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JACDB HODGES.
who had already attained to ihe age of
seventy years. By a process of tedious
and vexatious law-suits,he had come into
possession of property, by which another
family was greatly disappointed and com¬
pletely impoverished. Hostility, which
had long existed between the parties, be
came every day more and more violent
Revenge was constantly meditated and
threatened. At length, the malignity of
the aggrieved party was so exasperated
that actual violence and bloodshed were
not only meditated, but planned for
speedy execution. The old man of
seventy years was selected as the victim.
The individual whose pecuniary in¬
terests he had injured secured two accom¬
plices, who, from sharing in his feelings
of revenge, or from promises of pecuniary
reward, entered into his purposes of mur¬
der. One of these was the poor, ignorant
Jacob Hodges. He was selected as the
immediate instrument of the fatal deed;
as if murder, though perpetrated by othei
hands, would secure them from the ven