Unknown, The Wadlington Case

KYR-0001-020-0079.xml

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Accession Number

KYR-0001-020-0079

Document Genre

Newspaper

Repository

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

Collection

Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862

Item Location

MG17A-156

Place of Creation

Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky

Date of Creation

December 1860

Dates Mentioned

1860-01-17

--03-01

Unknown, The Wadlington Case, December 1860, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, MG17A-156, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, KY. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-0079, (accessed November 4, 2025).

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THE WADLINGTON CASE.

Believing that the public mind, and more especially that of the county where the trial is to be held, should not be swayed by prejudice, or influenced by, sometimes, hasty and incorrect statements, we have, (although well acquainted with the facts), scrupulously refrained from any utterance of opinion -- merely from time to time noting the progress of this case. But now, the parties have been put upon trial; the verdict of the Jury returned, and the sentence of the law pronounced; still, 'tis not our design, even now, to give any expression of opinion, but simply to lay before the public which heard the statements of the witnesses, the declarations of the parties, and leave it to decide between them. On Saturday morning William J. Wadlington, who was tried at the June term of our Court, having been brought into the courtroom and asked by his Honor if he had anything to say why the sentence of law should not be pronounced upon him, replied, substantially, as follows:

May it please your Honor: I have reasons for objecting that sentence should be pronounced upon me, and in order that your Honor and the spectators may know my reasons, with your consent, I desire to give an unsophisticated statement of the difficulty which occurred between Cartwright and my father.

On the the 17th day of January 1860, Cartwright, Prince and Blaylock came to where my father and his hands were at work. At about 30 paces my father commanded Cartwright not to approach him; Cartwright came on, Prince and Blaylock stopped; my father again commanded Cartwright not to approach; but he came on and sat down on the tree that father's hands were cutting. Cartwright then declared that father should not cut any more timber; father commanded the log be cut off; Cartwright drew his pistol, and as father was retreating, shot him with it; father then shot Cartwright with his gun, then with his pistol. Prince ran up and took hold of father; then I, (the son of Wadlington), pulled Prince off; Prince then ran off. Father shot Cartwright two or three times with his pistol and struck him with an axe; the remaining bruises on the head of Cartwright were made by father striking him with his pistol.

Fellow citizens, you have a contradiction of statements, for you see that mine are not in accordance with those of Prince and Blaylock; but let me say to you that these are the facts of the case. Upon these statements I base my reasons for objecting that sentence should be passed upon me. Gentlemen, you are aware of the position that I now occupy; I say to you to-day that the position I stand in is unjust to me; it is unjust to the laws of Kentucky and humanity. Fellow citizens, I stand before you an innocent boy. I neither laid my hands, or an instrument of any description, on Cartwright either directly or indirectly; yet the witnesses, Blaylock and Prince, upon the part of the Commonwealth, come into open Court and state positively that I hit Cartwright two or three times with an axe. I have appealed to the laws of Kentucky for justice; what cause had I for this? It was because I had been indicted by the Grand Jury of my country for murder. That indictment was based upon false testimony; also were the after proceedings founded upon the same false statements. Fellow citizens, do you hold me responsible for that which I never did? If the laws of our country are to be so used, and it has come to the point that we can't get justice, I ask you to give me death. If our Commonwealth is asking such justice, I say deliver me from your Courts of Justice. I had rather take my chances among the Mohaves or Appaches, or any other nation, than to ask for justice under such an administration as I have met with in this case.

Mr. Prince and Mr. Blaylock, let me say to you to make this the last time that you make innocent men suffer; I beseech you to stop ere it be too late. Young men, you know not the responsibilities that await you; you know the great injustice you have done me and my old gray headed father. Young men, you know you have testified falsely in this case, and it would better for you to come out like men and acknowledge the truth. Let the Commonwealth place her witnesses at my side before this audience and ask of this community to pass their judgment upon their guilty countenances, and upon mine that has been so persecuted, and you will see the dark lines of guilt and treacherous murder flash upon their perjured countrnances. When our Heavenly Father is administering justice unto the four ends of the earth, those false statements of yours will be as daggers to your hearts; yea, they will give vent to the torturing flames that will wrap your perjured souls, whilst the truths that I have spoken here to-day will be a song of joy and triumph to my heart. Gentlemen, these statements that I have made here to-day are not only witnessed by the truth, but they will be confirmed by high Heaven. Now before I leave you let me say to you, young men, that I entertain

