 1 *— -S
I am sure, however, that it will he
agreeable to the many readers of The
Sun, to know that his general health
was never better. Aside from that
unfortunate cripple, I doubt if his
health Has been as good in
years as at present.
On The Wing.
NEW YORK.
The first Steamboat Engineer Bead-A Grand
Slaughter of Calhoun Head—The Pope to
Jjtate Rome—hooking About tor Ids Suc-
many
Douglas County and tlie Georgia
Western Railroad.
Atlanta, July 24, 1871.
At an informal meeting this day held
by the committee appointed by the citi
zens of Douglas county, to report to the
Directors of the Georgia Western Rail
road, the following report was adopted:
1st. That the citizens of Douglas coun
ty are r.:ady to donate the right-of-way to
the Georgia Western Railroad on the line
indicated by the Board of Directors, in
a resolution which they adopted.
2d. That the citizens of said county
are ready to subscribe to the stock of
said Company the sum of Fifty Thousand
Dollars.
3d. That the sum of Twenty Thous
and Dollars has already been subscribed,
4th. That a company of the citizens of
said county are willing and ready to take
the contract for the grading of said Road
through .'aid county, and take in stock
one-half the amount for the work done,
and at as low rates as any other contract
ors.
5th. That the citizens of Campbell
county, from the line of Fulton to the
Chattahoochee river, are willing to grade
that part of the Road upon the same
terms.
All of which is respectfully submitted
Jno. M. Edge.
A. L. Gorman.
Z. A. Rice.
E. If. Whitley.
B. N. Williford.
The Plague of New York. City.
There are 20,000 tenement houses
in New York city, anti in these, it is
said, fully half a million of people
are crowded. The greater portion of
them are huge barracks, littered all
over with dirt and festering humani
ty. There are 294,000 persons living
in such as these in New York city,
according to the report of the hoard
of health. The death rate, taking
the average of all these, is seven per
cent, per annum, while the rate of
social destruction—crime engendered
by the pestilent associations among
the mass—is beyond calculation. It
is probable that seven-tenths of all
the crime committed in New York
city—the murders and burglaries and
those other demoralizing crimes that
are included in beggary and prostitu
tion—spring from the training of
tenement houses. One of these tene
ments, Gotham court, is being rooted
out. Upwards of 84 families (384
persons) lived in the one building, all
huddled together in a mess of amaz
ing filth and wretchedness.
JGSTD;'. Carroll writes the TForiifs per
sonals.
New York, July 25.—Charles Dyke, as
sistant engineer of Fulton’s first steamer
on the Hndson, and engineer of the first
boat down the Ohio and _ Mississippi^ to
New Orleans, died yesterday; aged 85.
The wife of Gideon Lee, grand-daugh
ter of John C. Calhoun, died at Oarwel,
New York, Sunday; aged 26.
The Herlald’s cable dispatch from Lon
don on the 24th, says the Pope may leave
Rome at any day. Preparations are being
made for his reception at a chateau at
Carte Corsica. Valery, the owner of the
chateau, has had an understanding with
AntoneUi, and is to place it at the dispo
sal of the Pope.
There is a movement going on in
France to guarantee the Pope a temporal
sovereignty over Corsica. The Pope
wishes to publish a syllabus in regard. to
the occupation of Rome by the Italian
government and declaring that the meas
ures withholding from him all temporal
power are void.
Measures have been taken already, in
Rome, to prepare for the choice of the
next Pope. It is proposed to choose one
who may be moderate in his ideas and
not unfriendly to Italy, and by this means
effect a compromise with the Italian gov
ernment. Cardinal Camilla di Cietro is
mentioned.
The disposition made by the French
Chamber of Petitions in regard to Oper
ative power is equivalent to laying them
on the table.
WASHINGTON.
Red Cloud not Packing Ids Haversack— Testi-
nxonj/ of Hon. Thomas Hardeman before the
Ku-Klax Committee—.Wellman's Kin Re-
fnsted.
