New Hampshire Statesman And State Journal

Trial of One Hundred and Twelve Men For Murder. The correspondent of the Illinois Free Trader gives an account of the trial of the persons charged with the murder of the Driskalls John and William, from which we make a few extracts. He says:-

"The September term of the Ogle Court was just closed, and its session has been marked by a trial which, in the number of the accused tried in one indictment for the crime of murder, is without parallel. One hundred and twelve men were indicted for the murder of John Driskall and William Driskall, in June last near Washington Grove, in this county. About one hundred plead not guilty, and were put upon their trial. Judge Ford, whatever might have been his feelings, (the accused were his neighbors, Judge F. living in Ogle county,) exhibited upon the bench a stern determination that the accused should be fully and fairly tried. However, the very fact of the great confusion occasioned by so many names in the indictment, left the accused without any evidence to contend against. The two or three first witnesses whose names were endorsed upon the indictment, (and by the laws of this State, none except those whose names are so endorsed, can be called to prove the substantive part of the accusation,) only knew some of the preparatory steps taken, which led to the supposed offence."

The facts connected with the killing Driskalls are stated as follows: That the Driskalls were a part of an organised gang, embracing a large number of persons in the county of Ogle and the adjoining counties, who carried on a systematized scheme of operations against the lives and property of the inhabitants. That murders, robberies and larcenies, had been carried on by them for a number of years; and that, owing to the extent and perfection of their combinations, it had become impossible to convict, by the process of law. Perjured members of their gang, swearing to alibis or such defence as were adapted to the occasion, had for a long time, defined and defeated the course of justice. That a few days previous to the execution of the Driskalls, a Mr. Campbell, a citizen of the highest respectability, had been wantonly shot in his own yard, for his presumed exertions against this gang, and that there was sufficient evidence to leave no reasonable doubt, that the Driskalls planned and instigated, and probably perpetrated this murder. Further, that the Driskalls were the chief and most dangerous of the gang. They were shot after an examination which satisfied several hundred of the most respectable citizens of Ogle and the adjoining counties, of the truth of the foregoing facts.

The case was submitted to the jury, who, without leaving their seats, rendered a verdict of 'not guilty.' This verdict was given partially from a want of evidence, and from what the jury considered the absolute necessity of the case. The writer says the laws could not protect the community where the banditti committed their many enormities—the occasion was too urgent to wait for their uncertain amendment and adaptation to the emergency—individually they could not protect themselves—mob law they repudiated—they therefore resorted to a counter organization, ordained new rules of evidence, and a new mode of proceeding, such, and such only, as in their judgment were effectual to protect them. There may be those who are disposed to cavil, perhaps to condemn. The judgements and perceptions of such would be essentially invigorated, could they have dwelt for a short time here, and suffered the murder of their friends, the burning of their dwellings, and the plunder of their property; and, when they called on the law to redress those wrongs, to see whom they knew to be the perpetrators, escape with impunity.

U. S. Gaz.