Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-05-01


The prisoner having been put to the bar.
and the indictment and verdict of the jury
having been read, it was demanded from
him ifhe had aught to say why the sentence
o. the law should not now be pronounced
against him, and having answered that he
had not, the following sentence was there
upon pronounced by the court:
-Prisoner!-I am required to announce to
you the sentence which the law awards a.
gainst the murderer. By jury of your
country, you have been convicted of muir
der by implied malice--tf shedding the
blood of a fellow creature without sufficient
provocation-under circumstances which
manifest, in the language OF the law, an a.
bandened and malignant heart. In the
performance of this awful duty, there is
imposed upon me the further obligation of
endeavoring to awaken you to true sense
of your miserable situation. Exhausted by
the fatigues of your trial, feel how I'M
equal | am TO the task-but will not there
fore shrink from the effort 10 discharge it.
Listen with the humility which becomes
you, 10 the revolving story Of your crime.
Strive to bring your feelings into subsection
to the solemn duties which now await you.
Penitently cast yourself before the mercy
seat Of heaven, and seek, through the me-
diation of the Redeemer, the forgiveness
Of that crime which has already hurried you
to the verge Of an awful eternity.
You are young-would that could add,
you are innocent. The bloom of youth still
plays up your cheek-would that could
add, the consciousness OF rectitude beams
from your countenance. But it may not be.
The sad reality is before me, and even in
youryou,bful visage behold the deep, in
delible impressions, with which guilt ever
marks her fallen victims. Alas! what is
man The child of error-the sport Of
every furious passion--a helpless vessel on
the tempestuous ocean of life, without
rudder &c guide il from the shoals and quick
sands OF vice. Such is the wrctched con-
dition of him, who mad)y refuses to yield
himselfto reasons guidance. Such is your
miserable lot for having in one sinful mo-
ment, blindly givenyourself up 10 passions
dictates.
When retrace the story Of your guilt !
am constrained anxiously to inquire, by
what dreadful infatuation you were led to
The commission OF this awful crime. The
deceased was your relatiye-the compa-
Mon OF your youth-your friend. No pre-
vious resentment inaamed you against each
other You met on this fatal day OF guilt
and crime, and the smile OF good will dwelt
on your counlenances. Even your early
wrangling was marked with the characte-
ristics of friendly strife. You enquired in
tone Of surprise why he was angry with
you. lie answered in the language OF friend
ship, by reproying the turbulence of the
disposition which you had manifested, but
rather in pity than in anger. All il con-
siderate humanity had influenced those "a
round you--if they had been tender O, that
blood which may not be shed without the
most atrocious guilt, in unlawful strife,
should have been spared the melancholy
task which is this day demanded at my
hands. [ would not for uncounted millions,
have the feeling. of that man who could
fan the flame, nay who could listlessly stand
BY and witness, without one kindly effort
to allay its fury, the risings OF that demo-
MAC passion, under the impulse of which
an incoDsiderate youth has been plunged
into such sea Of guilt and crime, as that
through which YOU have bufeted. But you
did plunge into its awful wave. Dupe OF
the criminal folly Of those around you, VIC
tim Of your own lawless and ungoverned
passious-you forgot the claims of hulna-
nifty, the ties Of kindred, the emphatic man
date of that God who gave you being. You
seized the concealed and deadly instru-
ment of your engeance-secretly, under
cover OF the night, barred its point against
your foe, and by its reiterated plunge into
his unprotected bosom, marked the Tell
purpose which possessed your soul, The
deed Of death was done. Would that
could say, under the mere impulse Of wild,
but momentary passion. 1t may not be-
Your satiated fury betrayed the deliberate
malignity, with which you had sought to
CRAFTY the resentment, SO suddenly lighted