Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-04-09
ALEXANDRIA,:
FRlD.iY. APRIL 9. 1919.

else OF it. disregard Of all impediments
moral and religious, (such as renorse, and
the fear Of Gods vengeance) carried with
/, them the highest advantages, and were the
direct stepping stones to wealth, power,
rank, and even empire itself, then was the
reputation for fighting ferociously and fear
lessly, reasonable and natural object OF
ambition. AT that time, when, to borrow
the thought of an historian, speaking oflhe
elevation of .Marc,mia from the condition Of
foreign slave to the imperial throne Of
Rome, " he who could carry the heaviest
armor, and give the heaviest blows, was
most likely = rise to dominion over the
rest of his fellow citizen" -then indeed
was il an ambition sufficiently natural to
aim at running in the ring of prize fighters,
DULLES, bravadoes and rulflans but now,
when not only the ascendancy of mere rut-
fan strength no longer exist, but the Jaws
of God and man, feeling, justice, humanity
ali the compunc:ious vistings Of cur ma
ture are avowedly against it, to give har-
Dor to such dispositions in the bosom, is
such perversion of reason, honor and ho-
nesty, as no sophistry can justify. For an
offence too slight to draw ore penny DANA
ges from jury, and for which an action
would be Kissed out OF any court CT law OF
Justice in Christendom, a black hearted
man, with hellish generalization, takes the
life of fellow creature and, in doing so,
consigns whole family-perLaps super
animated parents, whose dependence was
on the industry of their murdered child
lovely wife, an1 her innocent babes--to
want and all The evils incident 10 ito UNI
protected chi!dbuod--to youth destitute
of guidance and protection, and to man.
hood arising out Of il in moral ruin and pre-
mature decay. And all for what why
TO shine intamousiy brilliant in quality in
which, as have heretofore shown, he is
equalled by nine;y-ninc in every hundred
0! civilized men, and quite out-riyalled By
the most PREDICATE and low in society -
by gamblers, highwaymen, housebreakers
-" slley-lurking, nose-slil!ing villains
the dregs Of creation. Does il never occur
, to them, in some lucid moment, thlt what.
! ever they may think, or may hear in The
circles of contamination, where they i'm
bibe their brandy and their principles, that
they are regarded with contempt and alb
horrence by all who have the smallest pre-
tensions 10 wisdom or TO yirtue-and thai
they walk upon the earth, under all ire
movable load Of reproach and unexeCuted
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES not acquitted, but
connived at; and moving on, with rapid
strides, to sentence infinitely worse than
that which they have escaped.
Let he be understood! would not APP
ply this to those unfortunate persons who
are dragged, with the burning yoke OF pub
lie error soaring their necks, TO the field of
murder, and who, by one kind OF COW
ardice endeavor, at the risk of their lives,
and with The total sacrifice OF their con-
sciences, TO eyade the importation OF ano.
ther--f do not mean hint to any particu-
lar case but az the savage practice in ge-
neral aim no: at any past, but al tbepre-
ventidn Of future offences. know that the
blood Of human beings has been shed for
complaints such as a generous, well born
and well bred boy Of eight or Ten years of
age would be ashamed to Iun to his mother
with.
Yet doubt whether the criminality of
those who, usder such indictments, muir
der their fellow creatures, is more culpa-
BILE than the cold stupid defence which Of
ten We hear set UP for it. II you talk of
The necessity Of making law 10 bring some
of those murderers 10 legal punishment
what is The answer? "There are laws, but
public opinion shields the aggressor tits
the custom and the man who is deter
mined not TO murder by duel, is held infa-
nous, and recreant apostate from ho-
nour."
God forbid this were SO. Forif it were,
then would the United States present the
most lan.entabie national spectacle imagin-
able. A government, the execution Of
whose crmina! laws depended on individ-
ual caprice-statutes enforcing the pay
ment oftaxes. but in the protection Of life
dead letter-juries returning verdicts upon
oath, not by facts proved, but by vicious
fancies Of their own assumed lor law, at the |