Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-05-16
ALEXANDRIA, ID. G..
MONDAY MORNING, MAY IS, 1881

MONDAY MORNING, NAY Is, 1881.
NJ Deaths and Marriages are never copied
from other papers, by US. unless by request.
&0eS
rThe Telegraph should give US credit Tor
the notices of our Flour and Grain Market, which
it regularly copies without acknowledgment.
-INSS
IRON no account, either as advertisements or
otherwise, will we give place to any matter
touching differences and disputes which may
happen to arise in religious communities IN town.
-laEn>
Alderman Stevens, the great bug-bear Of the
Regency party 10 New York, has been elected
presiding officer of the Board of Aldermen. -
This is no small triumph.
The Van Buren, presses are feeling the pubic
pulse as to the propriety of appointing their ia
yorite to some other Office? What strange ap-
petite some men have to feed on treasury pap;
or. as John Randolph used to say, to stand at the
publc crib filled with the public corn. -
-lNs>
Mr.. Randolph's Secretary ccrtifes in favor OF
his patror's good conduct.-This is grateful and
proper There is much evidence, however, on
the other side.
ANS
1t is our misfortune to feel very acuteiy for the
miseries and dstresses of our fellow men; nor
can we be insensible to wretchedness, even al
though we know guilt has brought it on. We
profess not to be stoical philosophers. The spec
tacle of human suffering is enough, without calm
ly weighing the causes which have lea to- or
might have operated to prevent, that SUFFERING.
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-smsu IoI Is,lgm euoosq u!sSp seq qo!!qM'su!!H1uM
IU 10 esvo sqlo3 sousIeJsI u! AIuu'aI sup sHrgl IA
took us to task for expressing regret at the tate OF
Watkins-as if we could feel any thing else than
regret at the sad sight of fallen man and ruined
family. We do not envy the disposition OF him
who could survey such a scene without emotion,
and we would spurn the bastard who could cold
" insult, or wantonly attack, the afflicted in such
a case. Admitting the crimes and errors OF
Watkins to have been double what they were, no
humane heart could refuse its sympathy.
The facts in this case are enough to excite pity
in the breasts even of the enemies of the uDtOr-
tunate man. For a defalcation-a criminal one,
we admt.-he has been tried as culPrit-and
now suffers the punishment of protracted and
close Imprisonment, without the prospect of its
ever ending. His character has been ruined
his family have been dlssraced. The iron has
not only entered his soul, but has been made to
wound the innocent and unoffending. Malice
ought to be !satiated, hatred gorsed with his suf
ferings. Where is now his fame, his reputation,
his friends? Where his hospitality and generous
feelngss-his domestic hreside-his happy fami-
lys And vet they refuse to liberate him: they
hold him in their clutch with savage vengeance.
Because, even in the depths Of his degradation
and misery, he refuses to play the suppliant, and
sue for mercy to those who have never yet shown
him any. they will not condescend to open the
prison doors! They must be knelt to, forsooth,
before they will let the captive 60 free. 1t is well
known that Watkins never will be able to pay
the fine imposed upon him. And. unless they
reIent. he is shut out forever from the world, and
doomed to imprisonment for life.
How seemingly hard. sometimes, are the de-
crees Of Providence! There are those now riot
ing in wealth and MISUNDERSTANDING in giIded
rags in the broad face of the public gaze, whose
moral guilt is ten-fold blackei than ever was
Watkins. Men who have flched the public
money, defrauded the public treasury, cheated
the government, enriched themselves at the ex-
pense of hopesty-are allowed to 'sstrut their
brief hour upon the STAGE" while this solitary
object of political vengeance sinks to the very
dust under the weight Of his condemnation -
The picture is sad 0ne-too sad for US to study
long without emotion.
-4AGb
We referred. last week. to the project now
before the public touching the re-entombment of
the remains of the Mother of Washington; and
gave an extract from the memorial of the inhabit
ants Of Fredericksburg, with some other facts
relating to the same subject. From correspon-
dence between Mr.. Gusts and Mr. Gordon. the
proprietor of the estate upon which rest the re-