Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1858-05-15
The Federal Court.

Baylor based the motion upon the ground
that the Court had erred in allowing the
confession Of the prisoner to go to the jury,
ana argued that it should hayebeen exclu-
ded, because it was obtained under an
inducement held out BY prisoners father in
presence Of a person believed by prisoner to
have been an officer, and cited various au-
thorities in support Of his motion. His,
honor, Judge BRocEESBRouGH, overruled
the motion and then pronounced the follow
ing sentence, to which the prisoner listened
with stole Indifference
SAMUEL BLEwIrT:-
You have been arraigned
and tried on charge of violating the laws
of your country. AS an employee of the
Post Office Department it was your official
duty, enforced by the solemn sanction Of an
oath, to discharge with fidelity, the impor-
tant trust committed to you. As carrier
Of the mail of the u. States, it was yoar
duty to protect it from violation by others !;
but, most especially was it your duty to
abstain from the preparation, OH your part,
.ef tiae double crime Of perjury and larceny.
Another sad example is furnished by yoar
case, to show how utterly vain it is to hope
that persons of your immature years, With
out the benefit Of a proper intellectual, mo
raj and religious culture, Gas unhappiiy they
have been in almost every case which has
been brought officially before me, can be
restrained, either by the ordinary obligations
Of morality, or the sanctity Of an oath. from
.5iclding to the temptations Of the orch
fiend, 44uarice. / have, again, TO depiore
the cruel policy Of the Government in en-
ploying such persons in vocation which de-
mands the exercise ofthe sternest integrity,
and ! do not hesitate to repeat, what have
frequently said on former occasions, like the
present, that is the duty Of Congress to pro-
hibit, by the most stringent enactments,
boys like you from being exposed to such
cruel temptation Our prisons and peni-
tentiaries are becoming crowded with these
youthful convicts, and if Congress will not
arrest the evil by such legal restraints as I
have referred to, they should, at least, pro-
vide for these wretched boys better school
Of reform than such places usually afford.
Your trial, Samuel Blewitt, and that Of
young Stewart, which Immediately preceded
it, and in which you we're the leading wit
ness for the prosecution, have afforded the
most conclusive proofs Of your hardened de-
pravity Not content with tae commission
of grievous sin against conscience and the
law, you had the hardihood to seek to in
volye in the same ruin that had oyerwhelm-
ed you, youth who hea always maintained
a reputation Of unsupported integrity. You
testified, in explicit terms, that he had wrest-
ed the mail bag from you by force. asad him
self had rihed the mail, and that Il was not
until you had been outdone by superior
physical power that you had consented to a
participation Of the spoils Of the crime with
Kim. You are proved to haye involved
yourself in contradictions and inconsistent
cies which deprived your uncorrobcrated
testimony against your alleged accomplice
Of all claim to credit His previous char
acter was shown by the earnest testimony of
his respectable neighbors, to have been IT.
Seproachable, while your own was stamped
By the same evidence with the darkest infa-
my. Your recklcssness and utter want of
trutifulness shocked all who heard your tes-
mony, and the jury who tried the ease pro-
tecsed the character CT the boy whom you
sought to make the victim Of your maligni
ty, by verdict of acuuittal, rendered with
out leaving their bez
When put upon trial yourself, your guilt
was established in the most conclusive man
ner, both by tie testimony Of others, and by
your osgn confession, and the dutyof deter
mining the extent Of your punishment now
deyolzes upon ne, as the organ Of tha law
you have out1aged--the minimum period Of
incarceration, after conviction, based upon
the provision Of the Act CT Congress under
which you have been indicted, is ten gears.
Ia proaoane;ng she sentence Of the Law, |
shall rot doom you TO a longer imprison
ment than this minimum period, and did
the Law allow me any Judicial discretion, I
would, in consideration Of yogr extreme
youth, reduce it to t|le half Of that tern.
But all discretion, below the specified Pc
rioa, is denied NE. Standing as you do
upon the threshold Of the penitentiary, I
would take advantage Of the solemn and
distressing circumstances Of your situation,
to impress upon your mind realizing sense
Of them. You will be cut of fer a long
period from the enjoyment Of that freedom
SO dear to the heart Of man, and the sense
of its loss will be aggravated by the reaee-
tion that it is the just penalty Of violated
law. No friends Of your youth viii be near
you, into whose sympathising ears you can
pour the sad story Of your griefs. The grim
jailor will be With you to exact; under the
terrors Of corporal chastisement, the per-
Torrance Of your aa;ly task. Hard and IN
sympathizing task-master you will doubtless
deem him, yet, let me tell you, that though
you may End han rough teacher in his
terrible school, you may there learn lessons
that, if you are wise. viii be valuable to
you in after life. You may make yourself
proficient in some mechanical art that will
afford ample means of honest subsistence
when your allotted period of incarceration
has ended Let me indulge the hope that,
chastened, not hardened BY yorr sutferings,
goa may leave your prison wiser and bet
ter man than when you entered. I rejoice
to believe that religious privileges will not
be denied yen in your prison home, and
that you may draw consolation and support
from purer and 9 higher source than any
the mere world can furnish Delude not
yourself with the vain hope Of Executive
clemency, but seek end you shall End par
don and forgiveness from God!
1t onl remains that [ pronounce the SEN
4nnoo If +ho 1ou xyb,oh 10. Tbot Vs., u,