The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1840-09-19
Number S9E.

Gren named, ana the nuSoand OF kosann3
Brown.
About severity witnesses were examined
and after the testimony had been summed
up, Judge Burnside delivered his charge to
| the Jury, and in such brief sketch as this
is designed to be, that address cannot be ex-
pected in full; it however sustained the high
| and honorable reputation he has SO long
held. 1t embraced full and clear view of
all the evidence, and the bearing which that
| evidence had upon the case; he defined the
nature of circumstantial evidence, and how
far that evidence was deserving of credit by
a Jury; he agreed with the learned Counsel
for the deiendnnt,on the danger Of this kind
of evidence, and yet maintained the princi'
pie, that when the several circumstances
were Of such kind as to connect and
strengthen each other,and to present an ur-
broken whole, it was the best kind of testi-
mony; he admitted that many of the cir
cumstances offered as proof in the case then
before them were weak and in themselves
insufficient to convict the prisoner, but that,
when viewed as a whole, the several cr-
cumstances proved his guilt from the man
ner in which the whole transaction was
performed. 1t appeared impossible .rhat
any one could have done it, nuless they
were intimate in the family, and acquainted
with the premises;he who took the children
but on different pretences, Elizabeth and Ja-
cob for berries, and George and David to
hunt, must have been intimate in the family
| and had the confidence Of the children. The
prisoner had this knowledge; had this conf.
dence. He then referred to the other testi.
mony, the testimony of Mr.. Brown, proving
the identity of McConaughy, when he fred
at Brown; the testimony of the brothels and
others, proving the falgehoods by which
McConaughy allured the oldest son >hoSme
on the fatal dayi the contradictory 'aecounts
relative to the way passed that day, and
closed with an appeal to the Jury, that
Whatever were their impressions, shey
should tearessly do their duty. The Jury
retired for about three quarters of an hour,
and came into court with verdict Of g,ahv
Of nurder in theJirSt degree. The prisoner
heard the sentence, and dropped his head
and wept like child; but they were tho
tears OF the trembling coward, not of the
Penltent for the next morning he ordered
his best friends out Of his prison room when
they called to see him, and accused them of
swearing away bis life.
Here follows condensed view of all the
circumstances Of this hcrrd butchery las dis.
closed. by the testimony:
On the SOth of May last, early in the
morning Robert M'Conaughy left his home
about one bundled yards from his father
in-law's Mr.. Brown, to go to his mothers
on Jacks mountain, aboultw miles off,
his wife and children went with him-thev
reached there about half past o'clock in
he morning, and got their breakfast. Two
'f Roberts brothers having left for grub
'ing frelic. az Eichael M'Conaughy's,
'roIher, living in Hare Valley; iha! after
breakfast Robert left there, and until near
rundown was not seen by aay one in the
leighborhoOd, unless by the murdered; that
m the day before the murder he went TO
lr' CrotlcTs, where John Brown the OIL
est son was living, and told John that if he
you'd come hone the next day, and bring
en dollars with him, old Mr.. Brown would
It John have ColGlhat it was well known
M'COnaughy, that John had long been
'aniing 10 buy that Colt from his father,
nd consequently that he could tell John
oIhlng which was better calculated TO get
IN home; that John wanted to defer COM
g home until Sunday, but Robert told him
would not get seeing the old man, that
the fatal day Of the murder, cid Mr..
rown left Matilda Furnace, where he had
zen working all the week, and arler pass
g several persons and places, all which
as fully and clearly proved, he reached
'me about five o'clock in the afternoon