"Men who invade a peaceful community and ruthlessly destroy a happy home, as was done in this instance, should receive at the hands of the law death.

"Mr. Martin came to this place from Shelbyville at the organization of the Bank of Columbia... Only two or three years before his death he married one of the fair daughters of his old county and brought her into our midst, and had established a happy home.

"Without warning and at his post of duty he was suddenly shot down, and his home was made desolate. At noon on the 29th of April, 1872, he was seated at his mid-day meal with his wife - happy in her love and in the prospects of a prosperous future which seemed to await him. An hour later the assassins had done their bloody work and his faithful wife, crushed and brokenhearted, was weeping over his lifeless body. That night, with the tolling of the bells and with the sincere sorrow of the community, the hearse drove out of town carrying his remains for interment at his old home in Shelby county.

"Looking back to-day through the long years that have intervened, the deed of that bloody afternoon has lost none of its enormity. Time has not softened any of its features, and the fact that it was done in open day makes it none the less a crime. It was a cruel, cold-blooded murder, committed for gain. We have no patience with the false and sickly sentiment which would make heroes of its authors."