Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1849-10-15
Sentence of StickEcInan.

for publication) was pronounced on T. A. Site
kleman, on Thursday last, by Judge BRocKEN-
BRouGH Judge B. felt that the law had assign
ed him painful duty, and during the delivery
of the sentence the prisoner sobbed aloud, while
the silent and attentive listeners gave evidence
OF emotion, in that a tear glisened in many a
manly eye. Such scenes occur, but too frequent
ly, in our courts of Judcature, yet notwithstand-
ing these, and the eloquent and soul-subdung
language oil the Judge who pronounces the con-
domination of the law upon the culprit, and
which ever meets the approval OF every upright
citizen, still, crime '!stalks abroad, but it will
not go UNPUBLISHED. The unfortunate man who
is now about TO be consigned to a 'felon's doom,
left this county, a few months since, to avoid
trial, but he had scarcely sat down in the State
of Ohio, among strangers, before the eyes of one
most yigilant officers in this government, 1--WE
allude to Marshal Po1NTs) was upon him. Little
did Stickleman think that his location was
known-his movements watched-and that at a
proper time he would be apprehended and bro't
the fact-and may it prove a caution TO all who
are or may be tempted to violate the laws of the
land. Every thing considered, the sentence
pronounced against Stickleman is most merci-
tul one.
SENTENCE.
THOMAS A. SrIcKLEMAN
To denounce the pen
allies of violated law against convicted felon,
after jury shall have determined the extent OF
those penalties, would be of itself painful duty.
Rft,, I l.
you have offended has added greatly to my off
cial responsibility, in constituting me its organ
to ascertain and graduate your punishment ac
cording to nay view of the enormity of your of
fence.
Your country has preferred against you the
charge OF having criminaily appropriated to your
own use the goods OF another under circumstan-
ces which imply the utmost deliberation. The
confidence reposed in your integrity caused you
to be selected as suitable agent to discharge
the duties of a responsible public office. Your
station was an humble one, to be sure, but it con-
ferred upon you extensive capacity for mischief.
The deputy postmaster who controls the most
obscure post-ofEice in the United States if he is
taithless to his trust, may infct most serious
evils on society These evils are by no means
to be measured by the mere amount of money he
may abstract from the mails passing through his
office. When it is known that depredatons
have been committed on the mails every post
master OH the route shares, to some extent the
odium Of the act. Public confidence in the hon
est administration of the Post Office establish
ment, through all its extensive gamifcations, re-
ceives shock from which it can only be relev-
ed by the energetic prosecution of the train of
measures essential TO the detection of the often
der. The means al the command of the De-
partnent for the detection of crime, most ample
for that purpose; are Immediately put in requisi-
ton, and if the guilty man, lulled into sense Of
false security, by previous impurity, perseveres
in his pilfering course, he speedily finds himself
overtaken by the swift vengeance of the law
The prying eye OF confidential agent OF the
Department is upon him, and the culprit is az
rested before time has been allowed 10 destroy
the evidences Of his guilt. When once the Of
Tending postmaster feels the weight of the laws
hand upon him, his fate is already sealed The
proofs Of his guilt are then full, complete, over
whelming, and nothing is then wanting to con-
summate his ruin. The records of this Court,
daring the present year, attest, in the most re-
markable manner the truth of this remark Like
an unhappy youth who was sentenced at this
bar six months ago, for a similar offence, you
have saved the Government the necessity of es-
tablshing your guilt, by the production Of the
ready proofs in it's possession By the advice of
able counsel, who knew that yoar conviction was
inevitable, you have withdrawn your plea to the
indictment exhibited against you and yen now
stand at this bar, convict by your ewn confess
sion. The crime of theft is aggravated in your
case by the betrayal Of confidence reposed, and
takes yet darker hue from the revolving, Heav-
en-daring sin Of perjury!
You are ne stranger, Thomas A. Sticklenaan, at
this bar. Eighteen months ago you We're ar
raisned and tried here for the offence which YOU
have now confessed. The proofs then adduced
were such as to exclude all rational doubt of
your guilt The stolen money and even the very
letter from which il was purioined was found in
your possession and identified, and yet you es-
capped conviction? The jury who sat in judg-
ment apon you could not agree upon a verdict,
and your case was continued What produced
result which astounded most of those who .at-
tended your trial Think you that the proofs
were insufficient to carry conviction to any well
regulated mind whose reasoning powers were
unswayed by passion or sympathy! No There
was no want of completeness in the evidence,
bat your compassionate fury yielded to an APP
peal to their sympathies, so powerful that it
cannot easily fade from the memory of those
who witnessed it. There sat before them one,
who, guiltess herself, shared in full measure the
penalty of your crime. None who heard them
can forget the stifled sobs which escaped her O.
verburdened heart, when letter Astounding in
l
your prison in Harrsonburg, was read to the Jury
by the counsel for the United States. That Jury
knew the mistaken constancy of that woman's
soul under the severest trials to which she could
be subjected. They knew that your guilt and
degradation had but served to develope and to
nourish the deep affection of this true-hearted
woman, and that she had been yo,sr csmEanion
and comforter during the weary hours of your
long Imprisonment. There was something in
expressibly touching in love SO devoted, in grief
so real, 50 eloquent as hers. Manly eyes grew
dim with tears-manly bosoms throbbed with
sympathy. The admissions Of guilt which thai
letter contained were forgotten in the audible
grief which its tenderness evoked, and men who
understood the constitution Of the human hear
= knew that a conviction was then impossible =
But though the amiabe Sentiments awakened ir
the bsoms .pf some of your triers screened 20,
from conviction, it could not avail to secure
your acquittal. You were still detained in Gus