Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-11-25

most of them, in the graves to which
Virginians consigned them few bound
in her prisons, and few others wan
derers and fugitives on the face Of
the earth. The executive and citizens
Of your State guided the bolt which fell
upon this mad offspring of a loathsome
fanaticism, and the invasion persisted at
Il single blow. And in the spirit of the
answer of Cushi to King David | would
say to you: :" The enemies of the State
of Virginia, and all that rise against her
to do her hurt, be as these men are. y
8utas the great King of Israel rose up
and went t his cAs,t her = ard aept over
the untimely fall of Absolem, the rebel
lious son Of his own loins, who had lifted
his parricidal hand against the life of an
indulgent father, may not the world
commend a similar emotion in the breast
of jury Of Virginians over the sorrow
full fate of the youthful prisoner at the
bar ! You will probably say that the
lives Of your citizens have been sacri-
/ feed. | answer that it is lamentably
true but it is also true that life has been
taken already to atone for life; that the
blood of murderers, older and wiser than
the prisoner, has been poured out in re-
spouse to the cry of the blood of your
citizens from the ground You will say
that the soil of your State has been polu-
ted by the foot of the traitor. | answer
that that footstep rested but as for mo-
ment on your border, and was swept
away by whirlwind of patriotic indig-
nation. You will say That your law has
been violated your dignity and honor as
a free people ipsulted. | answer that,
alas it is too true but answer, also,
that it is equally true that your laws
have been fully, thoroughly, and justly
indicated. Here in this court, again
and again, the sword of justice welded
by an even hand, has fallen upon the
miserable remnant of the confederated
band who impiously Knocked the integri-
ty of the American Union by assailing
the institutions Of Virginia. The leader
stands at the foot of the gallows, and on
its heights will expiate many crimes
against the peace and laws of the coun-
try-not least amongst which is the
crime of enlisting young men, such as
the prisoner in a cruise Of piracy against
you and |, and all law-abiding citizens
of this happy Union Let the leader of
the mutiny on ship. board perish, but fit
appears that young men have followed
,sse guidance, and been bound in the
despotism of an iron will, order them
back to duty, and give them one more
chance to show whether they are wor-
thy Of life or death. Virginia can thus
afford to act. 1t is one of the chief
blessings Of power that it can extend
mercy to the weak and the crown jewel
Of courage is magnanimity to the fallen
But there is another point on which
Virginia, though mourning for the death
Of her citizens, has triumphantly met the
aspersions and calumnics Of the enemies
of her domestic institutions BY reason of
the late outbreak at Harper's Ferry
The institution Of domestic slavery to.
day stands before the world more fully
justified than ever before in the history
Of this or, indeed, perhaps, of any other
country. The libcrator, urged on by a
false and spurious philanthrophy, deceit
ful and sinister in its origin, and selfish
and corrupt in its practice, came iuto
Your midst to set the bondsmen free, and
though violence tore him from his mas
ter, though liberty was sounded in his
ear, though leader was proclaimed to
lead him to the promised land, though an
impioHsly seli-styled Moses of deliverance
came in the might of the sword and placed
arms of bold attack and strong defence in
his hands, yet what spectacle do we
behold The bondsman refuses to be
free drops the implements Of war from
his hands is deaf to the call of freedom
turns against his liberators, and, by in
stinct. obeys the injunction Of Paul by
returning to his master Shall this pass
for nothing? Shall no note be made Of
this piece Of the logic of our Government?
Shall the voice of the African himself die
unbeard on the question Of Bis own free
dom No. 1t shall be perpetuated. 1t
shall be put in the record. Tho slave
himself, under circumstances the most
tempting and favorable TO his love Of
freedom, if be has any, surrounded by
men and scenes reckoning him on to
vengeance, to liberty and dominion, with
the power Of life and death over his mas
ter in his hands, and the world open be-
fore him, with the manaclc and chain,
which was never forged or welded except
in the heated furnace of a riotous and
prureut Imagination, stricken from his
body, turns eagerly and fondly to the
condition assigned him by the law not
merely Of Virginia, not merely Of legis-
latures and lawmakers, but by the law
Of his being, by the law which governs
bis relation TO the white man wherever
the contact exists, by the law which maze
the hewers Of wood and drawers Of water
under government formed by God him
self, and which, since the world began
down to the present time, has made the
inferior subordinate TO the superior,
whenever and wherever two unequal
races have been brought together. Let
this fact 60 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 repudiated, and that they
themselves are despised by both races in
the South. This, too, Virginia has
proven.
Is there anything left to be done by
your verdict in percmptorily taking the
life Of the prisoner, and offering it a "a