Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1845-12-25
SATURDAY, December 90.


hawked about the streets yesterday, that the un.
fortunate young lady (who was the subject of
The late lawless outrage, and for which three
felons have suffered death and another has been
condemned to forty-two years imprisonment.) is
still pursued with vindictive and fend- like ma.
| lgniiy. The condemned villains, who have been
separated from society by iron bars and pri-
son walls, have fouad channel through which
they have spewed out on the community their
last filthy and malignant thodgtis while on their
way to the galiows. Afamphlet has been put
In circulation, purporting TO come from nowhere
aud to be written by nobody, as the last confess
4 sion oil the negro Jim, in which he is made the
hero OF a successful amour, rather than the demon
oil aggression on innocence and virtue. He an.
pears as the master spirit Of the banditti of that
memorable night whose history has startled every
family and shocked The virtuous sensibilities Of
our peaceful community; he indicates their course
and points the way-others break open the door
oil that castle where the widow and orphans re-
| posed in unprotected confidence; he prostra,es
his companions on one hand and misdirects them
on the other, while he pushes on the game f'ynp
under cover of the darkness from her pursuers
After many adventures between the house and
the woods, he overtakes her, she yields, trusts
herself to him, leans on his shoulder, places her
hand in his boson submits to his black and foul
embrace.
| Thus, young lady, who has stood before the
tribunals oil your courts The most trying tests of
character, where the liberty and lives of four men
hung on the testimony of her oath, against whom
not whisper OF reproach could be summoned to
inva'idate that oath may more, who brought
INTO that court more blameless character than
can be claimed for most even bameless women
WHO has been known TO sustain the most haz-
auons conspiracies against her virtue and TO have
repealed, with moral dignity and witherinu scorn
favorable but dishonorable advances of .skins
coIofed like her own," this young woman is pre-
senied to us In this filthy pamphlet as conseniing
TO the foul embrace of the black and foul demon,
whom she has since identified and sworn to as
her ravisher and thereby consigned TO the gallows
with his two guilty associates.
Who has committed this outrage, scarcely in
ferior TO the FIRST on a most virtuoHs and innocent
female! Has she not already suffered enough :!
Must The foul breath OF these dying !eons be COL
lected as they pass from the prison the gal!ows
and be poured out on this flower which they have
already tramped in the earth, lest it may by pos.
J sibilty be revived and take root in some secu-
| ded garden which most amiabe public charity
has designated!
No sir She has been adopted by the county
that knows well her former blameless life
| Knowing :hat The scanty earnings of her great
! industry have been the principal dependence of
| her widowed mother and several Younger chill
dren-and that the injuries she had received, be-
sides throwing permanent impedinents in the
way OF her successful labor for the future had
also seriously endangered her health, generous
community came promptly forward, and have
Piedged the means TO purchase for them a few
acres OF land and an humble cottage where this
outraged family may be gathered again When
this arrangement was announced 10 her, | am
told she could not conceal her emolions-.nd
when asked where she desired to have this home
provided Tor her, she replied with a characeris-
tic self-respect, "iet IL be in The neighborhood
! tc"ere am hn",Dn. les-we repeat, let it be
In the county OF Augusta, where The respect and
confidence Of the brave hearts that have promptly
avenged her wrongs are around her and with her
Let her ever be made feel that until she forCes
their confidence by her own dereliction, she will
always retain it; that her injuries will even deep
en- the current OF public sympathy towards. her in
this centre oil public charities; that whenever any
may attempt other injuries upon her, of whatever
CHARACTER they shall he called into open court,
ike their predecessors. TO answer the claws de-
a'ands While the community that has known
her will again assemble there, TO look her accu-
sers In the face and tell her history.
Sir is there no law TO suppress this foul libel
Is there no justice for those who circulate it-and
Tor her who suffers by it, There is.
when saw that detected, quivering, withered
girl in your court house, and her ravishers in the
hands of justice, and the law in contact with The
criminals-when saw those stout men incarce.
rated, In irons, one adjudged for life 10 the Pcni.
Tertiary and three 10 the gallows-when saw
the bayonets fixed and the array of power inyo-
UNFAIRLY Ieaplng to the protection Of euale inno-
cence, could not suppress self.congratulation
that my family reposed under such public sem
timent and administration of law where poverty
IS no crime-were, If compelled to leave them,
as expect 70 leave them poor, they will yet new
er be unprotected by the strong arm Of a vir.uous
community. Let them live in old Augusta where
they are known, and where to be favorably
known is TO share In public sympathy that is
well directed by high moral sense and sustain
ed by The power OF an honest, hardy and yirtuous
democracy.
Once more it is necessary 10 come to the pro-
lection of this injured girl. Let it be done with
no morbid sensbity, but according to the merits
OF the case. We are again called 10 say whether
we believe her oath on which they were adjudg-
ed to the galows before their confession of the
crime, or In contradiction to that TO believe the
written and published confession o. Jim, which
calls on MS to repTess our sympathy towards the
wllhered victim of their brutal lusl-a BLOOMING
young woman, who, we may well suppose as he
says pleaded for her lfe in view of the drawn
knife, but who declared TO the first female she
met, and on whose bosom Of sympathy she could
lean, that il would have been better for her if
they had taken it.
understand on the best authority that the con-
iessons OF Jim and OF the others, made separate
~ and apart TO the Reverend gentleman who adj
Ininslered TO their spiritual necessities in prison.
coincide remarkably with each other, and in The
most material points with the testimony of the
young lady herself, while they are at material
variance with the published confession. under
stand also on the same authority, that at the aw-
iul moment when the officers of justice ordered
the prison 10 be cleared that The prisoners might
be conducted 10 the place Of execution, jim, de-
ciared and repeated in the presence of several
cleTgymen that all he had confessed TO the Reue-
rend gentleman and recorded by him Uas true.
FIAT JUSTITIA.
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