Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-06-03

1ou have had q falT ana impartial lrlai ny
Jurors of your own choice, in the selection
Of whom, even your caprice has been ten
derby INDUCED you have had the benefit o.
able counsel, whose manly address to the
understanding, whose eloquent appeals to
the heart must have saved you, if even a
doubt of your guilt could have been exclt-
ed: but alas, it has been IN vain, you have
been pronounced guilty of the horrid crime
of murder, for which you die nnpitied.
1t will be hardly generous to remind you,
for it can now only aggravate your distress,
of the many strong inducements which you
had to a different conduct. Living in a
land OF light and liberty, where every right
is securely protected, every virtuous exer-
ton literally rewarded, in the vigor Of
health and prime Of manhood, and sur
rounded by all the means of honest enjoy
ment life was surely worth preserving.
You have, but my heart slckens at the
thought, a wife who tenderly loves YOU
YOU are the father Of children, who look to
YOU for bread i; for them at least you ought
to have lived. Cruel, thoughtless man, what
have you done Besides robbing these OBJ
iects, Justly dear to your heart, of their only
protection and support; besides turning
them upon a wide and friendless world, ex-
posed to all the bufetings Of scof and adj
v~ersity, you have unkindly loaded them
with disgrace, which though they do not
merit, they must forever feel!
But if the laws of your country, and your
country's God if the love OF life, and its
varied enioyments ; if the distress and dis
| grace ofa family you love, were unable tc
| withhold your murderous arm-yet, believe
me, when | assure you, a reason yet more
powerful than all, ought to have made you
| pause-you have an Immortal soul at stake
| and have by this fatal deed, to the manifold
transgressions Of an i'll spent life, added
! mountain of guilt.
Your days on earth are now numbered
The sword of death, which hangs up
lifted over the frail thread Of ourexistence
ready to drop will quickly cut in twain, ano
those who have known you shall know yol
! no more. But though you feel the iata
stroke, hope not in it to ind a termination
of your woes it will be the mere prelude
to another trial, awgully terrific again yol
| will be arraigned at the bar Of justice, ant
| the black record thousand crimes sprcac
in your view. Again you must raise YOU
trembling hand, but before a Judge, whose
penetrating eye will spy the secret corner:
of your soul, whose power is fearful indeed
Again you will be confronted with witness
| es-and, horrible thought! the bleeding
| murdered Mathis, probably dragged iron
the bowling regions Of despair, will appear
in the number, should you again be foune
guilty, your doom will be interminablt
| woe.
Let me c%onjure you by every tie which
yet has a hold upon your heart, to devote
the scanty remnant of your days in serious
preparation for your approaching DOOM
strive importunely, / beseech you to secure
that advocate, whose merits are all power
| full, whose services alone can save you fol
in the exhaustless fountain of redeeming
| grace, even the foul stain Of murder may be
| washed clean.
The sentence Of the court is, that you bt
now carried from hence to the place from
whence you came, and that on the last Fri
day in May next, between the hours OF e.
leven Am. and 2 P. NJ. you becarried 70 the
place 0 public execution, in the district OF
Union, and there to be hanged by the necb
until your body be dead, and may the al
mighty God have mercy on your soul.