Litchfield enquirer., 1850-09-19
LITCHFIELD ENQUIRER
MTCHFIELD. sept. I2, 1850.
THE sHrTTENTCE.

prisoners, BALcoNTB, CALHOUN and MENAs- SETH, convicted of the murder ot Barnice White, in Colebrook, in March last, were brought into Court to receive the sentence of the law. A great crowd of both sexes were assembled to witness the solemn proceedings. After the usual preliminaries, each of the pris> toners was asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronoun- ced upon him, Balcemb and Calhoun said No; Menasseth responded in few almost in. audable words, to the effect that he was in- nocent. and that if he was hung he should die an innocent man. Chief Justice CHURCH then proceeded to address them as follows;
 The spectacle presented before us is such an one, as has never before been witnessed in this State, and seldom, if ever, anywhere. k
 Here are two young men, just emerged from boyhood-young men, born and reared in this community, where moral and religious instruction has been offered to them from infancy, without money or price; and where the examples of the virtuous and the good have surrounded them as they have grown up to manhood here they stand at the bar of this Court to hear the hard sentence of tEe law, which is to separate them from all their cherished hopes of life, and doom them to a dishonored and infamous death.
 And beside them, stan Is one awaiting the same sad fate, and who has probably been an artful and chief instigator of the murder of an old man who had done them no wrong.
 And there are, as we suppose. parents and brethren, and friends, of these un- happy ones, whose sufferings are as great as theirs.
 We know nothing of your formerlives, unfortunate young men, except what we may infer from the facts proved against you here.
 Probably the companionship of the idle and the vicious, and disposition to initiate thousands of the more favored young men among us, who attempt to live and thrive in the world without the honest industry absolutely necessary to secure fair reputation and comforta> ble competence, has been chief cause of your present condition. But of one fact we have proof. The bottle, that fatal bottle which was brought from Ar nums, if it did not instigate the conspir- acy to rob the house of Barnice White, it provoked the courage and it nerved the hands to the deed of blood of which you now stand convicted.
 This is the second if not the third oc- casion within the year, in which have been required, in the painful discharge of official duty, to pronounce the sentence of death for murders committed under the influence of ardent spirits
 All the powers of the pulpit and the press--all the efforts which philanthropy can suggest, are in exercise to stay the progress of intemperance but still it goes on, hurrying it's victims to the gal lows and the grave.
 You thought, no doubt, that yeur plans to perpetrate the deed and to es- cape detection, were well laid, bat the Intoxicating draughts which gave you courage, did not give you discretion. This they never do.
 The act you contemplated required a confederacy. Nothing is more unsafe for those who pcrpetrate crime than cons federacy. There is no principle of hon. or in such an association to prevent a betrayal. And there often is, as there has been in your case, conscience some where, which cannot be restrained from speaking in so loud voice as to be heard in ops full confession, that we all may see and feel that "though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished.
 Your condition has, during your long trial, excited the most marked compassion of this whole community So young SO inexperienced in the acts and danger ous ways of vice, as two of you are.
 Every one engaged in your detection and trial has felt this. The public pros ecutor and the gentlemen associated with him, have extended to you unusual for- bearanee and kindness. Everything which eloquence and argument could sug- gest and enforce, have been brought to your aid, by distinguished counsel.
 But an impartial jury of your fellow citizens have upon a patient and full in- vestigation. pronounced one of you guilty of the murder of Barnice White. in the first degree--one of you stands convicted of the same murder by your own confes- sion and plea of guilty. in open Court, and what this courtnpon due inquiry has found to be also murder in the first degrss. And another of you has been found guilty of having aided. assisted, abetted and counseIled, that same mur, der to be committed.
 You are all therefore involved in the same guilt and by law subjected to the same penalty a0hich penalty $ death, 7 WQ hnfrouf rn,,f fns anend the brief