The Litchfield County post. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1826-1829, 1827-08-16

far the stronger of the two. II is unaccOunt-
able to me, how the court martial, cOnvicting
this man on these charges, should IN his case,
have committed the punishment of death for
that Of stripes and Imprisonment, and should
not have recalled the sentence of death It pro-
nOunced against ArbuthnOt. Is it not clear
that upon their own principles, Ambrister was
the more heinous criminal
But if the guilt of these men, with every
imaginable aggravation, be admitted, the
question would still remain whether accord
ing to the laws of nations and the ulsages of
war. they were liable TO the punishment of
death 1t is impossible for the meanest Ca
Dacity to misunderstood the writers on pub
lie law, SO far as to see in them authority for
the m0nstrous principles affirmed in the fatal
general order. Discarding the illustriOus in
stances of La Fayette, Kosciusko, and De
Kalb, the question may be brought immedi-
ately home to our bosOms, in its application
to the humblest and obscurest of mankind.
American and British merchants are, at this
very time supplying the royal and revolution
ary armies in Spanish America, (which ever
affords the best market) with all kinds Ofam
munitions of war 1.-THE masters and crews
of their vessels should be taken in the very
act of carrying on this trade, they are liable
to be arraigned before naval or military
court martial, sentenced and hanged up at the
yard arm, or on the next tree? Many of our
youth have accepted commissions in the pat
riot army, and are fighting the battles of
South American independence should they
fall into the hands of the Royalists, has Spain
a general, or could court martial be detailed
from her armies who would hang them in
cold blood! When hear it urged that Ar
buthnot and Ambrister did not unite in war
with civilized nations, but with the wild saw
ages of the forest, who do not respect the
laws of civilized warfare look into the his
tory of my own country, and find there
thank Cody that such distinction is not to
he injured at this day. We never before
heard Of it.--Had it prevailed | know not
how many Englishmen Gen. Wayne might
have hanged,in the War he conducted against.
the Indians but he could not silence the
pleadings of conscience and humanity in his
own bosom, or encounter the frown of Wash
ington. Had he prevailed, why were not the
British prisoners taken on our northern from
tier during the late war, fighting by the side
of sayages, whom they and their government
had inclted to hostility against us, at a time
too when Ito the disgrace of the British
name) rewards were offered for American
scaIps why were they not all instantly tried
convicted and led to execution
Where las it has justly been asked) was the
necessity Of executing these two men, even if
their sentence was undoubtedly right The
Seminolewar was at an end and had it still
been raging, Gen. Jackson could have sent
these prisoners in chains to the United States
to be dealt with according to the wisdom Of
his government. The blood even of the gull
ty, should not be shed without reluctance
and without any good end.
As to Ambrister, the court martial did not
condemn him to die. The first sentence, as
Gen. Jackson is pleased to consider it, being
instantly rescinded by the court, was, in truth
no sentence at all. X i" His appreciation
could not revive its existence. The last SEN
tence was the only sentence. When the COM
mander in chief disapproved it, the most he
could "ightfully have done was to order the
court martial to reconsider it. By what au.
thority, then, was Ambrister doomed to
death By the sovereign will of Major Gen
eral Andrew Jackson, in whose hands are
the powers of peace and war, life and death.
Mr.. Gales, in his otficious and awkward
zeal to excuse this part of the Generals con-
duct, suggests, that it was, no doubt, dictated
by regard to the wishes of the prisoner,
who preferred death to the ignominious pun
ishment for which that fate was commuted
by the courts This is not mere sur
mise of Mr.. Gales. If the fact were so, it ag-
grayarcs the Generals guilt. A brave man
asking death at his hands, as refuge from
disgrace, should have moved him to respect,
sympathy and pardon. What shall we think
Ofthis man, the utmost stretch of whose Glenn
ency, according to his defenders, was to inllict
death for mercy's sake a!
Thus, sirs, has an American officer destoy-
ed the lives of two of his fellow creatures,
without any rightful power, without any ad-
equate motive, and with such indecent pre-
citancy, as hardly to give time for prayer be-
tween judgment and death. Humanity bleeds
at the recital and national pride sinks in
the American heart oppressed with the load
of shame and grief.
And all that the President of the United
States has said and all that he has done, is. to
tell Congress that copy ofthe proceedings Of
the court martial, in the trial of Arbuthnot
and Ambrister, shall be laid before them, and
to fulfil the promise
Here, sirs for the present, let us shut the
scene. Gen. Jackson, from the moment he
was entrusted with command, has avOwed-
ly and systematically, made his own will
and pleasure, the sole rule and guide of all
his actions; he has suspended the execu|
tive, legislative and judicial functions of the
states, with arbitrary sway, and assumed
to do so as of right; he has insulted the
Executive of the q. States. at whose plea