Newspaper Page Text
THE CODET R Y M A N.
121
lieve that there was that malice* in the
bosom of my client, which would cause
him to commit the crime of arson.
The next testimony I shall take up, is
that of William Sturdivant. A suspicion is
sought to be raised against the accused,
because this witness saw him, on the sun-
day morning preceding the burning, be
tween his own house,-and that of Dr. Ad
ams. This is the most supreme absurdi
ty. You know the situation of the two
houses, both immediately on the public
road. How many men, women, and chil
dren, including white, and black, do you
suppose passed the road, between the two
houses, on Sunday ? And if it is good ev
idence against the accused, that he was
thus seen on the road between the two
houses, why are not all who passed the
road, on that day, arrested, and put upon
their trial for arson ? Why is not Stur
divant himself put upon trial for this of
fence ? Gentlemen, I need say no more,
at this point—only be very careful not to
go into the public road, on Sundays, where
there are any houses on the road, or you
may be charged with burning them !
But they tell you that the prisoner put
on another pair of pantaloons—a darker
pair—and hence they infer that be was
getting ready to commit arson. Now,
nothing is more common than for boys
who live in the country, after w T earing
their sunday-clothes out visiting, in the
day, to return, in the evening, pull of their
sunday-clothes, and put on their every
day ones, even after supper. Not only do
boys do it, but grown-up men do it. And
not only is it done in the country—it is
done in town, here in the great city of
Eatonton. was raised in the country,
and I know how things are managed in
the country. I have changed my clothes,
after returning from church, or from vis
iting, after church, hundreds of times ; and
I never dreamed that this would afford
good evidence to convict me of arson.
Gentlemen, if my client had changed his
clothes for the purpose of burning Dr.
Adams’s house, he would never have let
Wm. Sturdivant, or any one else see
him make the change. He never would
have come out of his room, after the
change was made ; but would have taken
particular pains to let the family see him
retire to his room, and thus avoid any
thing like suspicion. Gentlemen of the
jury, never change your breeches, on sun-
day evening—and you, too, young meD,
and boys, whom I see here from the
country, let me beg, let me beseech, let
me implore you, that, as you value your
own honors, your liberties, and perhaps
your lives—as you would not bring down
our fathers’ and your mothers’ grey
airs in sorrow to the grave, you cease,
leave off, quit, abaadon, and forsake the
abominably sinful practice of taking off
your sunday-go-to meelmg breeches, on
Sunday evening; for, according to this
prosecution—hear it, O Israel—if a man
he guilty of this great sin, he shall be
taken out, and all the congregation shall
stone him—or send him to the penitentia
ry, which is just as bad.
But the accused must be sent to the
penitentiary, because he didn’t get up,
when the alarm of fire was given. And
here my brother Foster again raised a tre
mendous yell, had everybody crying fire,
fire, and even the fire-bells ringing. And
then he asks, in triumph, why did not all
this noise awake the accused. My broth
er seems to have forgotten that this burn
ing was not in a village, town, or city, but
simply in the country. What the nature
of the alarm was, that was given, the wit
ness does not give us to understand. It is
certain there were no fire bells, nor any
other kind of bells rung. And T take it
that Dr. Adams and his negroes were too
busy trying to extinguish the flames, or
save property, for them all to run over, in
a body, to Ashfield’s, and wake the ac
cused up. And by the time the “alarm
of fire ” reached the house of witness, no
doubt the cry of fire, on the part of Dr.
Adams, had ceased, for they would hardly
keep up the cry of fire over an hour. And
even if they did, their voices would be too
much exhausted for them to make them
selves heard a mile off-—the distance from
Dr. Adams’s to the bouse of the accused,
and the witness. My ground for saying
it was over an hour from'the time that Dr.
Adams, and his negroes, began to cry fire,
until Slurdivant got the alarm of fire, is
this: Dr. Adams informs us his houses
were an hour and a half burning down;
and I think it probable it was more than
that, if the doctor had examined his watch;
for hours fly fast, during a time of excite
ment. But, at any rate, Jiis houses were
an hour and a'half in burning down.