Washington, July 25.—Red Cloud’s
preparations at Omaha for the war path
are contradicted.
Hon. Thomas Hardeman, of Macon,
Ga., testified before the Ku-Klax Com
mittee to-day that- he knew of no Ku-Klux
organizations. The whites instead of the
blacks were kept from the polls by intim
idation, negroes having taken possession
of the polls. No organized violence or
opposition to the law had been made,
except in oneinstance where a number
of negroes attempted to tar and feather a
negro for voting the Democratic ticket,
but the row was easily suppressed.
Dr. Walsh, who is here, has a dispatch
from Wellman’s kinsmen that they have
arranged the Savannah Custom House
defalcation satisfactorily.
•Wore Troubles in the JVew Territory—A Mis
sissippi Radical Before the Ku-Klux Com
mittee—He Throics Hand.Grenade into the
Radical Camp—Weather Report.
Washington, July 25.—Tlie Board of
Public Works, having been enjoined
from negotiating $4,000,000 worth of
Bonds, has stopped work on the streets,
avenues and alleys, and many are thrown
out of employment.
Among the Ku-Klux Witnesses
to-day was a member of the Oxford, Mis
sissippi Gaand Jury, who is a Republi
can. He testified that their investigation
of disorders showed that politics had no
thing to do with them. Their taxes were
increased ten fold. School teachers were
sent among them at $60 00 per month,
who were not content with such buildings
as the counties could furnish, but must
have uew ones for their average of twen
ty-five negro scholars. He said the co
habitation of negroes with white women
often provoked assault, but a majority of
the cases had their origin in theft.
Synopsis of the Weather Report.
Washington, July 25.—The low bar
ometer which was Monday afternoon west
of Wisconsin has moved north-eastward,
and is now probably central, north of and
on Lake Superior. The pressure has fal
len from the Upper Mississippi to Lake
Ontario. The barometer is quite low off
the coast of the Middle States. Threat
ening weather, with rains, has been very
generally reported from Missouri to the
Gulf, -and from Wisconsin to Lake Su
perior. Cloudy weather, with north
easterly winds, has continued this after
noon from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod.
Partially clear and clearing weather are
now generally reported from Lake Michi
gan to the Carolinas.
The Agricultural Report,
gives elaborate crop tables. The com
parison based upon 100 for last year.
Maryland tobacco acreage 91—condition
83, wool yield 95; Virginia tobacco
acreage 95—condition 93, wool 93;
North Carolina tobacco acreage 93—con
dition 97; wool 99; South Carolina su
gar acreage 105—condition 100; tobacco
acreage 100—condition 102, wool 104;
Georgia sugar acreage 107—condition
109, tobacco acreage 102—condition 102,
wool 98; Florida sugar acreage 100—con
dition 102, tobacco unchanged, wool 105;
Alabama sngar acreage 110—condition
106, tobacco acreage 106—condition 108,
wool 95; Mississippi sugar acreage 98—
condition 99, tobacco acreage 100—con
dition 98, wool 92; Louisiana sugar
acreage 110—condition 100, wool 93;
Texas sugar acreage 115—condition 103,
tobacco acreage 103—condition 104, wool
93; Arkansas tobacco acreage 106—con
dition 92, wool 105; Tennessee acreage
88—condition 96, tobacco acreage 93—
condition 98, wool 100; West Virginia
tobacco acreage 96—condition 94, wool
100; Kentucky tobacco acreage 87—con
dition 95, wool 95; Missouri tobacco
acreage 102—condition 102, wool 101.
The culture of sorghum shows large de
crease in acreage.
MISSOURI.
A violent Hailstorm a fire sensation spoiled
vt Bold Express Robbery—Ticenty thousand
^Bailors gone tcith the Robbers.
St. Louis, July 25.—A violent hail
storm in Pike county has destroyed the
corn and tobacco crops.
