VOLUME L
THE ADLINGTON HOMICIDE.
MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL.
TUESDAY, April 23, 1867.
The Court met pursuant to adjourn
ment. John 15. Adlington was brought
into Court by the .Sheriff, at 1} p m.
Gen. J. N. I'urviance, on behalf of
defendant, said it seldom happens that
we are called'upon to argue a motion for
a new trial where the consequences are
of such magnitude as they are in the
present one. We had occupied two weeks
time in the examination of witnesses;
and thcie were so many questions in re
gard to the admission of the testimony of
some fifty witnesses, that the degrees of
homicide was almost entirely lost sight
of. The community, who had read the
evidence carefully and calmly, were
shocked at the verdict of the jury. No
one anticipated such a verdict as was ren»
dered. The offence was committed du
ring a general fight, in hot and angry
blood, and not with that deliberation ne
cessary to warrant a jury in rendering a
verdiot of guilty of murder in the first
degree.
Cunningham and Teeple commence 1
the fight, and were the prime cause of
their own deaths. Oliver, as a landlord,
had the right, and it was his duty to en.
tcr the sitting room at the timb the fight
was in progress, lor the purpose of quel
ling the disturbance. He was inst r.tly
knocked down by Cunningham and the
fight became general. During its pro
gress —within three or four minutes—the
two men, Cunningham and Teeple, re
ceived their death wounds. The tini"
was too short in which to deliberate and
determine to commit murder in the fist
decree. Tt could not have been more
than manslaughter. Homicide commit
ted in the prevention of an attrocious
crime is justifiable. II Teeple and Cun
ningham were killed in preventing them
(roni murdering John Oliver, or others,
the crime would not bo murder in the first
degree. Under all the facts and circum
stances of the ease it ira' not murder in
the first degree. If the killing occurred
in the heat of blood upon a sudden quar
rel, when the whole party had been at
tacked, it would not be murder in the
first degree. The whole evidence in 'hi*
case went against the presumption that
there was deliberate malice. The whole
party was aggrieved aud insulted by the
nets of those who wore killed in the affray
they had raised. The defendant's wife
was at the party, and the insults and men
accs of the deceased against the ladies and
gentlemen of ti e entire party, ten led to
exasperate Add.ington as well as oth. s
against them. This fact should destroy
the presumption of dcliberat • malice and
reduce the grade id' the orime. At most j
this case could not. bo of a higher grade
than murder in the second degree—the
facts would not justify a verdict beyond
that ol manslaughter.
The zeal of counsel sometimes carried j
them too far in cases of this kind. Some
thirty years ago he (Purviancn) was l>i.--
trict Attorney, and had pressed the con
viction of a defendant, in a much stronger
case than the facts in this case present,
for murder in the first degree. After
the jury retired. Judo ( ! ilinore, who was I
counsel for defence, sail to uie, " you j
have pressed a conviction for murder in
the first degree ; the facts only warrant, a
conviction in the second ; the jury will
find hiin guilty in the first, and there
sponsibility will rest ou you." The jury
found the defendant guilty in the geeon I
degree, and 1 think they were right. May
not the counsel for the Commonwealth in
this c?sc have gone too far in urging a
c mviction for murder in the first degree?
We think they have.
Mr. l'urvianeo cited the following au
thorities, and commented fully upon
them:
Crown Circuit Companion, pages 111
442, 44(3: Smith's Laws, l'a . vol. 3, p
187, sec. 3; American Criminal Law, p
493—3d edition, p. 438 ; 4 Blackstone's
commentaries, pp. 14,180,183,184,190,
191, 198; Am Crim. L., 3d edition, pp
438, 439, 410, 441.442. 443, 144. 445,
446, 458, 460, 461; 4 Ilarr. 266; Am.
Crim. L , 5 edition, pp. 710, 711, 932.
949, 966, 971, 987, 959.
Webster's definitions:
" Malice. Extreme enmity of heart,
or malevolence; a disposition to injure
others without cause, from mere personal
gratification, or from a spirit of revenge;
unprovoked malignity or spite.
Prepense. —preconceived .premeditated
—aforethought. Malice prepense is ne
cessary to constitute murder.—(Bl.)
