Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-07-14

the shore. The master was nearly ex-
hansted, and the slave threw him down,
his back falling across rail. The slave
then fell upon him and ohoked him until
an oyerseer who, during the time, having
heard the old mans cries for help, had
ridden two miles, came 70 his rescue
The overseer taking hold of the slave, he
turned upon him. And the overseer states
that he too might have been overpowered
but for the timely assistance of another
slave who helped him to secure the Of
fender, The master, though much bruis.
ed and injured, recovered under the care
of skillful physicians. He stated on the
trial, that he could not doubt that the
slave intended to kill him-that he could
not doubt that he first intended to drown
him-that he intended to kill him with
the stones, and that failing in both, he In.
tended TO kill him with the knife and
that he would have killed him If no assis.
tance had come to his rescue.
This slave, for this outrageous act of
open rebellion against the rightful autho.
rity and life of his master, was tried aud
convicted in the county court of Albe-
marie county, for an assault tot1 intent to
Kill his mGster. The punishment, under
the law, for this offence, was death, and
he was accordingly sentenced TO be hung.
A copy of the record, as is required in
such cases, was sent to the Executive,
and may now be seen in the Office of tho
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Here,
too, as in the Hatcher case, appeared q
petition, but this petition was signed by
the legal profession of Albemarle. The
youth of the slave The was 10 and Jordan
Hatcher was IL. was assigned as one
reason for the commutation asked for, and
another was, that the petitioners did not
want the feelings cfMe good people Of AL-
6enaGrle harFOped IIp Gy Me execution of a
negro IN their midst! THE SPIRIT OF the
AGE F.! Well, the prayer of the petition
was granted, and the punishment COM
muted. And in the commutalion of this
sentence Governor Floyd acted in accor.
dance with the advice Of the executive
counsel, composed at that time, of Messrs
Wiley, John NJ. Patton, an able lawyer
and a most estimable man, and John M.
Daniel, the editor of the Richmond Ex.
aminer. BY whom, think you, was the
petition signed BY the entire bar of
Albemarle county: yes, sirs, by the en-
tire bar of that county. And prominent
among the signatures attached to 1t, are
the names of Nh Farley and Alexander
REEVES, those interesting gentlemen who
now SO ably represent the county Of AL.
bemarle and the Central Railroad, in the
House of Delegates, and who not only vo-
ted for the preamble and resolutions
adopted by the House, but well nigh for
got their native dignity of character in
their untiring search to End in the voca
bulary of abusive epithets, terms suffi-
ciently coarse and strong TO express their
Indignation at the Hatcher commutaLion
And one of these gentleman, Mr.. REEVES,
whose sponsor at the political baptismal
font, declared in his place in the United
States Senate. that slavery was political
and moral curse, insinuated in his place in
the House of Delegates, that the north
west was unsound on the slavery ques.
ton, because, forsooth, /, as one Of your
delegates on that floor, thought proper TO
manifest disposition to vindicate the ex.
ecutive from the unworthy imputatiOns
and clandestine thrusts of willy politicians.
Compare then, the Albemarle with the
Hatcher case. And it will be found that
the former far outstrips the latter, By
the sentence of the courts and the strict
letter Of the law, the penalty in each case
was death. Nothing but executive cle-
mency. after the verdict of the court and
It's sentence was pronounced, could save
either from the gallows. Clemency and
mercy are moral, not legal attributes
Which of these cases, in a moral point Of
view, most strongly recommended the VIC
tim of the law 70 mercy, at the hands Of
the Executive ? In the Albemarle case,
malice, wilfulness Of purpose, and that
deep depravity of the human heart which
prompt TO the commission Of, and consu.
tute the essence Of human crime, were
palpably evidenced in every incident re-
lated at the trial, from the time he threw
his master over the prccipice into the ri
yer, until he was taken of his exhausted
and PROSTATE victim by an overseer, and
secured by him and another slave. In
this case the slave had not been struck a
single blow. He ran at his master, caught
him, pulled him over high bank into the
river,-tried to drown him-tried 10 kill
him with stones-Iried 70 kill him with
the knife, and was in the act Of beating
and choking him to death, when he was
taken of. The old man begged him To-
go away and let him alone, and yet this
slave persisted in his diabolical assault
with intent TO kill, until an OveTseer, who
hearing the cries Of the master. rode two
miles and rescued him. This is a gene
raj outline Of one Of the sixteen cases in
which the punishment was commuted du-
ring the last fiscal year. have thought
proper to comment especially upon il in
consequence of the extraordinary course
pursued by their two delegates in refe-