New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-12-19

father who had gone before him, was old and very
wise and full Of experience. The prisoner before
nants and statutes and plead that It has been done
in the early morning OF life, his first offence, and
under the bancful influence Of school of phil 7
0sophy which he once thought sincere and right, |
but which he now here, once and forever to you I
and before the world renonnces as false, perncious
and Presidential. Shall man be intolerant |
than God? Shall you be less Inercifnl than He in |
whose presence yonr only plea will be mercy.
mercy! mercy? VIII You say you dare not recon- I
mend mercy to John y. Cook, when divine exam |
pies and the appeals of your own consciences are
on your side? will never believe it until the APP |
palling fact is announced by you.
But let us advance. / have spoken Of Cook, his I
parentage and connections. Again comes the
question, who is he7 And now proceed to an !
swer it with reference to the transactions at Har-
pers Ferry, and with reference to the facts Of the
case. Let spread broad and wide before us the
moving panorama of evil which reaches its denoue-
Inent at Harper's Ferry. There are hearts and
feelings woven in the destiny Of the prisoner which
shall be relieved and solaced far as truth drag
ged up from the depths OF this misfortune re-
lieye and solace them. In an evil hour-and may
i be forever aceursed John r. CQpk met John
Brown on the prostituted plains Of Kansas On
that field Of fancism three years ago, the fair and
gentle youth was thrown into contact with the pi-
rate and robber Of civil warfare. To others whose
sympathies he has enlisted will leave the task of
transmitting John Brown as martyr and hero to
posterty. In my eyes, he stands the chief Of Grim
inals, the thief of property stolen--horses and
saves-from the citizens Of Missouri; falsdfer
here in this court as shall yet show, and q muir
derer not only of your citizens, but Of the young
who have already lost their lives in his bloody
foray your border. This is not pleasant to say,
but It is the truth, and as such ought to be and
shall be said.
look John Cook, the follower. He is in evidence
before you. Never did plead for a face that
was more willing to show. i evil is there. have
not seen it. If murder is there, l am to learn to
fIo live eoef1 f1,aA
sassin is in that young face, then commend me to
the look of an assassin. No. gentlemen, it is face
for mother to love and sister to idolize, and in
which the natural goodness Of his heart pleads
trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation that
estranged him from home and its principles. Let
MS look at the meeting of these two men. Place
them side by side. Put the young face by the old
face, the young head by the old head. We have
Look now for moment at the history of the old
man. He did not go to Kansas as peaceabe set
tier with his interests linked to the legitimate
growth and prosperity Of that Inflated Territory.
spoken for him since his confinement here, as the
Moses Of the slaves deliverance. He went there
to fulfill dream which had tortured his brain for
over thirty years. that he was to be the leader of
sacred exodus from bondage. He went there for
war, and not for peace. He went there to call
| around him the hayward and unstable elements of
society in which the bonds Of order, law and re-
lgion were loosened and the angry demon of dis
cord was unclaimed Storm was his element by
| his own showing. He courted the fierce tempest.
He sowed the wind that he might reap the whirl-
wind. He invoked the lightning and gloried in its
| devastation.
| Sixty summers and winters had passed over his
head, and planted the seeds Of spring. and gathered
the harvests Of autumn in the fields of his expe-
rience. He was the hero, too, of battles there. II
laures could be gained in such fratrieidal war as
ragged in Kansas he had them on his brow. Ossa.
| watomie was given to him, and added to his name
by the insanity of the crazy crew Of the North, as
| Napoleon conferred the names of battle-felds on
| his fay0rite marshals. The action of Black Jack
| too, gave him consideration circumstance and
condition with philanthropists of bastard quality
1 carpet-knght heroes in Boston, and servle follow.