Premeditate. —To think, consider, or
revolvo in the mind beforehand; to delib
erate ; to have formed in the mind by
previous thought or meditation."
He knew their honors would consider
well the grave question presented for their
consideration, and which duty requires
tbe:i> to decide. In every view of the
evidence, and applying it to the princi
ples of law referred to, be submitted
whether it was possible to sustain the
verdict, for the testimony in its worst as
pect for the prisoner reduces the offence
to manslaughter or murder in the second
decree. Their honors had but to keep
in view the definition of the different
degrees of homicide to see that, in this
case, it was not murder in the first de
gree. To constitute the orime in its high
est grade, it must have been committed
wilfully and deliberately, and upon pre
meditation and with Biaiice aforethought
All the evidence establishes the fact
elearly, and beyond a doubt, that the de
ceased was the aggressor—that he (Cun
ningham) began the fight; that a general
a fir ay was the eonsequence, and existed
in the room; that many were engaged iu
it, and no one more conspicuous iu the
bloody fight than the docensed; that pas
*]ob aud excitement an alarming est
AMERICAN CITIZEN.
tent, and in its highest degree—seized |
the minds of all when Bowler and Oliver
were bleeding upon the floor. Under
such circumstances they (counsel for de
fence) held that no one of the party as
sembled was in a condition of mind to
coolly and deliberately form a design to
take life, such as in law would amount to
murder iu the first degree. There was
no enmity of heart, no malignity of feel
ing, or spite, existing ou the part of any
one of the party assaulted toward the de
ceased. Strangers to each other, who
had never met before; no old grudge, or
previous quarrel, to excite provocation or
malice, could or did exist. And it is a
fact worthy of consideration that >ho de
ceased and the prisoner had danced in
tho same room, at the same time, as
friends so far as the circumstances indi
cated, but a few minutes before 'he affray
commenced. There was no time to think,
consider, or revolc in the mind before
hand, with that deliberate meditation
which is a positive requirement of tho
law to constitute the crime in its highest
grade. The whole time of the fight from
its inception to its close being only four
or five minutes.
Murder in the second degree is where
death ensues from a mortal wound ins
dieted with malice and upon sudden pro
vocation; and manslaughter is defined to
be wherever death ensue from sudden
transport of passion, upon a reasonable
provocation, and without malice. Tho
law admits the force of provocation—lone
to one to be felt by the other.
Tho law wisely makes these distino
tious, and it is the duty of Courts—one
of the gravest they have to perform—to
sec that no verdict shall stand and pass
to the records of the Court as final, for a
degree not fully warranted by tho ovi
denco. Their duty in this respect is too
responsi le, in a case like the present,
when the life of a human being is in the
balance, not to cause the most conscien
tious tnd deliberate consideration by
every member of tho Court. The lifo of
a man—of a fellow-being—was in their
bauds. Every principle of duty and hu
manity call loudly upon the Court to de
liberately consider all the facts and cir
cumstances of the case, and tho humane
and wiso principles of 1 iw as applicable to
them, and then if they err, let their error
bo on the side of mercy. And if they
had doubts, reasonable and fair doubts
upon a car«.f'u' review of the facts and
a v of the case, they should give them
to the prisoner. Remember, mercy is
the darling attribute of the Deity, and
should evei be extended where substan
tial ju-tico may bo done by reducing the
ofleooc to a puu'shment less than the
■ x rcnie penalty of the law.
Mr. l'urvianeo begged their honors to .
bear in mind the extraordinary degree of
alarm and excitement an t passion which
existed on the night of the fatal tragedy;
that tho deceased had stricken down,
beaten aud bruised the frionda of the
piisoner. Oliver was covered with blood
shed by his violence; that, by sympathy
of feeling, all this touched the mind and
excited the passions of every one present
as well as the prisoner, and that if a death
wound was inflict d under such excite
ment and provocation, it would not have
been uponsuch deliberation.premeditation
and malice as would justify a verdict of
murder in the first degree. In all cases
of a similar character the law reduces, il
not below criminality, to manslaughter,
or murder in the second degree.
