Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, W.T. [i.e. Wis.]) 1843-1844, 1844-06-22
For the Herald
Ma. EDlros:


half the neighborhoods in the United States.
The emigranis' memory is painted canvass
where you find the portraits of his former
nelghbors, some of them good looking fellows;
others, Il am glad have found them ou,,) I
would not trust with my old shce string. |
had the pleasure of conversing with somo gsn.
iemen who came from Genesee County,
N. Y. who had lived 10 the same neighbor.
hood with Major White, who not long since,
was murdered BY his son, Benjamin White,
Junior. From their narration, l was con.
WINGED that Ben perpetraied the very blakes,
deed that stains the rolls of guilt is the ne
Plus ultra Of human deprayi,y. No future
candidate need at,emptto dispute his righful
claim to be crowned the Monarch of Murder.
ers! Monster as Ben was, his history is worth
Perusal. His unhappy native disposition,
cooperating with iniudcious restraint and cor.
rupt example, could not fail to make him what
ne was. / do not believe that character is
fashioned by circumstances in the same way
that the sculptor's chiAel gives form and shape
t. passive marble; still there does exist, some
how or other, between circumstances and char.
acter. the relation Of cause and effect. The
Law of Gravisation in plucking an apple from
the tree, and directing it with unerring aim a.
the center Of the earth; in causing the descen.
of all heavy bodies, does not act with more
certainty on matter than crcum stances on
mind. BY circumstances l mean every thing
that can give complexion to the disposition.
native or foreign, external or internal. Ben
White perpetrated an act which made nation
shudder; nations feelings can never be for.
gotten. They will quicken the page of hislo.
ny, history will convey the contagion to future
men who will feel them over again. Thejust
detes,ation which virtuous men will ever feel
towards his crime, denies 10 his memory the
hiding place of The grave, but one thought
should humble our pride. What has made us
to differ from him-any self produced wisdom
or goodness Of our own! No! Our reason
ascribes the difference TO that Sovereign Being
who stamped upon our minds happier native
complexion, or soflened its colors by the rtfec.
ted light ofpurer example. Who dares deny,
tina. had he possessed The precise native traits
Of The first murderer, had he encountered SINH.
lar impressions, motives and temptations, nei.
Their more nor less: that he would not have i'm.
bued his hands in Abel's blood! Freely &C.
Ted the first shedder of blood, bu, who dares
deny, upon the conditions just supposed, he
would not have won the same Infamous pre-
eminence, and YET have acted with equal free
doml Ii circumstances thus influence charac.
ter. parents and tutors oughs to make them ia.
vorable. so far as they are under the control Of
man. But to Ben's biography. His father
was member Of the Baptist church, austeTe
and rigid enough; his mother was habitual
drunkard. She was saturated with the milk
Of human kindness, and as the whiskey ran 10,
the milk ran out She succeeded in relieving
the severity of the old gentleman's family dis
lplint: whenever he attempted TO apply the rod
to dear little Benny's back, the old lady with
'hidious outcry" rushed between, like The
"snaly sorceress" between satan and his son,
Grim Death; Of which circumstance the poet
speaks. If all the world had been like this
kind old lady, Benny would have been univer.
sal king al three years old. She submitted IN.
cond,ionly to his sway; always INDUCED. his
temper became violent, aud his presence intol.
cradle to his companions. They hated Ben.
and Ben punctually paid them in hate, with
interest. Naturally sullen and unsocial, his
unfortunate trait, cooperating with the gener-
al dislike of his acquaintance, exied him from
society, and al an early age, he became con-
6rmed man ha,er. In The solitude of the IA.
lighted forest, he lay like viper, and elabora'
ted his malice. His diseased memory was
swollen with secreiicns Of venom and ven
geance, and his only happiness consisted 10
venting his spleen al some victim, little differ
ence who He carried hell always in his
bosom, and his only relief was in transferring
his torture. He was happy if he could sec
some one else suffer. 10 proof ofihis, at the
age of eighteen. he endeavored to put his only
friend, his mother, 10 death, whose indiscreet
fondness had neither won his respect or love.
His mother lay in close room one day. en-
ioying drunken debauch and sound nap
Ben bull, up large fire, fastened the door,
and then assembled the house and stopped up
the chimney. The disappointed smoke was
compelled TO descend-ihe sullen wreaths
,hickeued in The room. The old lady walked
.shrieked--she knew not but she was lmPTls-
oned in the world of despar-she found the
doo.. ierksd il with superhuman strength and