Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-10-16
Sentence of Arrison the Internal
Machine Man.

| AlaCnlne Man.
In the Court Of Common Pleas at Cincn.
natl last week, VIM. Arrison, convicted
of manslaughter, Upon an indictment tor the
murder of Isaac Allison, was brought up
for sentence. The prisoner looked as usual
and manifested no emotion of any kind
Judge Parker proceeded to pass sentence in
the following terms.
The crime for which you were indicted is
| the highest known to the law, and the Cir
cumstances disclose at the trial were such
as have never been developed in the annals
of crime. On the facts then disclosed there
could be in, our opinion, no question as to
the degree of crime. If guilty at ell you
were of murder in the first degree.
The Jury, by their verdict, have found that
you were the person who Caused this intern
al machine to be constructed and tran3mit-
ted to the victim; but from a mistaken
ph!lanthrophy applied to the individual, in
stead OF the protection of the community,
| or for some other reason wholly incompre-
hensible to us, have found tha; you had no
intention Of taking human lite; and that
You are guilty of manslaughter only.
With this finding we have no power, if
we had the inclination, to interfere. Our
dliy is 10 pass sentence upon the verdict
Assuming, as the jury have found, and as
the evidence detailed upon the trial does not
permit us to doubt, tn lat you were really the
guilty agent in preparing and transmitting
to Isaac Allison the instrument which caus-
ed his death, and what spectacle of human
depravity does the case present.
For real or tanced injury inflicted upon
you by some one, you conceive desire Of
avenging yourself, which required nut only
premedilation and deep thought, but the ex-
ercise of no small degree of inventive
genius to perfect. Every step must have
been stuCied. The Construction of the box
designed to conceal the machine had to be
peculiar, lest it should exploce in the act Of
arranging the lid, and destroy the protector
The tube, the disposition OF the pistol lock ),
the addition CT Il nail to the trigger 10 IN
crease the leverage, and thus the more easi-
ly and surely TO spring the lock-the con-
struction oil the meters which formed the
groove in which the lid ran, SO that they
might be screwed on, after the machine was
set and the lid in lis Pace-all these show
cautious determination to avoid all chance
Of failure, which could only be the result of
long continued and ingenious reflection;
and When the machine was thus prepared,
the sending it for any purpose into crowd
ed hospital, where lis explosion must neces-
sarily endanger, and would in all human
probability, destroy the lives of men already
sick and disa bled, (and who could not by
any possibility have injured you.) evinced
reckessness in the imperiling of human life
and corruption uf heart and feeling which,
for the honor Of our common nature, we
would have hoped did not exist in any one
bearing the form of man.
All this the jury have found you did and
FOR what purpose! To wreak your venge-
anee on man who had overcome you in
personal encounter or <taking the hypothesis
upon which we suppose the jury predicat-
ed their verdict,) to avenge yourself by
mean attempt to destroy the property of one
who had failed to pay you sum of money
which he owed
The fatal engine die its work bu: too ef-
fectually. Totally unsuspecting, the wife
Of your victim, (herself soon to become SOY
upon receiving the box, ran with it to her
husband. Eager with curiosity TO see what
was the present which she supposed some
friend had sent her, she stands oyei him,
while he removes the cover. 1t explodes.
and Two human beings, who moment be-
fore were buoyapt with health and strength
and looking forward to the ordinary term Of
life, lie wounded, torn and dying upon their
own hearth stone. No warning of their
terrible fate was IvOuchsaled them; but at
once in the sacredness of their family
privacy, and by their own fireside, they
we're hurried, by dreadful death, into E.
ernty.
In the silence and solitude of the cell to
which the law consigns you, ample time will
'e afforded for reflection and repentance.
Young as you are, and bright as were your
prospects in life, before the act OF which
ou have oeen convicted, your hopes in this
re gone forever. Shut Out from associa-
ion with the good and virtuous, your society
Or long years to come, must be the desrad-
d and the vile. Nor do the conseq nences
top with your own punishment. The in
ocent suffer with the guilty, and all who
re near g. dear to you must partakQ,in some
egree, in your degradation. That lather.
rho with unblanched check, and kindIing s
ye, upheld the honor of his country's flag, i,
n field where deaths richest harvest was
saped, must veil his face, and bow his y
,hiteDed head with shame, when the name I
f his son is mentioned in his hearing, and a
,e mother, whose undying love will cling a