Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1859-12-01
The Trial of John e. Cook
Speech of Hon. ID. w. VOOr-
hees.

SRccCn u hOn' ~ W. OOH
i hees.
In the recent trial of John E. Cook, one
of the Harper's Ferry insurgents, differ
ent line of defence was adopted from that
pursued by the counsel for the other pris-
oners. Cook was tie brother-in-law ol
Governor Willard, of Indiana, and bis
friends allege that he is a dreaming en-
thusiast, of susceptible and impressible
character, completely under the control of
the strong determined will of John Brown.
Governor Willard, with a humanity and
devotion to his wayward and unfortunate
relative creditable to his head and heart,
went to Cooks assistance as soon as he
heard of his arrest, accompanied by Hon.
Daniel w. VOORHEES,, Attorney General of
Indiana. By their advice, Cook made a
complete confession of his connection with
the recent outbreak, aud although no very
important new facts were elected by it, it
afforded some proof of the irresistible pow
er Brown possessed over men who had en-
listed under him. The speech of Mr..
VOORHEES,, in defence of his client, is pub
lished at length; and, while we do not
agree with all its positions or conclusions,
no one can fail to admire the forensic skill
and ability it displays, and the touching
eloquence with which it pleads for merci-
full verdict.
The speech opens with eulogy of the
court and jury, for the impartial and order
ly manner in which the trial of the insur-
gents had been conducted, and with the
following appeal for charitable considera-
| ton of the Indictment:
"Gentlemen, I am not here on behalf of
this pale-faced, fair-haired wanderer from
his house and the paths of duty, to talk to
you about legal technicalities of law, born
of laborious analysis by the sight of the
midnight lamp. place him before you
on no such grounds. He is in the hands
of friends who abhor the conduct of which
be has been guilty. But does that fact de-
Der him of human sympathys Does the
simple act. smite the brother with ale prosy
which forbids the touch the of hand ofaffec-
ton? Is his voice of repentance and ap-
peal for forgiveness stifed in his mouth?
If so, the meek Saviour of the world would
have recoiled with horror from Mary Mag
dalene, and spurned the repentant sorrow
of Peter who betrayed him. For my client
l avow every sympathy. Fallen and un-
done; broken and ruined as he is by the
fall, yet, from the depths of the fearful
chasm in which he lies, l hear the common
call which the wretched make for sympa-
thy. more clearly than If it issued from
the loftiest pyramid of wealth and power.
If he who made the earth, and hung the
sun, moon and stars on high to give it
light, and created man joint heir of eter-
nal wealth, and put within him an immor-
tai spark Of that celestial fame which sur
rounds His throne, could remember mercy
in executing justice, when His whole plan
of Divine Government was assailed and
deranged; when His law was set at def
ance and violated; when the purity of
Eden had been detied by the presence and
counsels of the serpent-why, so can l,
and can you, when the wrong and crime
stand confessed, and every attonement is
made to the majesty of the law which the
prisoner has in his power to make"
Mr.. VOORHEES, then proceeded to argue
that, Notwithstanding the crime Of Cook,
Virginia could well afford to be merciful,
in consideration of the facts that nearly all
the insurgents at once paid the penalty of
their Ives; that Brown, the leader of the
expedition, was convicted and sentenced,
and that the conduct of the slaves had
shown their attachment to their masters.
He then spoke as follows of Cook:
"Who is John E. Cook? He has tho
right himself to be heard before you; but
/ will answer for him. Sprung from an
ancestry of loyal attachment to the Amer
ican Government, be inherits no blood of
tainted impurity. His grand father an Of
ficer of the Revolution by which your lib
erty as well as mine was achieved, and his
gray-haired father, who lives 10 weep over
him, soldier of the war of 1912, lie brings
no dishonored lienage into your presence.
If the blood which flows in his veins has
been offered against your peace, the same
blood in the veins of those from whose
loins he sprung has been offered in fierce
shock of battle and foreign invasion in be-
half of the people of Virginia and the Un-
ion. Born of parent stock occupying
the middle walks of life, and possessed of
those tender and domestic virtues which
escape the contamination of those vices
that dwell on the frozen peaks, or in the
dark and deep caverns of society, be would
not have been here had precept and exam
pie been remembered in the prodigal wan
derings in his short and chequered life
Poor deluded boy wayward, misled child /!
An evil star presided over thv natal hour,
and smote it with gloom. The hour in
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
dead, and back on name hitherto as un-
spotted and pure as the unstained snow.
May God stand by and sustain her, and
preserve the mothers of Virginia from the
waves of sorrow that now roll over herp'
The RANDOLPH WILL CAsE.-An i'm
portant and singular will case has been be-