The report that the Indian chief Sa-
tana, and Big Tree were killed while at
tempting to escape,‘is untrue. Both
have been tried and and found guilty of
murder in the first degree.
An express robbery was committed on
the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, in Heikman
county, Kentucky, last Saturday night.
Three men got on thetrain at Union City,
and at Nassau, when the train halted,
two of the robbers got off, and their con
federate remained on the platform. As
the train moved ont from the depot, the
two jumped into the Express car, over
powered the messenger, and robbed the
safe of $20,000. They then halted the
train and disappeared in the dark.
NEW_YORK.
Ilon'l Want to be President.
Niagara Falls, July 25.—Senator
Fenton was serenaded and spoke here to
night. In the course of his speech, after
declaring his devotion to the Radical par
ty, he said that he had been credited in
some quarters with entertaining special
concern with relation to personality of
the next Presidency. The suggestion
was founded on a misconception of his
feelings. His only wish was that the next
candidate should be one who would most
frilly embody the principles of the party
and be most capable of leading it to vic
tory.
CALIFORNIA.
San Francisco, July 25.—The Miner’s
League terror in Amador county contin
nes. A force of men, not members of
the League, are besieged, and unable to
hold out Troops will be ordered imme
diately to the scene of disturbance.
E. E. Walsh, book-keeper of the Ama
dor mine, was assassinated by the League,
but before he fell he succeeded in shoot
ing the leader of the League.
Tlie trial and Sentence of James
Oxford.
MISSOURI.
Express Robbery.
St. Louis, July 25.—At noon to-day,
Delivery wagon U. S. Express Company,
in charge of the driver and Messenger,
stopped at the month of the alley be
tween 4th and 5th Streets to deliver a
package addressed to a party in the alley.
The Messenger left the wagon in charge
of the driver, and while he was absent
two men jumped into the wagon, gagged
the driver and drove off; after taking
several packages from the safe, they
threw the driver backwards into the wa
gon and escaped. A Policeman captured
the wagon and the driver, a man and a
boy stated at police station they saw two
men jump out of the wagon with pack
ages, and the driver told them he had
been robbed. They offered to remove
the gag but the driver would not let
them.
A correspondent of tlie Savannah
News writing from Sandersville, on
the 19tli, gives the following particu
lars of the trial of James Oxford:
On last Monday morning, soon after
the opening of Court, the case of the
State vs. James Oxford, charged with the
offense of murder, (he having killed
George Washington, colored, in October,
1867,) was called, when it was ascertain
ed that Oxford had no counsel present,
His Honor, Judge Twiggs, assigned
Messrs. John N. Gilmore, Milo G. Hatch
and S. B. Jones to defend the prisoner.
The State was represented by J. A. Rob
son, Esq., Solicitor General pro tern.,
and Messrs. Langmade & Evans, all of
the local bar.
Owing to the absence of witnesses for
the defence, the case was continued un
til Tuesday morning, when, at 9 a. m., it
was called again, and both parties an
nouncing themselves ready, the trial pro
ceeded. A jury was impannoled without
any trouble. Two colored and four white
witnesses were examined on the part of
the prosecution, and two white witnesses
on the part of the defence. Able argu
ments were offered by counsel on both
sides, especially so on the part of the de
fense, who, without the hope of fee or
reward, labored assiduously to counteract
the effect of the damaging evidence of
fered by the prosecution. - About mid
night the jury retired to their room, and
after an absence of fifteen minutes, re
turned with a 'verdict of “Guilty fo mur
der.”
This morning at 9 o’clock Judge
Twiggs passed sentence upon Oxford, to
the effect that he be hung in Sanders
ville on Friday, September 1st, between
the hours of 9 a. m. and 5 p. m.
James Oxford is the younger brother
of William Oxford, who was tried in this
court last week for the killing of a col
ored man in 1868, and who was sen
tenced to the penitentiary for three years.
