Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1840-09-03

closure. This act of mercy, which spar.
ed our country the disgrace of capital
punishment, for a political offence, we
record with pleasure, to the credit Of
John Adams. 1t is one Of the redeem
ing traits of that mans motley character
and checkered politics, which, added to
the frank acknowledgment of the error
of his measures, has all but rescued his
memory from the odum that still attach
es TO the detestable principles of his ad-
ministration; TO his coadiutors in those
days, and to those who revive his doc
trines in ours. Cooper, name dear TO
learning and freedom, the halElapidated
victim of Ptt-excied mob at Birmlng.
ham, the fellow-sufferer and fellow-exile
Of PrestIy-let Democratic naturalized
Englshmen reminder this at the Novem-
Der pols-Cooper was marked as the
next object of Federal persecution. He,
too, like Lyon, had resolved TO dare the
terrOrs Of the new law. OF men and
measures he wrote with the same free
dom, which Pitt had summary punished
by the hands of hired bulles. He pour
ed out his thoughts without anger or NAL
ice, but with the boldness of one con-
sGiods of his rights, and having the cour-
age to assert them.-We have not his tri-
al at hand; memory, however, serves US
in the recollection Of his warm and elo-
quent, yet guarded expressions; clothed
in that language of courtesy, which men
accustomed to the elegalcies of literary
composition, can always command to
render truth, if not welcome, at least in
offensive to power. But against pr ede-
termined judgment, nothing could avail!
The words set forth in the Indictment,
were, as in the case of Lyon, deemed Ii
bellous by the court; and he, also, was
imprisoned and fined!
Richmond, the capital of Democratic
Virginia, in turn became the theatre,
where like scenes were enacted; and, as
is the wont with unrestrained power, as
sumed or delegated, the judges conduct
was more at war with judicial usages and
official decencies than even in Pennsyl-
vania and Vermont. The zeal of grand
jurors was excited by inhammatory har-
angues, under the disguise of instruc-
tons as to the mode of dischargng their
high functions. Offenders were not
named; but so designated as to be uner-
ringly marked for prosecution, and pre-
declared guilty of the infractions alleged
AGAINST them. in advance of their cOndem-
nation. Even lawyer thought 10 be
Democrat-time has since shown that he
was not very fervent in that taith--was
bullied and insuted, sometimes with keen
and bitter sarcasms, and again with aus
tere and contemptuous censures.
"While the judiciary were satistacto-
rily performing the part assigned to them
in the drama Of that gloomy period, the
military did not rest idly under arms.
William Duane, for some alleged publi-
cation, which had wounded the morbid
susceptibility of some black cockade he
ro, was attacked in his printing Office
struck to the ground-inhumanly tramp
led upon, and left woltering in his blood!
This was the last act, the crowning
glory of the days Of terror. The profit
gate Federal press, daily reviling the
memory of Franklin; the cannibal songs;
the mad antics of embroidered Federal
mobs, insulting Jefferson whenever he
walked the streets of Philadelphia; nay,
scofing at him in front of that very Hall
where sat the old Congress, and whence
was sent forth to the world his Declar-
alton of IndependenCe-tbe noblest ap-
peal ever addressed to God and man in
the name of an oppressed people; inturl-
ated bands of brawlers, disturbing the
I privacy and rest of the sage by nightly
bowling under his windows, mOcking the
ferocious yell of beasts of pray; these
clamors of royalists and tories; these loud
vaunt.ngs of the discomfted of 1888;
these delyngs of theirs, hurled at those
who had conquered them at Bunker
Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, and York; all
these, at last, reused the sleeping ener-
gies of the people. The State Legisla-
iure gave the signal. Virginia in '97, as
in '76, took the lead. Kentucky, the
child of her nurturing, responded to her
call. 1t was a bloodless revolution; but
still revolution. 1t was a re-enactment
of the bill of rights;a second adoption
of the Declaration of Independence; re-
proclaiming of the Constitution; new
apotheosis ofthe heroes and sages of the
war of freedomp'
f A DEMOCRAT OF '9S.