Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1849-05-09
FEDERAL coURr-cAsE OF J. D. rENroN

TON, who stood charged on thirteen indictments,
with stealing money from the Post Office in Win
chester, on four Of which he had been arraigned
and plead "not guilty." at the las, term.
On the first day ofthe Court the Prisoner, through
his counsel p. Williams, Esq, asked leave to
withdraw the pleas-ho made a full confession Of
his guilt declared tka. no one be-, himself was i'm
plcated in the affair, and submitted TO the Judgment
of The Court. The money, he said, was in his pos
session with list of the owners, to whom it would
be returned.
Witnesses were examined TO prove the previous
good character Of the unhappy young man, and the
prosecuting Attorney entered no'te proseqri to all
the indictments except the first on which the CON
fession was made. The Judge took till the next
morning to consider the case, at which time he SEN
tehced the prisoner TO four years confinement in the
United States Penitentiary, and delivered the fol
lowing appropriate and touciing Address.
JOHN ID. FENTON!
You have been arraigned at the bar of
tins Court for violating, in numerous instances,
the laws of your country; and so overwhelming
was the proof of your guilt that your eminent
counsel have adopted the very unusual course of
entering plea of guilty! to the indictments ex-
hibited against you. You stand convicted, by
your own confession of very heinous offences,
III the eye, both of moral and municipal law,
and the painful duty is devolved upon me of
determining the extent of the punishment
which, Under al the circumstances OF your case,
should be meted out to YOU.
Constituted as society is, il may be affirmed as
an universal truth, that the consequences of crime
are never limited 10 its perpctrator. In theory,
indeed, the vengeance of the law is visited only
upon him who has dared TO violate it, yet it is a
mournful truth that there breathes not a human
being who is so utterly insulated from the pri-
vate relations of life as that the Just punishment
OF offended law can 'befnilicted without wiring
ing with anguish the heart of some doating wife,
or husband, or father, or mother, or brother, or
SISTER, or child. Alas. how painfully is this sad
truth realized on the present occasion He from
whose IONS you sprung and VINO watched over
the fair promise of your infancy and early youth
with paternai tondness, did not indeed live TO
witness and to share the degradation of his child.
A mercitul Providence has provided for him in
the grave, secure refuge from the Mortal agony of
this fatal hou; But the mother who bore YOU,
the excellent woman whose breasts nourshed
your infancy & who endeavored with seduous
care, TO train you up in the way that you should
60 she is here to drink to the dreas the bitter
cup which your infatuation and your crimes have
commended TO her reluctant lips! No earthly
hand can pluck OIt the rooted sorrow which af-
flicts that mothers heart--no pen can paint no
tongue can adequately tell the intensity of that
anguish which has almost rent f,lat heart in
twain! AT such an hour as this, when the
child of her affection stands before her, con-
v;cted feion at the bar of Justice the man of
sensibiliy cannot but feel how utterly impotent
Is even the voice of the sympathisng friends who
surround her to assuage the poignancy of her
grief What heart does not unite in the fervent
prayer, that she may find in the consolation of a
holy religion balm for her wounded spirit?
The case exhibited on your trial, John d. Fen
ton: Is Il most strange and anomalous one. Had
the benefits of sound moral and intellectual cul-
ture been withheld from you, had you grown up
neglected boy with no anxious and iudicious
parents to instil into your infant mind the prin-
clpfes of piety and yirtue-had your youth been
marked by indulgence in dissipation and vice
we could well account for the commission of the
crimes which now about to consign you to
a telons fate. But none Of these usual precursors
of crime heralded your fall. Born of most rep
utable parents, who carefully trained you to
the practice OF virtue, you early formed for your
self character which seemed TO be the natural
result of your birth and education. Your punctu-
al performance ofevery duty, your remarkable
exemption from every vicious habit, your scru-
4blous fidelity to every trust contided TO You,
was the frequent topic of remark among those
who had the best opportunity of knowing you
You had not the poor plea of necessity to tempt
you to indulge III dishonest practices, for your
rare qualifications for usefulness would always
have ensured you competency at least, if not
ultimate wealth. You could not have needed
money, indeed, for it is in proof that of all the
large sums you distracted from tie mails the
fruits OF your systematic depredations. through
three entire months every dollar was found in
your possession, carefully boarded at the time of
your arrest. How then are we TO account for
the strange inlatuation which hurried you into
the commission of the series of crimes for which
you are about to suffer Avarice has been call
ed the vice otage, but the story OF your melan-
choly fall leaves us no room TO doubt That the
blight of this most despicable vice may some
times fall upon the youthful heart, wither It's
best affections, and fearfully peryert the whole
moral nature of him who becomes its slave when
the dawn of manhood has scarcely been attained.
We have memorable proof here that this base
passion is the most exacting of all task masters
and remorslessy c6nsigns its victim to ignominy
and chains.
cts true, It's pity,
And pity It's, It's true"
a terrible retribution has overtaken you, but
the trusting heart of vour devoted friends will