Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1859-11-25

1least amongst which is the crime of enlist
ling young men, such as the prisoner, in 8
cruise Of piracy against you and I, and al
law abiding citizens Of this happy Union.
| Let the leader Of the mutiny on ship boart
perish. but if it appears that young mer
have followed false guidance, and been boune
in the despotism Of an iron will, order then
back to duty, and give them one more
chance to show whether they are worthy
Of life or DEATH. Virginia can thus afford
to act. It is one of the chief blessings Of
power that it can extend mercy to the weak:
and the crown Jewel Of courage is magma
nimity to the fallen. a as0s =
| But there is another point on which Vir-
GINA, though mourning for the death Of
ner citizens, has triumpbantly met the as
| pensions and calumnies Of the. enemies Of
her daniestic institutions by feas5h of the
late outbreak at Harper's Ferry. The in:
stitution Of domestic slavery to-day stands
before the world more fully justified than
ever before in the history Of this, or, in
deedj perhaps, Of any other country. The
liberator, urged on by false and spurious
philanthropy, deceitful and Sinister in its
origin, and selfish and corrupt in its prac-
tice. came into your midst to set the bonds
man free, and though violence tore him
from his master, though liberty was sounded
in his ear, though leader was proclaimed
to lead him to the promised land, though
an impiously selfstyled Moses of deliver-
ance came in the might of the sword and
placed arms Of bold attack and strong de-
fence in his hands, yet what spectacle do
we behold The bonds-man refuses to be
free; drops the implements Of war from his
hands is deaf to tie call Of freedom turns
against his liberators, and, by instinct,
obeys the injunction of St Paul by return
ing to his master! Shall no note be made
of this piece of the logic Of our government?
Shall the voice of the African himself die
unheard on the question Of his own free
dom !? No 1t shall Be perpetuatea It
shall be put ii the resord The slave him
self, under circumstances the most temp
ting and favorable to his love of freedom
if lie has any, surrothded By men and
scenes reckoning him on to vengeance, to
liberty and dominion with the power of
life and death over his master in his hands,
and the world open before hin +; with the
manacle and clain, Which was never forged
or welded except in the heated furnace Of
a riot9as and prurient Imagination, stricken
from his tody, turns eagerly and fondly to
the condition assigned him by the law not
| merely of Virginia, not merely of 1sgisla-
lures and lawmakers, but BY the law Of
his being, BY tie law shich governs his re-
lation to the white man wherever the con-
tact exists, By the law which made the hew-
ers Of wood and drawers Of water Under i
government formed by God himself, and
which, Since the world began down to the
present time. has made the inferior subor-
dinate to the superior whenever and wher-
ever two unequal races have been brought
together Let this fact go forth to the
country. Let it be fully Understood BY
those men and women who languish and
sigh over the condition Of your institutions
that their sympathy is repudiatsd. and that
they themselves are despised by both races
in the South. This, too, Virginia has pro
ven. dg
Is there anything left to be done By your
verdict in peremptorily taking the life Of
the prisoner, and offering it sacrifice to
heal the Wrongs of your State ? | humbly
conceive that Virginia in no respect needs
such sacrifice. This much / think have
shown 4a
And now let lis tu n to the prisonor IF
Virginia, through you, can afford to be
clement, your inquiry will then be. is the
object on whom you are asked to bestow
your clemency worthy to receive it? |
know tue field on which / now enter is filled
with preconceived ideas, but in the spirit of
truth I shall explore it, and by the truth of
What | say am wiling that my unfortu-
nate client may be judged by you, and
moreover. by that God in whose presence
no hidden things exist, and before whom,
at no distant day, you and I shall stand
With hin and see aim and know him as he
IS, and not as VIC see Him and know him
now, encompassed By the dread and awful
calamities Of the present hour. e
Who is John f Cook? He has the
right himself to be heard before you; but
will answer. for him. Sprung from an an
eestfy Of loyal attachment to the American
Government; he inherits no blood Of tainted
impurity. Ills grandfather an officer of the
Revolution by which your liberty as we'll as
mine was achieved, and his grey-haired
father, who, lives to weep over him, sold
Ter Of the war Of 1912, he brings no dis
honored lineage into your presence. IF the
blood which flows in his veins has been Of
fered against your peace, the same blood
in the veins of those from whoea; loF's's.; he
srrang, has been offered II fierce shock of
battle and foreign inyasien in behalf of the
people Of Virginia and the Union. Born
Of q parent stock, occupying the middle
Wallis of. Efe,, and possessed Of all those
tender and domestic virtues which escape
the contamination Of those ices that dwell
on the frozen peaks, or in the deep and dark
Governs Of society, he would not have been
Here had precept and example been remem-
bered in the prodigal wanderings of his
short but chequered life. Poor, leluded
boy hayward, misled child! An evil
star presided over thy natal hour and smote
it with gloom The hour III which thy
mother bore thee and blessed thee as her
blue-eyed babe upon her knee is to her now
one of bitterness as she stands near the bank
of the chill river Of death and looks back
on home hitherto as. unspotted and as pure
as the rnstained enow. May God stand by
and sustain her, and preserve tie mothers Of
Virginia from the waves Of sorrow that now