Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1819-08-28

/ disclose not crimes OF which they are UNI
conscious; reveal not the knowledge whose
! consequence is DEATH will obey the adj
mention; not from my lips shall issue the obi
ous crimes of this meudicinal aduiterer not
! by my hand shalt the drapery be Withdrawn
that screens the Tibeiian sensuality from the
/ public execration! God of nature had this
been love forgetting forms in the pure iTnpe-
tuostv of its passions; had il been youth,
transgressing rigid law and rigid moraisi had
II been desire, mad in lis guilt, and guilty even
in It's madness, | could have dropped tear
over humanity in silence; but when see age
pow erless, passioness, remorselcss, avari-
cous age, drugging its impotence into the ca
pability of crime, and testing its enjoyment by
the contemplation of misery, my voice is not
soothed but stifed in its utterance, and can
only pray for you, fathers, husbands, brothers
that the Almighty may avert this omen from
your families!
Gentlemen of the Jury, if you feel as do,
you will rejoice with me that this odlous case
is near to its conclusion. You will have the
facts before you--proof Of the friendship
| proof of the eonfdencc-proofo of the treache-
~, and e-witnesses of the actual adultery
; 1t remains but to inquire what is the paliation
for this abominable turpitude. Is it love q
Love between the tropic and the pole Why,
| ilI Nlit.ii FieNhA', io
wife whose grave alone should be the altar
of his nuptials; he is of an age when shroud
should be his wedding garment. Twill not in
suit you by so preposterous s'pposition. VIII
| he plead conHvance in the husband-that fond,
| afiectionate, devoted husband? dare him to
the experiment; and if he makes tit is not
| to his intimates, bis friends, oreven to the UNI
deyiating testimony Of all his enemies, that
| shall refer YOU for his vindication: but will
| call him into court, and in the altered mien,
and Wondering form, and furrowed cheek, Of
his -decaving youth, l will bid you read the
proofs of his connyance. But, gentlemen, he
has not driven me TO conjecture his pallation;
his heartlcss industry has blown it Through the
| land and what do YOU think it Isl Oh, would
TO God | could call the whole female world to
It's disclasurel Oh, if there be within our
! islands boundaries one hapless maid who lends
| her ear to the seducer's polson-ope hesitating
matron whose husband and whose children the
vile adulterer devotes to desolatlon, let them
| now hear TO what the hattery Of vice will turn
! let them see when they have levelled the fair
fabric Of their innocence and their virtue, with
what remorseless haste their foul destroyer
! will rush over their ruins VIII you believe it
| That he who knelt to this fororn creature, and
! soothed her vanity, adored her faihngs, and
defed her faults, now justified the pollution
of her person bv the defamation of her charac-
ter! Not single act of indiscretion-not an
instance, perhaps, of cupable leyity in her
whole life, which he has not raked together
for the purpose of publication. Unhappy wo-
man, may Heaven have pity on her! Alas how
could she expect that he who sacrificed a friend
to his lust, would protect mistress from his
avarice' Bat will you permit him 10 take shell
ter under this act of dishonorable desperation
| Can he expect not even sympathy, but coun-
tenance from a tribunal Of high-minded honor
able gentlcmen' VIII not you say, that his thus
traducing the poor fallen victim OF his articles,
rather aggravates than diminshes the original
| depravity VIII YOU not spurn the monster
whose unnatural vice, combining sensuaiity,
| hypocrisy, and crime, could stoop to save his
miserable dross, by the defamation of his VIC
tim win you not ask him by what title he
! holds this inquisiton Is it not by that Of an
adulterer, traitor, recreant to every CON-
pact between man and man, and between earth
and heaven
| If this heartless palliation was open to all
the world, is not he excluded from it, He her
frientl-her husbands fathers friend--her fa-
mily adviser, who quafied the cup of hosptali-
| ty, and pledged his host in poison-he who, if
you can believe him, found this young and in
experienced creature lettering OH the brink,
and, under pretence of assisting, dragged her
down the precipice! Will he, in the whole
host Of strangers, with whose familiarity he
defanes her, produce one vile enough to have
! followed his example; one out of even the
skipping, dancing, worthless tribe, whose gal
lantry stink into ingratituse, whose levity sub
lined itself into guilt No, no; "imperfectly
civilized" as his countrymen have called us,
they cannot deny that there is something gene
l.,i.
brace friend while we were planning his de-
struction; and that we could not sit at his table
while we were profanng his bed; that we could
not preach morality while we were perpetrat-
| ing crime and, above all, if in the moment of
| our natures weakness, when reason sleeps and
passion triumphs, some confiding creature had
! relied upon our honor, we could not dash her
from US in her trial hour, and for PURSES safety
turn the cold-blooded assassin of her charac-
ter. But, my lord, l ask you not as a father
not as husband--but as guardian of the morals
of this country, ought this to be justification
Of any adultereri And if so, should it Justify
an aduterer under such circumstances Has
any man right to scrutinize the constitution
of every female in family, that he may calcu-
late on the possibility of her seduetion3 WIN
you nstil this principle into society VIII you
nsdl this principle into the army VIII you
disseminate s'lcD plnclple or pal'iaUon and
} will you permit it to pallate-what The ruin
of an household; the sacrifice of friend the
worse than murder of four children; the most
. inhuman perfidy to an host, companion, a
| brother in arms VIII you permit ii ! stand
: not upon her innocence--I demand vengeance
: on his most unnatural viany. Suppose con-
: cede his whole defence to him, suppose she
= was begrimmed and black as hell, was it for
him to take advantage of her turpitude He a
4 friend, guest, confdant brother soldier