Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1845-10-03
SCENE IN A COURT HOUSE.

l have scarcely witnessed one, OF any Char
acter, these four years past. l went into a
Court House, the last week, to witness the
closing defence of a criminal trial. was
mortified and ashamed to see a young bar
rister, acting for the government, display the
zeal Of a pirate partiZan, for the convrctlon
Of the prisoner. Partizan zeal Is tolerable
in the c~onseBding counsel in a civil suit
where nothing but money is at stake on ell
Their side. But here the result was TO be the
State Prison on the one side, to a young
man with a family of little children,-and on
the other a successful attempt of the Govern
ment to rescue a citizen from punishment,
which is the legal duty of the State, | hold,
whenever it possible can. The law pre-
sumes innocence, and the State ought keep
good the presumption, if possible, against
the complainant in its behalf. But the
young counsellor seemed to labor to procure
the unfortunate prisoners conviction. l
would not attribute any worse motive to him
than a desire to establish a professional rep
~utation. That he could attempt this, at such
a risk of the prisoner, seemed to me hard
hearted. / have thought highly of the pro-
fession of the Law compared with divinity;
but really it is a cruel one. He was a young,
educated Internationally dressed, and
apparently in easy circumstances: struggling
before a Jury, agonizing almost, to get them
to send a poor fellow, three or four years, to
the State Prison. He might about as kindly
have fifasdered him on the spot. Himself
would rather be shot dead, than sent there.
And so, evidently, had the wretched prison.
er. The Counsellor, the Jury and the Court
did not seem to care any more about him
than if he had been a carcass they were ex-
perimenting on, in galvanism. The Jury
seemed quite at ease, as though they had
nothing very trying to themselves on their
minds. The Judge appeared DESTROYS of
discharging his part creditably ,-anxious for
the Law, but not at all troubled lest that
young man, the prisoner, should be torn
from his family and sent to the State Prison.
He might have been troubled about it,-but
it did not appear. Perhaps if he had cared
any thing about the fate of the prisoner, it
would nave disqualified him to pass sentence.
l went in, in the afternoon, to hear the
verdict of the Jury; for | couldn't stay to wit
ness the efforts Of the young counsel for the
State. While the jury delayed, | heard the
rafting of chains, and an officer came in,
conducting two convicted men to receive
their sentence. They were chained together.
One of them had been convicted of passing
a counterfeit dollar, and the other of altering
a promissory note. The latter was said tC
be a man of hitherto irreproachable charac'
ter; and he looked the very picture of despair
His entrance and the rattling of his chain
and his countenance of death attracted bu
little attention, and apparently awaked M
sympathy at all. | was a spectator. l will
not say any thing of my W feelings
They were undoubtedly morbid. The Clerl
at length called the men by name and reaC
them their sentence. 1t was serious to them
but the clerk did not seem to be aware of it
He read it audibly-and accurately, ant
with proper emphasis. 1t consigned one o
the men to three days solitary confinement
and three years hard labor,-the other to 81,
DAYS solitary confinement, and eight year
hard labor, in the State Prison. This maj
has a wife and seven children. When hi
sentence was read, he settled down in tn
box, as if he had received a bullet in hi
bosom, and his countenance looked as
should suppose a mans would who had re
ceived a mortal gun-shot wound. The Judge
in a very quiet business like way said, "Mr
Sheriff let the prisoners be remanded." Ill
then proceeded in the same tone, to decide I
motion for a continuance Of a civil suit
about which two attorneys were talking t
him. They none of them, seemed to b.
aware of what had happened to the men il
chains. And when the officer conducted
them out, one of them looking more like
dead man than a living, l almost wished h
was a dead man, for his sake and his fami
ly's-and their chains ratified on the court
house fioor-it escaped the notice of tn
Judge and the attorneys altogether. The,
, were engaged in e~ffecting that continuance
: Those prisoners came to Concord in the sam
stage with me. j talked with the Sheri.
! about them. He said he never had seen
man suffer like the man | last mentioned.
went to him, upon the top of the stage, an
tried to impart some little CLEANS of consc
3 lation to him. ] told him the warden of th
Prison was a very humane and kind-hearte
: man, and he would not be treated as prison
ar formerly vere tycsted--snd that thcl