The counsel for the prisoner bad all
confidence ic the wisdom, justice ami
humanity of the Court, and confidently j
relied u[ ou their wisdom to save the life
of a human being, which has not been
forfeited, as we believe, by the laws of
tho country. They cast no reflection on
the jury. They were good men, said I
Mr, I'.. but wo believe if there had been j
a more full discussion of the degrees of i
homicide, there might have been a dil
ftrent verdict rendered.
Mr. McCarthy, for Defendant, followed
Mr. l'urviauce. He said he had come
hero under a"sensc of duty to his client;
he did not expect to animadvert upon
the law, which was wall understood by
this honorable Court, and which had
been so ably and eloquently presented by
his learned colleague who had just, pre
ceded him. But ho felt compelled to
say, that the jury who had tried the De
fendant, had mistaken the law and the
facts in rendering a verdict of guilty of
murder in the first degree. He claimed
to be a man of strong nerves; but ho
felt bouud to say this verdict shocked
them. He felt prostrated, in considera
tion of the magnitude of the consequen
ces of the verdict to the prisoner. Ail
the members of the profession to which
he belongs ; all the intelligent persons
who had read or heard the evidence, were
dumb founded at the verdict. They had
expected the Defendant would have been
triumphantly acquitted. - The great mass
—in fact, the entire body—of the evi
dence showed that, it was a fight brought
on by the outrageous conduct of those
who were killed, in assaulting the party.
The blows were struck in repelling the
lerocious assault upon the party. There
was no no evidence that J. B. Adlington
struck the blow.
Mr. McCandless—said, when this case
went to the jury, we believed ; and all
believed; that on their return to the
Court, the prison doors would be thrown
open, aud the Defendant would have been
set f'tee. When the bell tolled, on that
terrible night, there was scarcely one who
thought other than that ho w >uld have
been acquitted ; but stra n ge, and beyond
precedent in the jurisprudence of chrit«
tendom, under such a state of tacts as
j was disclosed to the jury—a riot, a broil,
I a fight, duriug which the persons were
| killed—the jurj shocked the community
i by a verdict of guilty of murder in the
I first degree. Instead of'congratulating
"Let us have Faith that Right makes Might) and in that Faith let us, to the end,dare to do our duty as we understand it"--A. LINCOLN
BUTLER, BUTLER COUNTY, I'ENN'A, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1807.
our unfortunate client upon his sale de
liverunce, we arc now asking the Court
for a new trial. The facts disolosed upon
the trial of the cause will not warrant
such a verdict. The persons or person
who stubbed Cunningham and Tecplc
committed no offence to the law of the
Commonwealth. They hud attacked the
party. They caused the fight They
I threatened to whip the town. They were
powerful men. They exasperated the
party by their violence, and in the heat
of blood which they had stirred up to fu
rious anger, the unfortunate blows were
struck whi h re: ulted in death. There
was no evidence who committed the stab
bing; but the jury have said it was the
Dclcndant. He did not reflect upon the
jury—they were good men selected from
the body of the county —but it shows the
mutability and error oi human judgment
The evidence was entirely circumstantial,
no one could say who it was struck the
blow ; yet, the jury found that it was the
Defendant. He believed the community,
whore the offence was committed; all
who had read the trial; would be satis
fied with a verdiot of guilty of man*
slaughter. lie had taken pains to ascer
tain the sense of the community, and this
seems to be its judgment. He appealed
very eloquently for the exercise of the
discretionary power of the Court in the
granting of a ndw trial to the defendant.
