Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1891 — Aid For Mrs. Maybrick. [ARTICLE]

Aid For Mrs. Maybrick.

More than a hundred thousand signatures have been obtained to a petition praying the home office to commute the sentence of the American, Mrs. Maybrick, the date of whose execution for the murder of her husband, the Liverpool cotton merchant, is set for the near fnture. The impelling motive in this general interest in the woman’s behalf arises in the main from consideration for her sex. Mankind, revolting more and more against the barbarism of capital executions but not yet prepared wholly to abolish it, is unwilling that the hangman shall do his office upon a wowan, even though she be a murderer. On. this point, too, the publie mind is not fully satisfied. In any general view there is no substantial grounds for sympathy with the accused. She was guilty of infamous breach of her marital obligations without even a pretext of infatuation for a seductive paramour. A single intrigue did not satisfiy* her vicious propensity. Maybrick had more ground than the Moor to complain of the “general camp, pioneers and all.” While this conduct was gros3 it not punishable by death. Though it had no lodgment in the mind of a severe court or a harsh jury the doubt that the woman was guilty of poisoning her husband obtains popularly, afld this, with abhorrence of hanging, contributes- to the sentiment of sympathy with a.woman who is not overdeserving. In England the course of justice is not easily,diverted by popular clamor, but as Mrs. Maybrick is not a political prisoner and as the movement for executive clemency is widespread she may be saved from the gallows.—-Ghi-cago Times.