Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-11-17
Ought Brown to be Hung

We would recommend the earnest peruSal
of the following extract from the \. \. Chris
tan Observer The whole course of this very
ably edited journal, from the moment of the
outbreak at lIarper's Ferry has been such
as to command the sympathy and support of
conservative men throughout the Union
As newspaper, it has performed the full
duty of Gods true and gentle minister;
and the secular department. OF the journal
has been sincerely devoted 10 the maiute-
nance of that spirit of patriotism which CO.
exists with religion pure and uNDErILED.'
There may be reasons of policy or expe-
pediency for committing the sentence, but we
see nothing in the nature Of the crime or the
circumstances attending its commission un-
ency in the case.
..On the contrary in the deed the object,
the loHg cool, deliberate, malignant, muir
derous calculation and preparation with
which it was planned, the bloodthirstiness
with which they murdered the first negro
who fell into their hands, the pertinacity
with which they held out when their inhu-
man designs were battled, the slaughter Of
unoffending citizens. and the avowed pur-
pose to ravage the country and uSurp the
government, there is every element that
! goes to institute the highest crime known
to the laws of God and man. 1t is a moral
wonder that any one, in his senses. who be-
! lieves that murderer ought to be put to
death, should doubt that these murderers de-
serve to die. In every intelligent Christian
mind there is sense of right and wrong
! that for II moment may be obscured by sym
pathy with suffering, 50 that it fails To utter
itself correctly when it speaks, but the So
Der Judgment of the Christian world responds
10 the sentence which God and man has pro-
nounced upon the murderer: Whose shed
deth mans blood, by man shall his blood be
! she'd"
| There are interests most awful to be con-
templated, when we decide to extend sym
PATTY and forgiveness to such crimes as
this. Where is law, where is safety, where
| il virtue where is the distinction between
! right and wrong, where is the difference be-
tween reward and punishment, if we are 10
pardon these men? Is there any crime
known to the laws, or any circumstances
under which crime can be committe d, or
any antecedentS or consequents of crime,
that would call for the extemest punishment,
which are not pre-eminently present in this
case?
punishment in the government of God
and man does not spring from spirit of re-
yenge 1t is the fruit of love. Love demands
that one who has made war upon society shall
die. Philanthropy. the love of man. the love
of the human race, the love of the greatest
number, requires that murderers be punish
| ed is God. who is love, ordained. five take
| the absurd ground that man who murders
his fellow man to benefit others, shall instead
! of being punished, be honored ~ a hero, our
own blood may tomorrow be required by II
! band of cons piratorS and assu,sius who be-
ieve the country will he benefited by our
death. Regicide has been defended on this
principle. But the same logic justifies every
man in taking the law into his own hands
and staying his neighbors whenever he thinks
society will be benefited by losing little
blood. In cur country the people are the
sovereign: Brown undertook to kill the white
people to set the blacks free: just as the as
sassins of Paris have, age after age, in the
name OF liberty, sought to slay the sovereign
whose government they would overthrow
1t is all wrong. And we tremble less in
view of Browns mad freak than we do in
the face Of the fact that there is abroad in the
land sentiment that would shield him and
others from the just consequences OF their
crimes. When those men embarked in this
war upon the State, when they prepared
guns for the white men, and thousand spears
for the blacks, to be used III barbarous
slaughter; when they inbrued their hands
in blood by taking the first victim 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 murdcrous
work, they threw away all claim to compass
sion, and put themselves on the hazard OF
the revolution they had begun. If others
can find any cause for pardoning such crime,
we cannot"