The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-11-19 00:00:00, page 3

the othi rhand, in darkness the pupil
dilates, and this is also painful: thus we
read that in i'.gypt there was a darkness
that might bejclt. Tlie Creator, whose
designs are always replete with wisdom,
appears to have rendered night disa
greeable to us for another reason besides
that of inclining us to rest, as darkness
does, by oppressing the eyes. During
night the air is unwholesome. Philo
sophers have discovered that plants,
which in the day-time emit the vital air,
breathe that which is fixed and malefic
in the night. A complex design of
the Creator seems to account for it.—
He has made use of the hours of animal
rest lor carrying on that part of the ve
getable economy, which is unfavourable
to animal life.
1 have purposed in this paper to show
• oat the horrors of night result from na
tural causes ; that the idea ol of evil pre
vailing at that period, is an artificial la
brick raised upon the instinctive av er
sion ; that every common appearance
may be mistaken in the nighi-dmc, or
any other ; that neither the understand
ing nor the honesty of the narrator is
impeached v/hcii w e doubt the truth of
his story ; and that a thorough itivesti
gation will convince us that the causes
01 our alarm are more simple and com
mon-than we are at lirst led to suppose.
E. A.
F A TE O V A’I il KI STS.
Voltaire, called by a late writer the
great Antichrist, finding Ids end ap
proaching, in agony lor ids past offences,
called in a priest ol the religion which
he had endeavoured to destrov, for ab
solution. He accused, in the most bit
ter terms, d’Alembert, Diderot, and
Condorcet. 1 orturcs of conscience,
liae those of tne damned, forced him to
“ believe and tremble.” Kichclieu fled
from his dying friend, declaring the
Hght too horrible. Tronchin, his phy
sician, declared that “ the furies of 6
rest<. s could give hut a faint ideaof those
ol Voltaire.”
I) Alembert died five years after
wards, a prey to the most poignant re
morse.
Diderot, in his last moments, asked
to see a clergyman, and was preparing a
public recantation of his errors ; but be
ing watched by “the conspirators,” was
borne from his death-bed, by force, into
the country, and died.
Condorcct being obliged to fly from
Paris, was arrested in his retirement as
a vagabond, and, through the forgetful
ness of his jailor, suffered to starve to
death.
lirissot and his infidel companions on
their way to the guillotine had a short
conference, the result of which was,
their con\ iclion of the soul’s immortal
ity.
Roland and his wife perished on the
scaflold, their deaths embittered bv the
recollection of their past lives.
Robespierre, says a witness of his ex
ecution, having his jaws sadly broken by
a pistol when he was siezed, they were
hound up in a handkerchief; and being
pinioned, he lay twenty-four hours,
drinking his own blood to prevent suffo
cation. The bandage being torn off bv
an officer on the scaffold, he shrieked
with the pain, and trembled with hor
ror at his fate.
O P IN ION
Of Chief Justice INI arsham.,
D ivert’d the 20th October, 1 807, on a
motion to commit Burr, Blenncrhasset,
and I-ruel Smith, to Kentucky, to be
tried for treason and misdemeanor.
[Concluded.]
The first question which arises on the
evidence, is,
\V ith what object did those men con
vene, who assembled at the mouth of
Cumberland ?
Was it to separate the Western from
die Eastern states, by siezing and
holding New-Orleans ?
A\ as it to carry on an expedition a
gainst Mexico, making the em
barkation at Xew-Orleans ?
W as this expedition to depend on a
war with Spain P
1 lie conversation held bv col. Burr
with commodore Decatur, stated his
object to be an expedition against Mex
ico, which would be undertaken, as the
commodore understood, with the appro
bation of the government in the event of
war.
1 o gen. Eaton, lie unfolded in various
conversations, plans for invading Mex-,
iro, and also for severing the Western
from the Atlantic states.
lo commodore T’ruxton lie spoke of
the invasion and conquest of Mexico in
the event of a war, as a plan which he
iiad digested with gen. Wilkinson, and
into which he was extremely desirous to
draw the commodore. A circumstance
13 narrated by this witness, which has
i)ccn noticed by the counsel for the U.
States, and deserves consideration. It
is the declaration of Col. Burr, that he
was about to dispatch two couriers with
letters to general Wilkinson relative to
the expedition. It was at this time that
Messrs. Bollman and Swartwout are
said to have left Philadelphia, carrying
each a copy of the cyphered letter which
has constituted so important a docu
ment in the various motions that have
been made on this occasion. This let
ter, though expressed in terms of some
ambiguity, has been understood by the
supreme court, and is understood by
me, to relate to a military' expedition a
gainst the territories oi a foreign Prince.
In this sense the testimony oifered on
the part of the United States shews it to
have been also understood by Bollman
by Swartwout and by gen. Wilkinson!
I lie inference is very strong, that this
letter is the same to which col. Burr al
luded in his conversation with commo
dore Fruxton, and strengthens the idea
that the accused gave to that gentleman
a true statement of the real object, so
far at least as relates to the point against
which his preparations were to be di
rected. <• All }he conversations relative
to tin expedition by sea,would fie equally
inapplicable to any attempt on the terri
tories of the United States, and to the
settlement of lands.
iiis conversations with the Messrs.
Morgans, certainly indicate that his
mind was strongly directed to military
objects ; that he was not friendly to the
present administration; and that he con
templated a separation of the union as
an event which would take place at no
very distant day.
His conversation which lieut. Jackson
points in express tern/s to hostility a
gainst Spain.
The conversations of Mr. Blenner
hasset,, evince dispositions unfriendly to
the union, and his writings are obvious
ly intended to disaffect the western peo
ple, and to excite in their bosoms strong
prejudices against their Atlantic breth
ren. That the object of these writing*
was to prepare the western states for a
dismemberment, is apparent on the face
of them, and was frequently avowed by
himsell. In a conversation with the
Messrs. Hendersons, which derives ad
ditional importance from the solemnity
with which his communications were
made, he laid open his plan for dismem
bering the union under the auspices of
Mr. Burr. Io others, at subsequent