The Van Buren press., 1859-12-23

New York, in the presence of thousands,
speaking Of this tragic occurrence. says
/" 1t IS the naturaf result of anti-slavery
teaching. For onestI accept it. expect
led it. |, too, accept it in the same light,
land SO with the country. Those who taught
and not those who believed and acted are
the men OF crime in the sight of God. And
to guard other young men, so far as is in
my power, from the fatal snare which has
been tightened around the hopes and dcsti-
nv of JOAN E. Cook, and to show who arc
iuliy responsible Tor his conduct, INTEND e.
Ink with this trial the rames Of wiser and
| older nisa than he and if he is to be pun
ished aud consigned to a wretched doom,
they shall stand beside him in the public
stocks they shall be pilloried forever in
public shame as the evil and tsaitoreus per-
lsons who seduccd him to his ruin by their
false and malignant counscls.
! The chief of these men, a leader of a
Il great party. a Senator of long standing has
laRnouaced to the country that there is a
higher law thar the Constitution, which
guarantees to each mdn the full exercise of
f. his own inclination. The prisoner before
You has simply acted on the law of VIM. II.
| Seward, ana not the law of his fathers He
has followed the Mahomct Of an incendiary
faith. Come forth, We sages of abolitionism
WHO now cover and shulk under lasty de-
mails OF your completely with the bloody re-
suit Of your wicked and unholy doctrines
and take your places on the witness stand
! ECli The world why this thing has happened
Eel thi ''uy why they are trying John f.
I Coos, for hi ,,in. You advised his conduct
and taught him that he was doing right
( ! 3u .aag!s him higher law, and then poin-
/ tel out 10 him the field Of action. Let facts
's .'..';,t"d. -. Mr. Seward in speaking of
al+Fety says :" I.--,,Aand must be abolish
ell and YOU and must do IL. ss-hst -,
Ill the prisoner attempt. Again no oa,. ,
Up3cl tie same sui bjcct, " Circums a nccs de-
yarraiua possibilities - and doubtless the
circumstances with which John Brown had
connected his plans made in his estimation
for il is in evidence before the, country un-
in peachel md uncontradicted that the great
/ Senator Of New York had the whole matter
submitted 70 him and only whispered back
in res ponse that he had better not been told.
tIa bas boldfy- announced an irrcpressible
coIdlict between the free and slave States of
this Union. These seditious phrases,
"higher law" and irreprcssiblc conflict"
warrant and invite the construction which
the prisoner and his young deluded COM
panions placed upon them. Yet they are
either in chains with the frightful gibbet in
fui r y fr,v,-er siee5s 80 dish n-ol graves
while the apostle and master-spirit of in
surrcction is loaded with honors and fares
sumptuously every day. Such is poor,
short-handed justice i'll the world.
An old man, and for long years mem
Der Of the National Congress from Ohio,
Il. = L
taught the prisoner the terrible error which
now involves his life. Scrvile insurrec-
tions have forever been on the tongue and
lips of Joshua II. Giddings. lie says
:. that when the contest shall come, when
the thunder shall roll and the lightning
flash, and when the slave shall rise in the
South in imitation of the horrid scenes of
the West Indies, when the Southern man
shall turn pale and trcmblc, when your
dwellings shall smoke with the torch of
the incendiary, and dismay sit on each
he will hail it as the approach
ing dawn Of that political and moral mil
lennium which he is we'll assured will come
upon the world.' The atrocity of these
sentiments chiLs the blood of honest patri- /
OTIS, and no part OF the prisoner equals their
bloody import Shall the old leader escape |
and the young follower die? Shall the .
teacher whose doctrines told the prisoner .
that what he did was right, so unscathed |
of the lightning which hc has unclaimed ? /
If so, Justice has fed from her temples |
on earth, and awaits only on high to meas
urc out what is due between man and man. |
The men who have misled this boy to his |
ruin shall here receive my malcdlctions.-
They shrink back from him in the hour OF
his calamity. They lift up their hands and
say Amen to the bloody spectacle which
their Internal orgies have sursMoned up
y on hear them all over the land e. calculating
through false, pale, coward lips, " Thou /
canst not say | did it, when their hands |
are rcclling with all the blood that has been
shed, and which yet awaits the extreme |
penalty of the law. False, fieeting, per-
jurcd traitors false to those who have act
ell upon your principles false to friends
as well as country, and perjured before the
Constitution Of the Rcpubic-ministers who
profess to be of God, who told this boy to
carry Sharps rifle to Kansas instead of
his mothers Biblc-shall this jury, this
court and this country forget their guilt and
their infamy because a victim to their pre-
cents is yielding up his life to you. May
God forget me if here, in the presence of
this pale face. forget to denouncc with the
whitening, blighting, blasting power Of
majestic truth. the tall and stately Grimm
ais of the Northern States of this Union.
Tho visionary mind of the prisoner
heard from q member of Congress from |
that a new Constitution,
new Bible and a new God were to be inan-
guratel and to possess the country. They
were to be ne,o because they were to be anti
slavery, for the old Constitution, and tho
old Bible, and the God of our fathers, the
ancient Lord God of Israel, the same yes
te,alay, to-day and forever, were not on the
side os abolitionism. Is there no mitiga
tion for his doom in the fact that he took
bis life in his hand, and aimed at that which
, coward taught him. but dared not him
self attempt? Base, pusilaniurous dema-
gogues have led the prisoner to the bar
but while he suf1crs-if suffer he must
they, too, shall have their recreant limbs
broken on the wheel. will not leave the
soil of Virginia, will not let this awful oc-
On ;n-, MAGE into isforv without giving n