Both brothers are young men. William
is about twenty-five and James twenty-
two years of age. Their mother, i
younger brother, and three married sis
ters live in this and the adjoining county
of Jefferson. Their father, John Oxford,
who died three or four years ago, was a
blacksmith by trade, and moved to this
county from Baldwin about thirteen
years ago.
William served in the Confederate
army during the war, and James in the
latter part of 1864, until the surrender,
after which they worked on farms for
various people in this county, where they
were considered hard-working boys.
But evil counsel and drink, that bane of
society, got the mastery over them, and
hence their downward career.
There are indictments pending against
James in Hancock county, for the mur
der of the superintendent of the Sparta
Factory, in 1869, and for the murder of a
colored man in Burke county recently.
It will probably be recollected that
about a year ago James, while incarcer
ated in Jail at Sparta, on the night pre
vious to the day set for bis trial, was re
leased by an armed crowd, who had ef
fected • forcible entrance into the jail.
Large rewards having been offered by
Gov. Bullock for the apprehension and
conviction of both the brothers, detec
tives from Augusta got upon their trail,
and captured William in Burke county,
where he was at work under the name of
Taylor, on a farm belonging to his wife,
whom he had recently married, though
having a wife living in this county.
James was captured in Jefferson county,
under the same name, while at work in a
steam saw mill. He has a wife and
child living there. Both had been car
ried to Augusta jail fore safe keeping,
from whence they were brought here for
trial.
During their short confinement in jail
here the building was, by order of the
Court, gurrded every night by a special
guard of twenty-four men. After their
conviction William was sentto£h.eAu-
The Asiatic cholera has made its ap
pearance in Poland. This news has been
officially announced by the Russian au
thorities.
ALABAMA POLITICS.
Fidelity—Courage.
There are nien. Who talk and. act as
if the world began and ended with the
Confederate war—men who are abased
and abashed by one defeat, and give
up all hope and give over all effort to
restore the public liberty. A people
may be whipped, but not conquered.
Nearly two centuries ago Ireland was
whipped and. carpet-bagged and con
fiscated by the Dutch and English of
Orange. But the spirit of Ireland is
not conquered yet. There are among
us men who wore the gray, and boast
ed of it, whose hearts quailed and
whose spirits sunk within them after
one defeat. A four years’ war was an
eternity to the actors in it; but it is
a moment in the span of a nation’s
life. Shall we, then, mope and mourn
over the adversity of the past, and
fill the public mind with the croak-
ings of despair, or, like men address
ourselves to the glories of a rehabili
tation of our rights and a reconquest
of our lost liberties ? “Never despair
of the Republic!” is an injunction as
wise and manly now as it was when
uttered eighteen centuries ago in the
streets of Rome. The conflict be
tween good and evil is the law; of our
human condition. Shall the good
give it over and leave the enterprise,
and courage, and effort to the evil?
Shall the lovers and champions of
liberty cower and tremble when the
satellites of despotism are loud, fierce
and militant? Political croakers and
barnacles should be sent to the rear,
and not allowed to demoralize the
men in the front of the- battle. In
our American case, there is no
need for despair, but everything to
encourage us to push on and con
tinue the fight. A half hour more of
combat would have saved Shiloh—an
hour, Gettysburg.