no feelings of revenge against you, but I have those of sorrow and shame, for you who have so inhumanly treated me and my old father. Young men, you have deprived me of my only earthly parent; you have caused an old gray headed mother to go ian sorrow and distress; you have caused three little helpless children to be left fatherless. That old gray headed mother who never wronged you in any way; those little children, who have been as free from harming you as lambs, you have bereft of husband and father; you have murdered my old father by false testimony; you have sent that old father's child to the pententiary of the State for eight years. You have robbed my old father of his life; you have robbed me of my liberties and freedom; you have robbed a gray headed mother and her helpless children of their only friend on earth; yea, you have perjured your own souls, and have brought down upon yourselves a curse which will never de wiped away by the power of man. Young men, when you see that old father mount the scaffold with his death cap drawn over his face and the rope applied to his persecuted neck, look at him with sorrow and say, "this have I done by false testimony," and then and there beg God to forgive you for the great injustice you have done him and his family. May God have mercy on those who have no mercy on themselves; upon you, Mr. Prince and Mr. Blaylock. Go, young men, and that you do so no more is my prayer to God.

Remarks of Thomas B. Wadlington.

May it please your Honor: You have this day performed a more solemn duty than, perhaps, you ever did on any former occasion in life; and forbid it, Almighty God, that you should ever have to perform the same duty, under like circumstances. I can place my hand upon my heart and call my God to witness that I speak the words of truth, and lie not, when I say that your Honor has passed sentence upon my child for eight years confinement in the penitentiary of the State of Kentucky, and is now in the act of passing sentence upon your persecuted prisoner to be hanged to death, all by reason of false testimony. When these young men who have testified falsely against me, meet me at the bar of God, where false testimony cannot come, my statements in open Court will stand as the truth, and their sworn testimony will fall. They have testified falsely against me in material and important points in the rencounter, and falsely against my child in toto. My child never placed his hands on Cartwright directly or indirectly. God Almighty have mercy on my persecutors, fit and prepare my soul for that "house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens" is the prayer of your unworthy and much persecuted prisoner.

I have asked for justice at the hands of my countrymen; justice I have not obtained -- humanity has been outraged -- the laws of the land have been outraged in my case, and the mantle of justice has been torn down and now trails in the dust, all by reason of false testimony. If this is what the Commonwealth of Kentucky calls justice, I call upon the good people to tear down the temple of justice and uproot the foundations of the eternal truths of equity and justice, and give to the perjured tongue the lever of power; if this is what the Commonwealth calls justice, I call upon you to-day to glut your vengeance on an innocent man's blood.

When I shall have the rope and cap on, under the gallows, I shall then and there declare to those who may be curious enough to assemble that I am to be hung by reason of false testimony, and call upon high Heaven to bear me witness. I stand before you to-day as a man having no hope in human aid. I shall in a few fleeting days be ushered into the presence of my God, and what I here state I know I shall have to account for face to face to Him. I killed Cartwright; I killed him in self-defence. He came to me and refused to let me pursue my legal avocation, and drew his pistol; I retreated; and whilst retreating received his pistol ball in my left thigh; and then, and not until then, did I ever raise my hand to defend myself. If the truth in my case had been told, I nor my child would ever have been incarcerated in your County jail.

I have none of that revengeful spirit about me, for "vengeance is mine; I will repay," sayeth the Lord. All that I have to say to my persecutors is, "go thy way and sin no more." False testimony has penitentiared my son -- widowed my wief -- rendered fatherless my three helpless children -- and unlawfully presented the gallows to your persecuted prisoner Well may I say I am "a man of sorrow and one acquainted with grief." Knowing and feeling my innocence, I shall sum up all the Christian fortitude that humanity can possess, and meet the responsibility of my case like a man and a patriot. Give me justice or give me death.

To these remarks the Court and audience paid the most profound attention, and during the delivery of Wm. Wadlington's address we could see in the Court room many an eye, not only of youth, but of age, moistened with the tear of sorrow and compassion. But the witnesses, Prince and Blaylock, being impeached by no legal mode, the Court was bound by the law to receive their statements as correct, and consequently passed sentence upon the prisoners -- sentencing Wm. Wadlington to eight years confinement in the penitentiary of this State, and declaring that on the 1st day of March next Thomas B. Wadlington should be hung.

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