Mr. Thompson, lor defendant, said he
had but little to add to what had already
been said by his colleagues. We have
duties to perform from which we dare
not shrink, neither counsel nor Court. —
May it not be that the neglect, or over
sight of some small matter by counsel,
has placed u$ in our present position with
a verdict of guilty of murder in the first
degree hanging over the defedant ? May
it not have boen caused by some slight
crfor in the rulings of the Court? He
made the remark with- due respect for
the ability, integrity and impartiality of
their honors, lie had moved for a post
ponemcnt of the trial when it first came
before the Court, on the grouud of a deep
seated and all pervading prejudice which
had forestalled public opinion, and a
laok of means and opportunity on the
pert of the prisoner to procure counsel
and the att ndanee of witnesses. The
unfortunate defendant had sworn in open
Court, before the .Majesty of high Heav
en, that lie did not think ho could safely
goto trial Ibr these rensins. We all
know with what horror the mass of' com
munity look upon the crime of murder in
a peacetul neighborho >d; and it is natural
it should be so. We know how sudden
tlio public mind jumps to the conviotion
of the guilt of a person charged with its
perpetration ; alid how difficult, and in
..some instances impossible, it is to pre
vent their taking the law in their own
hands* and instantly punishing the un
fortunate victim, without trial. Adlin<*»
tou was without funds; was a stranger;
had no one to supbeena witnesses for him
and procure their attendance at the trial
lie had uo counsel except those picked
up on the eve of trial. He would here
state in reference to this matter, a fact
that he had uttered to no human boing.
On the night when your honors ruled the
cause shown legally insufficient for a
postponement of the trial, the prisoner's
wile—the mother of his children—loft
my office, at ton o'clock in the night, and
traveled through the wintry snows to an
adjoining county to procure the assistance
of able counsel; but she returned dis
appointed. His counsel, without pre
paratory consultation; without witnesses;
unassisted by the advocate of his choice,
were forced onto the trial.
Mr. Thompson spoke with great force
aud feeling. He took up the different
motions from the record which counsel
lor the defendant had thought it their
duty to make, and which the court had
over ruled, aud remarked upon the diffi
culties under which counsel of defendants
labored in being driven to trial at that
time. They were over ruled in almost
every step of the case. He had read
over the testimony—as farely reported
in the papers—carefully since the trial,
and he was unable to find sufficient to
warrant such a verdict as had been ren
dered by the jury to whom the facts had
been submitted. The intelligence and
moral sense of the community was shock
ed by that verdict. On the ringing of
the I*". on the night that the jury
had agrefcd, as if by a common impulse,
a large portion of the people of this bor
ough tilled this Court room to repletion
in an incredibly short time, expecting—
because the jury had taken so short a
period for deliberation—to hear a verdict
tor acquittal, or at most for manslaughter.
llow soon aud terribly were their expec
tations disappointed ! The jury returned
a verdict of murder in the first degree!
The announcement thrilled through that
vast audience as if it had been stru k
will spiral's s. Some, at least, faintel
Mr Thompson said there were persons
present during the fight at Oliver's, who
had not been called here as witnesses.—
The Commonwealth was bound to have
had those witnesses present on the trial,
that they might have been questioned as
to the transaction. He.said that if the
stabbing might have been done by any 1
other person in the room, then the law
says the jury should ha«e found that John
B. Adlington did not do it. There were
others in the room who might have done
the deed, and who had greater provoca
tion to do it The landlord, and every
one who was knocked down by the de
ceasell, might have done it, and had
grater provocation No one saw them
strike with a knife. No one saw Ad
lington strike with a knife. One of the
witnesses swore that he had no knife, but
a tapering bleeding stick, with the small
end in his hand, and that he struck with,
it as one would do with a stick. He said
I there was cot a witness in the caie who
did not feel more or less that he was im
plicated in the crime, and the law of self
preservation would prompt him to make
as strong a case against the prisoner as
possible, in order to clear himself, yot
there is not a single fact disclosed that
could fix the orime upon the defendant.
If murder was committed, it was done
so seemly that none but the eye of Otn
nicienee saw the aet. No one testifies
as to who did it. The man who com
mitted the act would uot bo likoly to
come back into the room and t,tamp the
head of one whim he was conscious he
had killed. It would be contrary to na
ture.
Mr. Thompson remarked upon the tes
timony at some length, and argued from
it that no jury could weave such a con
nected chain as would warrant thgm le
gally to bring in such a verdict as th.'y
had done. There had not been any 24
hours from the time the murder had been
committed up to she time this trial com
menced, that the defendant could not
have escaped had he so determined. 'The
guilty flee when no man pursueth;' but
he has not done so. He has stood here
asserting his innocenoe first, last, aud all
the time; and will do so if he should even
sufler the extreme penalty of the law by
so doing. The matter of costs to the
county, in the event a new trial should
be granted, in a case whore life is con
cerned, ought not to weigh with the court.