Sturdivant testifies that they were con
sumed when he reached the doctor’s. Now
it certainly did not take him oyer fifteen
minutes to go from home to Dr. Adams’s.
Deducting this fifteen minutes from the
time Sturdivant reached the scene of the
burning, from the hour and a half the
houses were being consumed, it leaves one
hour and a quarter the houses had been
burning, before Sturdivant got “the alarm.”
Now it is not probable that anyone would
leave the burning, after the first fifteen or
thirty minutes, to wake up Sturdivant, or
anyone else. Even the cry of fire would
cease, at the expiration of that time, or be
so feeble as not to be heard more than a
hundred or two yards. Every energy, of
everyone present, would be bent, by the
expiration of that time, to rescuing the
contents of the houses, to the exclusion of
everything else.
Then how did Sturdivant obtain what
he improperly, 1 think, calls, the “alarm
of fire?” lie does not remember who got
up first, after the “alarm” of fire was
given. He doe.s not state who gave the
alarm ; and, as I have before said, he does
not state the nature of the “ alarm.” All
that we can know about the nature of this
alarm is, that “ there was considerable
passing about, after the alarm was given.”
No cry of fire, fire! No clanging of fire
bells, on the stillness of the midnight air.
None of that loud alarm, like a tocsin
swung from the dome of heaven, which
my brother Foster would have you believe,
was rung at the bouse of the accused.
There was none of this which my brother
Foster believed to be so necessary to make
out his case ; and which, not existing in
the evidence, he endeavored to supply, by
soaring on the wings of the eagle to the
loftiest of imagination’s peaks, and from
his lofty, airy height, seeking to call from
all around him, from the zenith and the
nadir, and from all points of the horizon,
the echoes of that alarm, loud as Gabriel’s
i last trump, that might even awake the
dead, and which, he says, failed to awaken
the accused. Gentlemen, if this tremend
ous alarm of fire was really given at the
house of the witness, and the accused, why
did they not prove it ? Why did they not
tell us who gave the alarm, and how it was
given ? Why did they not prove what
they seem to think necessary to make out
their case ? And when you descend from
the summit of that imaginary monument
of “ alarm,” how is it that you find so tall
a shaft reared upon the slight basis of
“ considerable passing about, after the
alarm was given.” You may be told that
this “considerable passing about” occurred
after the alarm of fire, and was in addi
tion to it. If this be so, then the monu
ment of alarm has not even the slender
basis of “ considerable passing about ” to
stand upon. Take away this foundation,
and their “ alarm ” stands on airy naught.
Because they tell you of nothing else un
der heaven that went to make up the
“ alarm,” but the “ passing about.”
It is on the “passiug about,” alone,
that the prosecution can depend, to sup
port their supposed “alarm.” For, as I
have shown you, that alarm was obtained
by the witness at too late an hour to have
been given by Dr. Adams, or his negroes,
or anyone else engaged in saving property
from the flames. TheD, is it strange that
only “ considerable passing about ” failed
to arouse my client? What does the wit
ness tell you about the nature of the build
ing? After slating that the “ accused had
a bed-room to himself, in the south-eastern
corner of the house,” and that “the other
shed-room was occupied by Miss Cynthia
Ashfield,” he says, “ the entry is open, and
persons could go in and out at the passage,
without disturbing the other members of
the family.” Mark that, gentlemen : “per
sons could go in and out at the passage,
without disturbing the other members of
the family.” And if this could be done,
why could there not be “ considerable
passing about, without waking the accus
ed ”—especially as that “ passing about ”
must have been in the entry, or passage,
through which “ persons could go in and
out, without disturbing the other members
of the family?” And what is “going
in and out,” but “ passing about ?”
(to be continued.)
“It is said that Gen. Johnston’s re
port states that, at a cost of only 10,-
000 men, he depleted Sherman to the
extent of 50,000 men, and that, in
the several engagements which occur
red, Sherman lost, according to his
own (Sherman’s) estimates, from sev
en for one, to ninety for one. Again,
and again ho called for Forrest, but
in vain. Johnston expresses his be
lief that he would hare eventually
destroyed Sherman.”