We are now entering upon a po
litical campaign that is full of the
auguries of victory. It is our own
fault if the friends of the Constitu
tion do not win and deserve to wear
its blessings and its honors. It can
never be Avon by men who are eter
nally blubbering over ruin and hope
less defeat, and crying out “it is of
no use to struggle, we are conquered,
we are lost.” The battle of liberty is
never lost except to people who do
not deserve it. To our own race it
has never been lost, because our blood
has never given it up under storm or
adversity. If there ever was a people
who were beaten in the field, but un
conquered in soul, it is the people of
the South. They have shown a forti
tude, a constancy, and a courage in
adversity that shines brightly in com
parison with the deeds done in the
Held. They have as manfully accept
ed the situation as they fought to avert
it. They have exhibited a patience in
endurance to which there is no par
allel in history. And yet no rack of
insult, no torture of tyrany has been
able to extract from their suffering
lips one syllable of retraction of the
right and duty that inspired them to
take arms. They submit to the law
of the victor, but they would die be
fore confessing that they had been
guilty of the crimes of “rebels” and
‘traitors.” It is upon this that we
found our confident hopes of regene
ration. It is to this spirit in the peo
ple that the Register has addressed
itself since the hour that the “con
quered banner” was “furled.” We
knew that all was not lost while the
honor of the people was preserved,
We have thus compelled our late ene
mies to respect us, and when once
more the time is ripe for our reap
pearance, clothed, with all our rights
in the family of the Union, we shall
go in Avitli heads erect to command
the confidence and the admiration, as
well as the respect, of our peers in
that Union. Our duty is iioav as it
has been since the Southern flag went
down, courage ;
For Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled olt is ever won.
—Mobile Register, 21st July ’71.
TENNESSEE POLITICS.
our Treasury surplus ? The present
generation, with its weight of nation
al debt, pronounce that a very “dead”
issue ; but Avith a half centry of Dem-
ocratic rule, the hope is not extrava"-
gant that it may again become the
pivot of politics Avitli our children
Later came the Native American?
and then the Know-Nothings; and
we may have to fight tlie struH e
over in the near future. Twenty
years ago, internal improvements
came knocking at the public door
as beggars; the people voted to
give them a start in life. Twenty
years hence, internal improvements
are likely to come up again, not as
beggars, but as domineering tyrants-
and the people, under the lead of the
Democracy, Avill have to meet the
changed issue. Thus our principles
have been tried and proven equal to
every issue in Avliicli the interests of
the people and of free institutions
are involved. Those Avho imagine
that the Democracy must make a
“neAv departure” to meet newly
sprung issues, do not understand the
live old party which has survived all
the shocks of time, and Avhich emer
ges from a horrible ciyil war, more
united than its triumphant opponent,
so that to-day Radicalism gives every
evidence of early dissolution, Avkile
the grand old Democracy never
bore greater promise of coming and
continued usefulness. While Radi
calism barely subsists in a dozen
States, fed on Federal porridge, the
Democratic banner floats to the
breeze throughout the Union, rally
ing the people by its invocation of
time-honored principles.— Union and
American (Nashville 20tli July.)
From the Savannah News, 25th.
ANOTHER “BORGIA” IN THE
FIELD.
A Husband Witnesses tlie Death
of liis Wife and Tliree Little
Children Poisoned by Her Own
Hand.
The Live Old Party.
From the memorable campaign of
1800 down ro the present, amid all
tlie shifting issues of three quarters
of a century, the Democratic party
has ever been in the field, and, with
a feAv exceptions, in the van. To that
party belong all the glories of the
past; its reign has been the re’gn of
peace, prosperity and progress; and
when it has at times been displaced,
manifold and bitter evils have come
upon the country. The fate of the
nation and that of the Democracy are
intertwined. The explanation is,
that our party maintains the living,
essential principles of our system of
government. It has been more than
a party; it has been the embodiment
of the political life and legitimate as
pirations of the American people.—
Compared with European annals, our
history reads as if the Democracy
were the constituted government,
while other parties, arising from time
to time, have been the successive
essential
: —forms of Opposition. The —
t° be confinetl-ihere un- principles that give such vitality to
til the guard from the penitentiary calls ;L ir . identical with the
peniteiobnr
for him. James was, this afternoon, sent to
the jail at Macon, there to be confined
until the day set for his execution.
It is hoped, by all the good citizens of
Washington county, that with the trial
and conviction of these parties,lawlessness
within her borders may have come to an
end.