New trials are often granted in cases of
mere dollars and cents. Of how much
greater consequenc is life? If a reason
able doubt of the prisoner's guilt legally
arises from all the evidence—and your
honors are now to decide upon that point
among others—the moral senso of the
community and impartial justice demand
that the defendant should have a new
trial. It would be better that ten thou
sand guilty persons should go unpunished
than that one innocent man should suffer.
Mr. Thompson made a powerful appeal
for the exercise of the discretionary
power of tho court in granting a new
trial to John B. Adlington.-
The District Attorney, Mr. Kiddle,
said so far as the Commonwealth was
concerned they would submit the motion
to the Court without argument.
Court adjourned till 9 a. m. to-morrow.
WEDNESDAY, April 24, 1867.
Court met in pursuance of adjournment
—John B. A adlington was brought into
Court by the Sheriff.
Mr Mitchell, for Commonwealth, said
he did uot conceive it to be the duty of
the counsel for the Commonwealth to in-,
terpose especially against tho argument
for a uew trial in a case involving the
consequences whioh this did; yet in jus
tice to the court and to his colic iguos he
thought some hing should be said. Hc
uiarks had been made by counsel for de-
I'euce iu reference to the zeal of tho coun
sel of tho Commonwealth for a verdict of
guilty of murder in tho first degree. They
had uot stepped beyond tho strict lino of
their duty, nor would they do so under
any circumstances. It had boon alleged
there were persons present at tho lamen
table affray at Oliver's, and that the pros
ecution had been remiss in not bringing
thciu here to testify. They had procur
ed all the testimony they'could; they had
dragged tho country as with a not, to ob
tain all the evidence they could bear of.
If any witnesses were absent whose testi
mony would have b'en important, it was
because they could not be obtained. He
should not argue the case a' length for
the purpose of objecting to the granting
of a uew trial. They had done nothing,
beyond their imperative duty. They had
uot pressed tho reception of a particle of
testimony which they did not think le»
gitimate; that where there was the alights
est doubt ol the legality of the evidence
they had asked the Court to rule in favor
of the prisoner.
Tho Court had sustaind tho array of
jurors against the motion io quash, as
they conceived, justly. They had not
pressed the defendaut to trial beyond the
demands of the law. There was less pro
judiee iu the minds of the community at
the time this case came up for trial than
there is at present; but this is a matter
with which this Court has nothing to do.
He did not believo the Court or the jury
had erred ; but, in tho argument here, in
the present shape of the caso, there were
other, considerations which appealed to
the sympathies of the Court, and he would
not resist the application. The counsel
for defendaut had argued eloquent ly and
earnostly to the jury for an acquittal of
auy crime, and had measurably over
looked the importance of commenting on
the degrees of guilt. It was not the duty
of counsel for the Commonwealth to press
upon the jury the degrees of murder and
manslaughter. It may be that by grant
ing a new trial to the defendant the ex~
treuie penalty of the law may be avoided,
aud substantial justice done him. It
may be that the defendant did not in
tend to kill, but only to commit bodily
injury. If such be the fact, then it would
not be murder in the first degree. He
recommended, on behalf the Common
wealth, that the Court should exercise
its discretion with clemency, and ufford
the prisoner an opportunity to avoid the
extreme penaty of the law by pleading
guilty to a lesser grade of crime.
The Court said they were divided in
opinion. Their responsibility was great,
and they keenly appreciated it. They
would bold the motion under considera
tion until the June Court, when they
would decide it.
—Snooks says the reason he does
not get married is, that his house is
not large enough to contain tho con
sequences.
THK REAL COMMEHCUI' DOCKS.—
Discounts,
A SIGN OF THE TIMES.
