Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1801-1806, 1804-09-20

third reprieve is tranfmitted; thar the
unhappy captive himfelf feels the cheer
ing hope of being relfored to family
that he adored, to character thar he
had never fained, and to a country
that ne had ever loved /; that you had
leen his wife and children upon their
knees, giving ,hefe tears to gratitude,
which their locked and frozen hearts
could not give to anguilh and deipaH.
and imploring the bleilings of eternal
Providence upon his head, who had
GRACEFULLY fpared the father, and re-
itored him to his children. 6 Alas!
nor wife, nor children more ihall be-
hold, no friends nor facred home 70
No ieraph mercy unbars his dungeon,
and leads him forth to life and, Gght,
but the miniiler of death hurries him
to the fcene of iufering and of ihame;
where, unmoved by the holtile array
OF artillery and armed men collected
together, either to fecure, or infu!t or
diiinrb him, he dies with a folemn
declaration W his Innocence, and Ut
lers his lait treathin a prayer for the
liberty of his country. Let me now
aik you, if anyofyou had addreied the
public ear upon 70 foul and monitrous
a fubjee, in wbay language would you
have conveyed theXelings ofhorror g.
indignation! Would you have nooped
to the ineannefs OF qualified complaint,
Would you have been mean, enough:
but intreat your forgiveness. | do
not think meanly of you /; had | tho't.
70 meanly of you, could not fuffer
my mind to commune with you as it
has done; had ! thought you that
bale and vile inarument, attuned by
hope and by fear into dilcotd and
fallehood, from whole vulgar firing
no groan OF fuffering could vibrats,.
so voice of integrity or honor could
ipeak, Jet me honsilly tell you, /
ihould have Gcorned to fling my, hand
actois it; | Iihoull have left it to fit-
ter minltrels; ifI do not, therefore,
grofsly err in in my opinion Of you;
! could ufe no, language tlpon fuch a
'fnbjea as this, that mutt not lag be-
hind the rapidiiy of your feelings, and
that would not dilgtace thole feelings,
il it attempted to defcfibe them.
s. Gentlemen, | am not unconfcioUs
,thatihe learned eouniel for the crown
feemed to addfefsyou with the coRii-
dence of very different kind he
feemed 10 expea a kind of relpeAful
fympathy from you with the feelings
of the cattle, and the griefs Of chided
authority. Perhaps, Gentlemen, he
may know you better than do; if
he does he has fpoken as he ought;
he has been right in telling you, thar
if The reprobation Of this writer is
weak, it is becaufe his genius could
not make it ironger he has been
right in telling you that his is.language
has not been braided and feltooned az
elegant as it might ; that he has not
picked the miferable plants of his
phrafeology, nor placed his patches
and feathers with that corre6nefs of
millenary, which became 10 exalted a
perfon. If you agree with him. gem
ilemen of the Jury, if youthiuk thar
the man who at the hazard OF his own
life, to refcue from the deep the
drowned honor of his country, mutt
not prefume upon the great fam
iliarity. of plucking it up by the
locks, have no more to fay; do
courteous thing. Upright and honslt
Jurors, find a civil and oblging YER
did againf the Printer! and when
you have done 70, march through the
ranks of your fellow citizens TO your
own homes, and bear their looks a.