There are 134 cities in the United
States with a population of 10,000 or
over, and of these Massachusetts has 16.
jqur party, being identical Avitli tlie
constitution of 1789, are equally dur
able. They were applicable to a con
federacy of thirteen States and three
millions of people; they will prove
equally beneficial to forty States and
for millions.
With our fathers, the absorbing
question, on which Clay, Calhoun
and Webster burnished their brilliant
intellects, was, What shall we do Avitli
The most awful and appalling tragedy
that has stirred the hearts of any com
munity in this section for many a year,
if ever before, occurred in Effiingham
county, about two miles above Station
No. 3J on the Central Railroad, about 3
o’clock yesterday morning.
Mrs. Ash, the wife of John H. Ash,
formerly of this city, killed her three lit
tle children and afterwards committed
suicide by administering a sufficient
quantity of strychnine to produce almost
instantaneous death.
It appears from what we could learn
from a gentleman who was an eye wit
ness to the homfying scene, that Mrs.
Ash, formerly Miss Laura Dasher of Ef
fingham county, has for a iihort ti .e past
been slightly deranged, at least she was
suspected of being in this condition from
certain singular appearances and conduct
noticeable to those nearest her and in
most continuous association with her.—
However, nothing serious was appre
hended, except that her husband felt a
little anxious about her, and com ntinica-
ted with her brothers on the subject.—
This was all. No more serious apprehen
sion was felt, although her husband con
tinued to keep a strict watch over her
conduct. A short time previous he had
purchased a small bottle of strychnine
for the purpose of destroying the rats
and dogs that were rapidly killing off
their poultry. This he secreted in the
night time, taking the precaution to lock
it up in an old bureau drawer, hiding
the key in a place least likely to be dis
covered by his wife, no other p arson in
the house knowing of the hiding place.
Sunday night all went to bed as usual,
though before retiring Mrs. Ash sat down
and wrote a long letter, to whom we
could not ascertain, her husband read the
letter but did not suspect anything, al
though it contained an account of her
feelings towards certain members of her
family, with whom there was some un
pleasantness. Mr. Ash took all three of
the children in bed with himself and
his wife. Mr. George Patterson, a
friend and relative of Mrs. Ash’s, occu
pied an adjoining room.
About 3 o’clock yesterday morning, he
and Mr. Ash was aroused by the cries of
two of the children, and entering the
room found Mra. Ash in the act of taking
a spoon from the mouth of the oldest
child, a little girl, who had struggled and
resisted until her cries woke her fa
ther and his friend, both of whom feel
ing alarmed, asked her what she was do
ing. She replied, “only giving the chil
dren a little powder, and am afraid I have
not given them enough.” They begged
and entreated her to tell them what she
had given them—Mr. Ash tasting the
powder which he discovered on the
mouth of one of the children, dis
covered that it was quite bitter.—
She finally took him to the bureau
drawer and showed him the bottle
of strychnine from which she hid. dosed
herself first and then each one of her
three little ones. It was but a short time
after this before the mother, a young wo
man about twenty-five years old, and her
three interesting littie children, two girls
and one boy, were lying stiff and cold in
the arms of death. Dying in rapid suc
cession, one after the other, the mother,
although the first to take the poison, liv
ed to see her children all die and then
followed them herself. It is said the
struggles of the poor little creatures were
awful, the oldest falling backwards was
drawn together in such a manner that her
head and feet nearly touched each other.
The afflicted father held his little ones
and his wife in his arms till they breathed
their last.
The time was too short from the dis
covery of the deed to procure any aid,
although a physician was immediately
sent for. He arrived in time to save the
father, who, in his efforts to discover what
the .drug was, had swallowed enough to
render liis condition dangerous. Mr.
Patterson came to this city yesterday af
ternoon to procure coffins to bury the
dead, and as soon as he returns an inquest
will he held previous to the interment.
Mrs. Stanton has announced her
determination to use her influence to
prevent Grant from seeking a renomina-
tiou. She forgets that she is getting too
old to have >i. -• influence over lusty
> oung folks like the President.
