Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1859-11-15
CONSOLATION
From the New York Obsetyerl
OUGHT BROWN AND HIS AIDS TO
BE PUT TO DEATH

There may be reasons of policy or expe'
diency for committing tho sentence. But
we see nothing in the nature Of the crime
or the circumstances attending its oommiss,
ion, unless Brown was insane, to call for
clemency in the case.
On the contrary, in the deed, tho object.
the long, cool, deliberate, malignant. mur-
derous calculation and preparation with
which was PINNED, the bloodthirstiness with
which they murdered the first negro who
fell into their hands, the pertinacity with
which they held out when their inhuman
designs were bafllcd, the slaughter of unof
Tending citizens, and the avowod purpose
to rayage the country and usurp the gov
ernment, there is every element that woes
to cons itute tire highest crime known to the
laws Of God and man. 1t is neral wonder
that any one, in his senses, who believes
that murderer ought to be put to death,
should doubt that these murderers deserve to
die In every intelligent Christian mind
there is sense of right and wrong, that for
q moment may be obsoured by sympathy
with suffering so that it fails to utter itself
correctly when it speaks but the sober iudg>
ment Of tho Christian world responds TO the
sentence which God and man has 7 renouncs
ed upon the murder "Whoso sheddeth
mans blood by man shall his blood be she'd"
There are interests most awful to be CON
templated when we decide to extend sympa
thy and forgiveness to such crimes as this |
Where is law, where is safety, whore is yir-
tue where is the distinction between right
and wrong, where the difference between
reward and punishment, if we are to par
don these men Is there any crime known
to the laws, or any circumstances under
which crime can be committed, or any an
tecedents or consequents of crime that would
call for the extre NEST punishment, which
are not pre- eminently present ia this case ?
fanishment in the government Of God
al r1n does not spring from spirit of
revn u is the fruit Of love Love de-,
mands ,h me who has made war upon
society shall lie. Philanthropy, the love of
man, the love OF the human race, the love
of toe greatest number requires that murs
derers be punished, as God who is love- or
dained. If we take the absurd ground that
man who murders bis fellow man to ben.
eft others, shall, instead of being punished,
be honored as n hero, our own blood may
to morrow be required by band of con-
spirators and assassins who believe the
country will be benefited by our DEATH
Regicide has been defended on this princi-
pie. But the same logic justi6es every man
in taking the law into his own tIands, and
staying his neghhors whenever he thinks
society will be benefited by losing little
blood. In our country the people are the
sovereign Brown undertook to kill the
white people to set the blacks free Just as
the assassins of Paris have, age after age, in
the name of liberty sought to slay the SOW
ereign whose government they would ovtr-
throw. II is all wrong And we tremble
less in view Of Browns mad freak, than we
do in face of the fact that there is abroad
in the land a sentiment that would shield
him and others from the Just consequences
of their crimes. When these men embark
ed in this war upon the State when they
prepared guns for the white men and a
thousand spears for the blacks to be used
in barbarous slaughter when they imbrued
their hands in blood by taking the first VIC
tim ian honest colored man who made no
resistance but was only seeking to escape
from their hands) and numbering him, in
cold blood; when they refused to lay down
their arms after being overpowered, and
continued their murderous work, they threw
away all claim to compassion and put them
selves on the hazard Of the revolution they
had begun. If others can find any cause for
pardoning such crime We cannot