Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1841-04-07
From the Newark Daily Advertiser.
Sentence of Robinson.

Bench to receive his sentence Being asked
by the Chief Justice if he had any thing to say|
why the judgment of the law should not bel
pronounced against him, he answered in low
careless tone, l haze nothing to say" IheI
Chief Justice then proceeded in most feellngI
manner to address the Prisoner, as follows:
Peter RObinson--You stand before the Court
convicted by the verdict of the jury OF the mur-
der of Abraham Suvdam. in the first degree
Have you aught TO say other than wha'' oyI
yourself and by your counsel you nave Already
SAID, why the Court should mol Proceeu 10 pro-
nounce judgment upon you
Prisoner have nothing to say
The Court resumed---After a full, fair, and
impartial trial, with jury selected by yourself
out of large number OF your fellow citizens,
and bv the aid of efficient, honorable and able
counsel, who have left nothing unsaid or un-
done in your behalf which became them, or
which honorable men ought to have said and
done in your behalf you have been convicted
of the wilfui, FOUL malicious, deliberate and
premeditated murder of Abraham Suydam, by
which conviction you are doomed to suffer the
punishment of death
Mr.. Suydam was your eighbor, your fellow !
citizen, and for aught that we know, or has ap-
peared to the Court on the trial, your benetac-
tor. He had conveyed to you lot of land !;
he had advanced you money to build a COM
Portable dwelling thereon, for yourself and fam
iy. In consequence of what he had advanced
10 you, and for the security of the proper pay-
ment 10 him of his money, you had furnished
him with a bond and mortgage on that property.
With these securities on his person, and in his
possession, OH the morning of the Sd Of De-
cember, and as we have reason to fear, in pur-
suance of previous arrangement made by you
with him, he left his home and the bosom of
his family. and entered your house never 10 re-
turn to that home and family alive. 1t is evil
dent that but few minutes elapsed after he
entered your house, before you cruelty murder
ed him, and then robbed your victim of his
money, his watch, and the papers which heI
had about his person; and there, at the bloody
scene of his murder you dug the unhallowedl
grave; and within the walls Of that building
erected by his money, you sought to conceal
his mangled corpse.
Mr.. Suydam was a husband and father, asI
well as yourself; TO him life was as dear, andl
perhaps dearer than 1t was to you; and his DEATH
was as little expected by him at that awful mo-
ment when you killed him, as it was by you
But, unmindful of those dear and blessed ties
which bound him to his home, to his wife andl
his children-unmindful of the ties which equal
ly bound you and him to society---unmindful of
fhe relations in which he stood as your neigh
bor, your friend and benefactor---unmindfu of
that tribunal before which you was about to
send your victim, and before which you would
have to appear---unmndfu Of the vengeance of
a gust and holy God---forgetting that his eye was
upon you then, and would be upon you through
time and through eternity, you committed this
celd-blooded murder
We do not design to dwell upon the details
Of this awful tragedy; its bloody history has
been listened to attentiyely by, and is painful
20 us ALL
Nothing now remains but 10 pronounce the
sentence of the law. And we only pause, Pc
ter Robinson, to warn you against the delusion
OF indulging any hope that you can by any pos
slbility escape the vengeance OF the law. If
chains, if bolts and bars, and human ingenuity
and watchfulRess can prevent it, you can never
escape from the custody of the law, but by
death. And we warn you against the slightest
hope that executive interference will be ex-
tended in your behalf.
The outraged majesty of the law demands
your life, and nothing else will satisfy it. We
only, therefore, as your fellow men, and with
The sympathy due TO you a fellow crea-
ture here pause 10 commend you 10 Him whose
blood alone can wash out the guilt which rests
upon your dying soul. Your blood falling upon
the ground cannot restore the life of him whom
you murdered, nor prepare him for that eterni-
~ into which you sent him without a warning.
But unlike his sad close Of life, sometime IS
allowed you TO prepare for that awful change
which you have shortly TO undergo. We com
mend you to God. We commend you to that
Saviour of men through whose mediation alone
you can hope for forgiveness hereafter.
You cannot intend to assume an idle indif-
ference TO your fate, to the solemn death you
have so soon to undergo, or to the scenes of
eternal life that you have to pass through. You
may affect an indifference 10 all this; you may
reject the Bible, and the ministers of Christ,
and those consultations which they may seek
10 offer you.
But God knows your heart. You may de-
ceive men; you may die as the fool dieth; but