Men as old as I am, it is said, are apt to be croakers and
to complain of the degeneracy and corruption of the times. Certainly I am
deeply disgusted and sick at heart to witness the impudence with which vice and
profligacy bare their brazen faces to public [view], glorying in their shame.
Examples —
1. Carstang v Shaw
The case of Effie. C. Carstang v Henry Shaw,71
for a breach of promise to marry, occupied the Court of Common Pleas for a
week, ending last thursday afternoon — For the Pl[ain]t[i]ff : Wm. Holmes (ex
Presbyterian Minister) Wright72 & Shrive — For the Def[endan]t:
Shepley73 & Bates — It was a preposterous case I have no doubt a
conspiracy to extort money from Mr. Shaw, who is very rich. Upon the evidence,
it is my conscientious belief, that the verdict ought to have been for the
defendant. Yet we were all astonished that a verdict was rendered, after but a
few minutes['] deliberation, for the Plaintiff, with an assessment of damages,
$100,000!!!
This atrocious verdict has excited, as it ought, the
indignant denunciation of the public. We have moved for a new trial, and I do
not doubt that Judge Reber74 will take pleasure in cleansing his
record from so foul a blot upon the administration of justice.
I preserve the names of the jurors who were so stupid or so
wicked, or both, as to give that verdict. Here they are — < Valentine
Crancer, George. W. Shadwick, Ferd: Kohler, George. H. Smith, Henry Schneider,
J. L. Casperson, Charles Chenot, Leon Deno, Samuel Finch, Mauritz Sternbach, J.
P. Young, Wm. N. McQueen.>
I knew not one of the jury personally — the last one,
McQueen is a young Scotchman, and a merchant, and I had hoped better things of
him[.]
This abominable verdict shocked the moral sense of the
community, and made most men fear for the safety of property and character. But
next morning it was eclipsed by a crime, far more horrible.
2. On friday morning, June 3d. Joseph Charless,75
one of our most useful and best citizens, was brutally shot down in the street,
as he was going to his place of business, by one Joseph Thornton, without
provocation, without any apparent cause,76 and without a moment's
time for consideration. He was shot twice and each wound was mortal. I saw him
some, 20 or 30 minutes after he was shot, lying on the floor in the store of
Mr. Thompson (just at whose door, in Market Street, between 3d. and 4th. the
crime was done). A few hours after he was removed to his own house, where he
lingered in agony, until 7 or 8 oclock this morning, when he was relieved from
his sufferings, and passed, I trust, to a better life.
It is a sad thing to me and to the whole city. I knew Mr.
Charless, a boy in his father's house, forty five years ago, and have marked
his course through the world ever since — A man of energy and enterprise,
eminently successful in business. Of high character and unspotted reputation.
For many years a professor of Christianity and now an elder in the Presbyterian
church — The Pine Street Church, in charge of Revd. Mr. McPheeters. He leaves a
wife, and one child, a daughter married to a gentleman of Louisiana.
As to the murderer, Thornton, he was seised [sic] immediately and put to jail. It was
feared yesterday, so general and so high was the excitement, that he would be
seised by the mob and torn to pieces ; at night the Military was called out,
but the night passed in tranquil [l]ity — Mr. C.[harless] still lived and the
certainty of his speedy death was not yet known. Today there is a gloomy
tranquil[l]ity on the surface, but judging from several indications, there is a
deep settled feeling of revenge diffused among the people and a general
distrust of the penal justice of the law — and, from all the signs, I think it
more than probable that the poor wretch will meet his doom to night.
For him I have no pity, but I dread the consequences of such
unlawful violence. Such lawless acts are dangerous precedents, and the wound[s]
they inflict upon society are incurable. The nearest friends of the family, Mr.
Drake77 et al: I believe, use all their influence to calm the
people, and prevent mob violence.
[Marginal] Note. . . . [Rain — then cool weather] Yesterday
I wore my over coat — Raglan — all day, in the court house and walking the
streets. And now, Sunday morning, we need and have a good fire in the furnace.
Carlisle [sic] tells us (Vol 2. p. 254.)78 that
prince Frederick in his restrained position and penal civil occupation at Custrin,79
became— “a man politely impregnable to the intrusion of human curiosity; able
to look cheerily into the very eyes of men and talk in a social way, face to
face, and yet continue intrinsically invisible to them—"
Somebody has written about the ring of Gyges80
which, being turned in a particular direction, made the wearer invisible. But
this power of social and moral invisibility in Prince Frederick, is far more
efficient in controlling the conduct of men and the actual business of Society.
Still, great as the power it gives, a most unhappy faculty, which cuts off its
possessor from all personal sympathies, and holds his heart in cold isolation.
An admirable quality no doubt, in a born ruler of men, who is high above the
common sympathies of life, and too great to be comfortable. The Prince who like
Frederick, has the faculty forced upon him in the hard school of oppression and
suspicion, is sure to be a tyrant, when he comes to power; and the private man
who habitually acts out the policy of self-concealment, is equally sure to
become a cold and selfish egot —
Shakespeare or Shakespere.
Col: Fuller, ex Editor of the New York Mirror, writing from
London, gives account of his visit to the British Museum — In the
"Autograph Room" where are collected the hand writings of thousands
of notorious [sic] men — Kings and Queens, Statesmen, Warriors, Poets, orators,
Artists —
There, among the rest, he saw a letter from the Great Dramatist,
the name not spelt as we are wont to spell it, but written with his o[w]n hand
— Shakspere —
_______________
71 A wealthy English-born St. Louis merchant of
cutlery who created the Missouri Botanical Garden.
72 Uriel Wright: spell-binding St. Louis criminal
lawyer; state legislator; an ardent unionist until the capture of Camp Jackson
(see infra, Nov. 25, 1865, note 74) aroused his indignation and led him to
enlist in the Confederate Army.
73 John R. Shepley, law partner of Bates.
74 Samuel Reber, judge of the Court of Common
Pleas.
75 Importer, manufacturer, jobber of drugs,
president of the Mechanics' Bank, director of the Pacific Railroad Company,
alderman, director of public schools, a founder of Washington University.
76 Mr. Charless had once been compelled to
testify against him in court.
77 Probably C. D. Drake ; see infra, Feb. 12, 1863.
note 13.
78 History of Frederick II of Prussia.
79 Frederick II was imprisoned at Cüstrin in close
confinement and later forced to work in the auditor's office there, as part of
his father's effort to break his will and turn him from literature and music to
military pursuits.
80 A king of Lydia in the Seventh Century, B. C.,
who according to classical tradition (Herodotus tells the story) was enabled to
murder his predecessor and secure his throne and his queen through the powers
of invisibility given him by this magic ring.
SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, Annual Report of
The American Historical Association For The Year 1930, Vol. 4, The Diary Of
Edward Bates, pp. 20-3
