DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - NEWSPAPERS - The Washington Post, Monday, February 3, 1896, pg. 2 ----¤¤¤---- This file is part of the DCGenWeb Archives Project: http://www.usgwarchives.net/dc/dcfiles.htm ********************************************* http://www.usgwarchives.net/dc/dcfiles.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ********************************************* Contributed to The USGenWeb Archives Project by: Jamie M. Perez (jamiemac@flash.net) --------------------------------------------------- Mrs. Maybrick’s Case Espoused by Both Masons and Roman Catholics. FRESH EFFORTS IN HER BEHALF Andrew H. H. Dawson, of New York, Her American Attorney, Makes Some Grave Charges Against British Officials, Whose Conduct in the Case Has Been Peculiar, to Say the Least – Evidence to Be Presented to the New Home Secretary. There is at the National Hotel a rather tall, distinguished-looking gentleman, with a head of bushy gray hair fast approaching whiteness, and which, if slightly kinked, would pass for that which adorned the head of the late Frederick Douglass. He is Andrew H. H. Dawson, of New York, who is one of the counsel working in behalf of Mrs. Maybrick, the unfortunate and afflicted woman now languishing in an English prison, slowly dying as she serves the sentence imposed upon her by the British government for the alleged murder of her husband. Mr. Dawson, who is in his seventy-seventh year, is extremely active, and is deeply interested in Mrs. Maybrick and her case. He expects that the poor woman will be released from prison within the next few months, and gives as her reasons that several combinations are now at work looking to this end. In relating the story as he knows it Mr. Dawson makes some grave charges against British officials, and in substantiation has papers which will be embodied in a book soon to be issued, giving the history of this celebrated case in order to get all the facts before the Masons and people of the United States. “To begin with,” said Mr. Dawson last evening, “I will state that the efforts now being made to secure Mrs. Maybrick’s release are along the same lines which have been followed in the past. The same evidence, with additional facts, is being presented. If this fails, then the effort goes in a different direction. This time it will be made by the Masons and Roman Catholics, a union never before known. This is made possible by the fact that Mrs. Maybrick and her mother are Roman Catholics, while her father and grandfather were Masons of high standing, and I am in this case as a Mason. Queer Points in the Case. “As to the history of the case, so much has been published that there is but little to add, but that little is of intense interest. I have been about four years getting the facts together and into shape for the book her friends intend issuing in her interests and to arouse the people in her behalf. It will be recalled that President Harrison and all the members of the Cabinet, signed a petition to the Queen, in which they were joined by their wives. Mrs. Harrison wrote a personal letter. The petition was also signed by the Vice President, Speaker of the House, many Senators and Representatives, and all the Judges of the Supreme Court. Mrs. Maybrick was related to Justices L. Q. C. Lamar and James A. Campbell, and is a kinswoman of Chief Justice Fuller on her mother’s side. Well, this petition never reached the Queen. It only reached Mr. Asquith, then Home Secretary, who sent word that ‘it was a pragmatic interference with the judicial methods of administering criminal justice by a foreign power.’ “When Matthews commuted Mrs. Maybrick’s sentence to imprisonment for life it was done on the discovery that no crime had been committed. But Matthews held that inasmuch as eighty grains of arsenic were found in Mrs. Maybrick’s house, he would presume, till she could prove otherwise, that she knew how it got there and intended to use it in murdering her husband. Then he construed the intention to take Maybrick’s life as an attempt, and this, under the English law, is punishable by life imprisonment. Her Guilt Only Presumptive. “Crime is a union of action and intention, and the prosecution have failed to prove action, they presumed intention, and made of it a crime. However, Matthews said if at any time Mrs. Maybrick could show how the arsenic got in her house, and that she had nothing to do with it, that he would pardon her. The retirement of Matthews left the promise unfilled, and though evidence was presented to his successor, Asquith, he failed to keep it. The evidence was that of the son of a nobleman, who was engaged with Maybrick in experimenting on a substitute for cotton, in which they used large quantities of arsenic. He signed an affidavit, and sent it to Asquith, who refused to consider it. Asquith’s term was short lived. “Now that White is Home Secretary, we shall present all these facts again. They were ready at the time of the trouble about Venezuela, and it was decided to hold the matter over till things quieted down. We believe that the present Home Secretary will, after considering the evidence, set Mrs. Maybrick free. If he does not, then the other steps will be taken. “Mrs. Maybrick is innocent; she had an unfair trial, and is the victim of injustice. She is the daughter of a Mason, and in trouble that means a great deal to the Masons of the world. The Prince of Wales is the highest Mason in England, and to him will the final appeal be made. The facts are in our possession, which will satisfy all Masons of the cause they will be asked to espouse, and prominent Masons state that they are sufficient to insure Masonic support and influence. “I am here obtaining some of the funds necessary for the publication of the book for the Masons, and yesterday received subscriptions from Secretary Herbert and Senator Call, the only gentlemen I have seen. In New York quite a large sum was subscribed to the fund.” Mr. Dawson’s Varied Adventures. Mr. Dawson has a very interesting history. He was born in Kentucky, his father being an army officer. When a young man Mr. Dawson was sickly, and the family physician urged that he be sent to the plains to rough it, or else he could live to reach his majority. Kit Carson was a warm friend of the father, Capt. Joe Dawson, and to him young Andrew was sent. He reached the noted scout’s camp at St. Jo, March 5, 1835, and at once started on an expedition which lasted eleven months. At the end of that time young Dawson returned home in robust health, and hardly had he reached Louisville when he went with a Kentucky regiment as adjutant to Col. Harrison, to fight with Texas against Mexico. The regiment came near being famous, as it reached San Jacinto two hours after the famous battle of April 21, 1836. Two days later Santa Ana was brought into the camp of the Kentucky regiment as a captive. In the war of the rebellion Mr. Dawson fought with the South, and for over a quarter of a century has been practicing law in New York. He has been married fifty-five years, and last night said: “If my wife ever had a fault I do not know of it, and this hotel brings back many happy days we have spent together underneath its roof. We were here the night Henry Clay died.”