The departure of Senator Wilson upon
a political tour through the Southorn
States is one of tho littlo events which
mark great changes. Seven years ago it
is safe to say that the Senator's life would
have been in danger had he attempted to
express his views of public affairs to
audiences in the region in which ho is
now traveling. Although a citizen of
the United States, and one of the high
est officers of the Governoiont, such was
the condition of public sentiment that
ho could not have safely claimed the most
fundamental right of every man in a free
government. As wo look back upon
those days the wonder is not that there
has btea so fierce and long a war, but
that every body did not perceive that a
tremendous war was inevitable. When
slavery struck at the tongue it indistinct
ively aimed at tho strongest weapon of
liberty. For there is no chaiu so stroug
that the tongue oan not molt it; noabusoso
reverend that the tonguo can not right it.
Perfect liborty of speech is the cardinal
security of free institutions; and every
man who heartily believes in them echrcs
Jefferson's doctrine, that no error is to be
feared so long as truth is left perfectly
free to combat it.
Senator Wilson is especially fitted to
secure the purpose of his visit. A plaiu
man of the people, of profound political
and moral convictions, he instinctively
appeals to the popular heart and sympa
thy. His reasoning is simple, his state
ments are lucid, and his tact admirable.
Then he has the wisdom of long political
experience. He understands the neces
sity of parties and how to orgauiso and
wield them. In a word, he knows hu
man nature. The fact of his going first
among the conspicuous Republican lead
ers shows his sagacity. He knows that
all the advantages of party organization
at the South lie with his opponents. Ho
knows how skillful the Southern leaders
are, and that they will not fail to turn
every thing to account iu order to obtain
tho control of the new vote in their States.
Ho has read the speeches of Wade
Hampton, Herschcl V. Johnson, Gover
nor Orr, and the rest, aud he sees in them
all a harmony of toue whioh is very sug
gestive. He knows that the new voters
will hear nothing from such speakers
which is favorable or even just to the
party which eontrols Congress and tho
country. It will bo roprosoutod to them
as designing, avaricious, and unjust. Tho
orators will appeal to the love of homo
and birth-place; to familiar associations;
to community of interest. With an
adroitness inconceivable in any but the
most accomplished of politicians, they
will say with llorschel V. Johuson at
Augusta, " At any rate givo to tho race
against whom it is sought to array you a
fair trial." Can wo believe that this is a
Southern master speaking to the slaves of
yesterday ?
This is all in accordance with the the
ory of President Johnson and many oth
ers, that the new voto will be entirely
controlled by the late masters. But Sen
ator Wilson knows that a very few words
will state tho case as it really is, yet that
unless those words are spoken every
where and ofton the voters will be griev
ously misled. There are two parties in
the country, he will tell them, and which
of them is yuur friend ? Is it the one
which has always striven for equal rights,
or that which has denied them ? Is it
the one which clung to slavery, and made
war to extend and perpetuate it, or that
which condemned slavery, and by the
war abolished it ? Now that the war is
over and slavery gone, who are your wisest
political allies ? Those who enfranchised
you, or those who acquiesce in your en
franchisement beoauso they can not help
themselves ? "Governor Johnson," Mr.
Wilson might say to the new voters in
Augusta, " asks you to try him and his
friends. Have you not already tried
flicm? If Governor Johnson ooulii have
had his way, would you have had politi
cal, or even civil, rights ? If the United
"States forces were removed, and the State
were left to organize herself, would he and
his friends recognize your equality as
citizens? He and his friends have hith
erto always had the power to emancipate
you. Did you ever hear of their propos
ing to do it ? On the other hand, when
there was a lemote possibility that your
late descendants might somehow legally
iecover their lost manhood, what did Mr.
