Among the physicians who were opposed to her administration of
the hospital she recognized with satisfaction the name of a Dr. Paget,
who, as she happened to know, was Mrs. Hallett Taylor's medical adviser.
Another matter in which Selma became interested was the case of Mrs.
Hamilton. She was a woman who had been born in the neighborhood of
Benham, but had lived for twenty years in England, and had been tried in
England by due process of law for the murder of her husband and
sentenced to imprisonment for life. Some of the people of the state who
had followed the testimony as reported in the American newspapers had
decided that she ought not to have been convicted. Accordingly a
petition setting forth the opinion of her former neighbors that she was
innocent of the charge, and should as an American citizen be released
from custody, was circulated for signature. A public meeting was held
and largely attended, at which it was resolved to send a monster
petition to the British authorities with a request for Mrs. Hamilton's
pardon, and also to ask the government at Washington to intercede on
behalf of the unfortunate sufferer. The statement of the case appealed
vividly to Selma, and at the public meeting, which was attended chiefly
by women, she spoke, and offered the services of her husband to lay the
matter before the President.
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