Hardesty

“In January last, a young man named Hardesty, living on Muddy Run, Boone county, Ky., came into possession of the fact that his sister had been seduced by George Grubb. Hardesty, as soon as the secret was made known to him, called upon Grubb and charged him with the crime, which he denied ; but as Hardesty was convinced that all he said was false, he told him that he would give him fifteen days to marry his sister, and unless he complied within that time he would shoot him. The fifteen days expired on Saturday last, and the matter was not accomplished. The consequence was that Hardesty deliberately shot him. The sympathies of the people in the neighborhood were in behalf of Mr. Hardesty and his sister, and they regretted that he should flee after committing the act, being satisfied that any examining court would acquit him on the ground of justifiable homicide.” The Daily Alta California, March 21, 1858

“A young man named Hardesty, a year ago in Boone County, Ky., killed one Grubb, who had seduced Hardesty’s sister.  The prisoner was tried and acquitted in Kentucky last week.  Upon the rendition of the verdict the Court (Judge Nutall) delivered itself as follows, in an address to the prisoner:

“Sire: You have been indicted by a Grand Jury of your country upon a most heinous charge.  You have put yourself upon your country and your God for deliverance.  You have had a fair and impartial trial before them, and they have both pronounced you not guilty, and so say I.  It may not be proper for me to express my sentiments, yet, nevertheless, I will do it.  Young Man! Had I been wronged as you have been, I would have spent every dollar I had on earth, and all that I could have begged or borrowed, and then starved upon the track of the villain, but I would have imbibed my hands in his blood.  Go hence without delay.  You are acquitted.”

If such are the Judges, what wonder the scoundrels abound? ”

New York Times, May 8, 1858