Johnson and his friends? They tried to
destroy that possibility by destroying the
Government. They have misused their
political power In the past; what sc»
curity do they give you that they
will not abuse it in the future? 'You
ought not to cherish revengeful memories;
still less ought you to allow yourselves to
be deceived, Equal citizens with tho
rest of us you must know all the facts,
and then 4#cide,
Senator Wilson will also make liimsull'
acquainted with (ho colored loaders of the
South, who will really control tho new
vote, and he will make no ungenerous,
no unfair use of his opportunity. 11 is
opening speech at Orange Court House
shows that he will not claim p01 : —,..l sym
pathy for his party upon any plea less
worthy than that ot equal rights, and of
its steady efforts to secure them. We
hope sincerely that some of tho more con
spicuous of tho Southern orators who are
disposed to acoept the new order of things
will meet him in debate, to show il ttiey
can why tlioy themselves, or any others
in thoir States, who really believe in the
fundamental principles of popular gov
ernment, should repudiate tho party
which is identified with its assertion, and
support a party which has opposed it to
the verge of national ruin. If any party
is truly friendly to the Southern States
it is that party which has always frankly
opposed in debate tho Southern theory
of sooiety and of the Union, which ac
cepted tho war when it came, which won
tho victory, and which will unquestiona
bly secure tho legitimate results of that
victory. There is no other way of na
tional tranquility; and ns the Republican
Union party waß the war party when war
was unavoidable, so it is the peace party
now that peace is to bo confirmed.—Mar
•pert Wetkly.
Gen. Hancock's Indian Expedition.
The Government, aroused at last to the
necessity of doing something to prevent
a repetition of the massacre at Fort Phil
ip Kearnoy, has sent an expedition to tho
Plains under Major Genera! Winfleld 8.
Haucock. Tho command reached Fort
Harker on tho first of April, and went
into camp on tho "Smoky Bottom," just
just wost of the post; from which
camp it moved on tho third of Apil, £O
- to Fort Larnod on tho Arkansas Riv
er, distant from Harker about 80 iniier.
The troops are under command ot Gac.
A. J. Smith. They number about 2,000
men, and consist of tho Seventh United
States Cavalry, Col. Custer; Thirty-sev
enth United States Infantry, Capt. John
Rziha; Battery B, Fourth United States
Artillery, Captain Parsons; p.nd an En
gineer Corps commanded by L'cutenant
Micah Brown. General J. W. Davidson
accompanies the expedition as Inspeetor-
General. "Wild Bill," who, since tho
publication of his exploits in the Febru
ary Number of Harper'* Magazine, has
had greatness thrust upon him, is attach
ed as a scout; and quite a number of
Delaware Indians accompany tho com
mand in the capacity of soouts, guides,
hunters, a'nd interpreters.
As the command drags its slow length
along over the plains, "horses, foot, and
dragoons." artillery, pontoon, baggage,
and supply trains prosent a most formid
able appearance ; and it is probable that
the "moral effect" will be to awe the red
men into good behavjor for a time. A
grand "pow-wow," will be held near Ft.
Lamed, and arrangements will be effect
ed, it is hoped, which will afford security
and safety to those whose business ootn
pels them to either travel through or re
side in the valley of the Smoky Hill. A
consultation was held at Fort Dodge re
cently with the Kiowas, which tribe pro
fessod friendship for the whites, but said
that tho Blackfeet, Sioux, C'heyonnes,
Arrapahoes, and Comanohes, had formed
a confederation, and were determined to
to wage a bloody war against the whites.
They report, also, that some of the more
northern tribes have banded together for
a similar purpose.
General Hancock has with him a little
Indian boy six years of age, whom he is
carrying to restore to his people, they
having by a recent treaty stipulated for
the return of this child. Three years
since the First Colorado Volunteers, un>
der Col. Chiviugton, attackod a
Indians it Sand Creek. Of over three
hundred Indians attacked this child, thee
a babe of three years, is the only survi
vor, he having been saved and p.rriedoff
by a soldier. The little boy is particu
larly bright and intelligent, and is heart
broken at the thought of being given over
to the Indians, though he can form but
a very faint conception of tho hardship
in store for him. The child has evident
ly had good care taken of him, and an
incident which occurred at Fort Leaven
worth has led the whole command tore»
gard his return to the savagcs.as an out»
rage. A few days since, while a party of
gentlemen were dining at Fort Leaven
worth, one of them, a Major General eon
□octcd with the command, felt himself
touched*on tho arm, and looking around,
saw this little Cheyenne standing beside
I him. The General bad been very kind
to this little fellow, and had won his af-
I fections completely.
ii Don't drink that," said the child,
I pointing to the glaea on the table.
NUMBER 21,
" Why not, my boy t" said the Gener
al, laying his hand kindly on the boy'a
head—"why not?"