4 ers of fanatcism throughout the country. His
| courage is now lauded to the skies by men who
have none of it themselves. This virtue, I admit
| he has-nked, however, with thousand crimes
An iron will with which to accomplish evil under
the skillful guise of good, also admit to be in his
possession--rendering his influence over the young
all the more despotic and dangerous. Imagine, il
you please, the bark on which this young man al
the bar and all his hopes were freghted, laid along
/ side of the old weather-beaten and murderous mar
| of war, whose character have placed before you
The one was stern and bent upon a fatal voyage
trim-vsaged war. civil commotion, pillage ant
death. dsunion and universal dcsolation tlronget
through the mind Of John Brown. TO him law wa
nothing. the Union was nothing, the peace ant
welfare of the country were nothing, tile lives o
the citizens Of Virginia were nothing. Though
red sea of blood rolled before him. yet lie lifted III
and cried forward. Shall he now shrink from hi.
prominence and attempt to shriNel back to tho
grade of his recruits and subalterns? Shall ht
deny his Bad prcjimncnce and say that he did no
incite the revolt which has involved his followers
in ruin? Shall he stand before this court and be
fore the country and DENY that he was the master
spirit and gathered together the young men who
followed him TO the death in this mad expedition
No! his own hand signs him commandment chief,
and shows the proper distinction which should be
made between himself and the men who, in an evi
IN a
trast again, and behold the prisoner. Young ant
new to the rough ways of life his lulsaltdaled foo
tender and unused to the journey before him, t
4 waif on the ocean. mt the mercy of the enTren
which might assaii him, and unfortunately endowed
with that fearful gift which causes to walk as
in dream through all the vicissitu1cs of a life
/ time; severed and wandering from the sustaining
and protesting ties OF kindred he gave, without
knowing his destination or purpose, a pledge o
military obedience to John Brown, commander
| in-chiet''
Gentlemen of the jury, there is character
] which, in the economy OF Gods providence, has
been placed upon the earth, but perhaps has never
been full drawn, and is most difficult to draw. II
is the character Of him who gdes down the stream
of life in trance, dreams as he floats along, ant
sees visions either shore. Realities exist in this
4 world no doubt Practical views are certainly the
best But that impalpable, airy and unsnbstantia
creations Of the busy imaginations come now and
then and lure the children of men to chase the
| will-o' -the-wsp" over the dangerous morass Of
life, is as true that have our allotted pilgrim
| age of three score years and ten. Who has not be
| held the young man of strict moral culture, in
pressed with high principles of right and gifted
with good intellect, start out upon the dusty and
| well beaten highway, which millions have trod be
fore him. only to turn aside at the first inviting
| grove of pleasure the first call of some fancifu
wood nynpl. to follow over the falls Of ruin and
| death some meandering stream whose beautiful
| surface caught his eye? To such one right and
wrong are utter distractions, and have no relation
| whatever to things that exist Give to such a
| mind promise, however false, and from it will
spring a castle in the air with proportions as true
| and lust rs the most faultlcss architecture ever
| framed by mathematical skill. Some lay the foun'
| dation of their actions on the rock and are never
oyerthrown. Some build upon the shifting sand
| and fall when the storm comes. But in each in
| stance the building may be the same in its symlne-
| try So with the deductions of the mind. All
depends not upon the reasoning, but upon the
| basis on which thought rests, and which supports
! the edifice of our conclusions. The enthusiast and
visionary takes his standpoint and fixes the prem
! SEES of his conduct from caprice and the circum
| stances which have obtained ascendency over his
| mind That such has been the character and such
4 the conduct of the prisoner without one spark OF
4 magnity of heart, a single impulse of deprayity
all the evidence in this clearly establishes.
! Some general ideas gildcd over by the aurng title
| Of freedom were held out to him by Brown, and
| formed the basis of what seemed to him duty and
| honor. If man charged with crime was lifted
| up by the evidence of his case above the ignoble
traits of the ordinary felon, the prisoner is thus
distinguished. Instead of the eager and willing
bandit, anxious to join hoary leader bent on mis-
chief. nf tho outlaw mind character