The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-11-30
A Most Eloquent Argument.

TRIAL oil John T.. Cook, indicted for treason,
murder, and melting slaves to rebel at the {
Harper's Ferry insurection, delivered at
Charlestown, Virginia. 1t occupies up
wards OF five columns. 1t is most power.
iul and truly eloquent address. As forensic
effort, we have rarely read its equal in bri!
liant merit, and its bitter, burning denunci.
atoms OF those who planned, and OF those
who instgoted and encouraged the insurrec.
ton at Harper's Ferry, afford wise and sol.
emu lesson to American citizens upon patriot.
ic duty. Mr.. voorhees, has reformed most
delicate, difficult, and painful task, nobIy
aud well. He denOuncs5 the crime Of
which his youthful client stood Goa Tess.
edly guilty, and, at the same time makes
most touching and beautiful appeal for
mercy for the misguided youth. No one
can read his aliuson to tho wretch
ed prisoners father, mother and sister,
couched, as it is, in language which must
reach the stoutest EeGrt, without feeling a
deep commisseTation for them, as We'll as for
the misled and unhappy cause of their deep
and bitter sorrow, end feeling Of horror at
the acts of those who seduced the miserable
boy to enter upon such q career Of crima.
10 the commencement of his address,
Nlr. Voorhees, m kes the following be iuti-
full allusion to the relations existing between
| Virginia and Indiana. He says:
| come from the sunset side of your Wes-
tern mountains-from beyond the river that
now skirt the borders of your great State
but come not as on ellen to foreign land,
but rather as one who returns to the home
of his ancestors, and 10 the household from
which he sprang come not hers as an
eI.emy, but Os friend ; with interests com.
mon with yourselves, hoping for your hopes,
and praying that the prosperity and glory OF
Virginia may be perpetual. Nor do forget
that the very soil on which live in my
Western home was one owned by this ven-
cradle commonwealth Us much as the soil
on which | now stand. Her laws there
once prevailed, and all her institutions were
there established US they ere here. Not
only my own State Of Indiana, but also four
other great States in the North est stand
as enduring and lofty monuments Of Vir'
I ginia's ma agnanimi,y and princely liberality
Her donation 10 the general government
j. made them sovereign States and sine,
God gave the fruitful land OF Canaan to Mo
d ses and Israel, such git present and fu
ture empire has not been made TO any peo
n pie. Coming from the bosom Of one o
o these States, can | forge; the fealty all
=. duty which ! owe to the supremacy of you
laws, the sOcredness of your citizenship, o
:. the sovereignty Of your State! Rather III =
o child forget its parent, and smite, with un
d natural hand, the autbor of its being.
If In regard to those dangerous teaching
,r which warped and msled young Cook
mind into the path OF crime the eloquent IL
'e dianan spoke as follows. Read it.
n contain thoughts that breathe, expressed i
10 words that burn
The visionary mind Of the prisoner hear
ID from a member Of Congress from Massachr
r. setts that a new constitution, a new Bibl'
and a new God were to be inauguruted an
- TO possess the country. They were to
ID nelo, because they were to be nti'slaver!
for the old Constitution, and the old BIbl
q, and the God of our fathers, the ancient Lpr
God of Israel, the same yesterday, to d.!
n and forever, were not on the side of sbol
m tionism. Is there no mitigation for his doc
n. in the fact that he took his lie in his han
and aimed ct that which coward taught hin
n. but dared not himself attempt. Base. pua
id luminous demagogues have led the prison
to the bar, but while he suffers--if suffer |
lie must-they, too, should have their recraa
he limbs broken on the wheel. | will not Ies'
ad the soil of Virginia, will not let this aWf f
q. occasion pass into history, without giving
of voice and an utterance TO its true purpo
or and meaning, without heaping upon its a
W. thors the load of execration which they q
ts to bear hence!orth and forever. Day aft
day and year after year, has the baleIul simo
ed of revolution, anarchy, discord. hostility
,r. the South and her Institutions, swept oV
M that section of the country in which the
Of the prisoner has been cast. That he h
no been poisoned by its breath should it cut h
off from human sympathy rather should
dv render every heart element toward him.
ed n ever sought place or station, but soug
merely to develop those doctrines which e
rk and tratorous persons had caused him to
m. lieve were true. Ministers, editors, and p
its iticians-Beecher, Parker, Seward, G
= dings, Sumner, Hale, and host of less
lights Of each cass-who in this court-roo
lat who in this vast country, who in the wi
Ike world who shall read this trial believes the
not gully as charged in the indictment in
az the counts to deeper and far more fear
az extent than John E. Cook. Midn light gloc
tho is not more sombre in contrast with the BIZ
a ing light OF the meridian sun than is tho Gu
lie. of such men in comparison with that whi
- ov erwhelm the prisoner. They put 10 G
,elf Grafton the maelstrom which hos engulph
hat him. They started the torrent which h
the borne him over the precipice. They call
= forth from the caverns the tempest viii
ed wrecked him on eunken reef. Before G.
had and in the light Of Eternal Truth. the dsas
the at Harper's Ferry is their act. and not b
nda NAV the ghost Of each victim TO their dt