" It is bad," said tho child.
" Oh no," sa!d the soldier : " this !g
wine—this is not whiskey.
" But it is bad, 1 said the little taiwge j
" it will make you drunk, and then yon
will fight, and it is bad for men to fight."
With such precocious ideas of virtue
this little follow, were he oldor, might ba
a missionary to his people; but his infan
cy leaves us little hope that the truths
which have germinated so early In him
will not be plucked tip or cliokod by tho
barbarism to which the Government is
about to consign him ; it is more likely
that the Indians will barbarize him than
that "a little child shall load (hem."—.
General Hancock manifests a groat inter*
est in this child, keeps him at his quats
ters, and is vory kind to him. It is to be
hoped that the savages may be prevailed
upon to leave the boy with his present
friends, that he may bo properly oared
for and educated.
OUR NEIGHBOR MEXICO.
A fricndlf offer of mediation in wars
is always honorable, and at the last mo
mcnt'of the lute extra session of the
Sena to Messrs- Sumntr, llendorson, and
Johnson proposed a friendly mediation
to terminate tho civil war upon terms
honorable to both sides, and to proeuro
for Maximilian and his followers, upon
condition of his abdication, the treat
ment of civiiirod warfare. This media
tion has been sought by, Austria, for the
Austrian Government, knowing probably
how it would bo likely So deal with for
eign pre'enders to the Austrian throne,
hai evidently suspected that there might
be summary work «ith the Archduke If
ho fell into victor!" .1 Mexican hands;
and therefo?>, tliroufch i's Minister in
Washington, asked our Government to
interfere for mercy.
Mr. Morton is reported to have oppos
ed the proposition, when offered to ex
ecutive session, upon the grouud that
Maximilian was a more filibuster is Mex
ico, liko William Waikor in Nicaragua;
that ho eame to Mexico in defiance of
our known policy, ar.d at a timo when
we could not wisely pretest; and that the
object of his coming was tho ereotion of
au empire under uuspices hostile to thia
Government. Ii was for him. therefore,
to count the cost of such an enterprise;
and to intercede for him would be a re
flation upon tho humanity and sagacity
of tho Mexican Republic, which must
bo supposed capable of dealing*with pi*
rat»s of every degree. If, indcad—for
ouch is the scopo of Mr. Morton's argu
ment —we propose to 09k England not to
bo severe with convicted Fenians, then
we may consistently ask Mexico to be
gentle with Maximilian.
It is argued on the other side that we
have virtually taken Mexloo under our
guardianship, and that our moral Resist
ance to the French and Austrian inva
sion led to its failure ; that having prac
tically destroyed the imperial govern
ment, it is our duty to establish the re
public ; that our diplomacy and moral
aid, and even a loan and our srmy,should
be employed to restore order and taw.
But this would clearly be a departure
from the celebrated Monroe doctrine,
opon which our entire Mexican policy i«
founded. That doctrine distinctly repm
diates all internal interference whatever.
It consists in warning off European pow
ers from this continent. When France
came, therefore, we told her that we
were displeased, and we said so more and
more stringently until she retired. Theq
our duties under the celebrated Monroe
doctrine were at an end. For thirty
years Mexico has been boiiing and bub.
bling, and wo have held our peace. The
oclebrated Monroe doctrine does not re
quire us to keep order in Mexico, and
certainly no other international law or
custom demands it.
It ia very plain, therefore, that we
must resolve either to manage Mexico as
we choose, or to let her manage herself.
To do the first is to do just what we have
denounced Franco fcr doing; to do the
last is to treat Mexico precisely as we
treat all other independent nations. — J
There is no middle course, l.'pou props
er occasions, indeed, as new. we naay re*
spec! fully request her Government to fa
vor this or that policy ; but if there be
any menace in the request it ia merely a
Srst acrof aggrc 3'"o. Tt may be very
doubtful what will be the result of tip
present situation in Mexico. It may fall
again into the anarchy with which it has
beeu so long familiar. But if it become*
necessary that we should undertake the
police of that country, it U desirable that
we should do a great deal more.— Har.
per*s Weekly.
1 —What more yo« want?