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

views, you now discover, when too late, that yot
labored under a fatal delusion. 1t is well thai
you, and all others who can only be restrained
from the commission of crime by the fear of tenn
poral punishment, should well understand, tha
though the penalty of your bond had been paid
to the uttermost farthing, the wounds inflicted
upon he criminal lusticeof the country can only
be healed by the prosecution and conviction Of
the offender. It's well, too, that you should
learn that your locality i'll the State OF Ohio was
perfectly well known to the Post Office Depart.
ment, through confidential agent many months
before YOU were arrested. Aconvenient season
for making the arrest, at length arrived and a.
gain YOU are seized and brought back to this bar
a prisoner in chains! Again your unhappy wife
finds the only solace for her wretchedness in al
leviating your own. Once more she is the shar.
err of your prison. and when on Saturday last YOU
made public confession of your guilt, her sobs
and lamentations filled all hearts with profound
sadness.
The story of your temptation and fall is full
of instruction, and it is to be hoped, that Others
as well as Yourself, will read with profit the les
son it inculcates. The duties appertaining to the
smaller post-offices through the country are very
generally discharged by mere boys whose moral
principles have not yet acquired the firmness
and consistency of rnatured manhood. These in
considerate youths are constantly exposed to the
same temptation to crime W hich lured you to
your ruin In the solitude of their little offices
it is terrible to contemplate the severe trials to
which their principles are daily, nightly, hourly
exposed. The immediate gain is certain how
easy to persuade themselves that the chances Of
detection are remote! What wonder, then, that
crimes of this class should be of such frequent oc-
currence! Alas Let all persons thus situated
learn from the feon fate that has overwhelmed
YOU that they stand upon perilous brink from
them in ruin irretrievable! The great moral
taught by your case is, that crimes like yours
are as foolish as wicked. and that to escape de
lection and the ignominious punishment conse-
quent upon it, is almost moral impossibiity.
Standiag as you now do on the threshold ofthe
Penitentiary, it is fiji that should improve the
occasion, by addressing you few words of part
ing counsel. Let me conplre you to use wisely
the time you are destined to spend in confine-
ment in expiration of your offences. Resolve to
lead new life when the term of your imprison-
ment shall have ended-throw yourself unre-
servedly upon the mercy and goodness of God
shun as you would the basiisk TIE evil eve of
the vicious companions whose asspciation cor
rupted your principles and betrayed you into
your fatal error. and we may yet hope that you
may re.establish your claim to the excellent
character you formerly bore, and prove yourself
not altogether unworthy of the heroic woman
whose destiny on earth is bound up with yours
1t only remains to pronounce the sentence of
the law, which is: That you be taken hence to
the public Penitentiary in the District OF Column
bia, and be there confined at hard labor for two
years, and pay iine of one dollar to the United
States.