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

earth. The Executive and citizens Of your state
guided the bolt which fell upon this mad offspring
shcd at single blow. Andin the spirit Of the an,
swer Of Cushi to King David, Iwould say to you
The enemies of the State Of Virginia. and ali that
rise against her to do her hurt, be as these men
are.' But, as the great King Of Israel rose up and
went to his chamber and wept over the untimsly
fall of Absalom the rebellious Of his own Icing
who had lifted his parricidal hand against the life
of an indugent father, may not the world commend
ginians over the sorrowful fate Of the youthful
prisoner at the bar! You will probably gay that
the lives Of your citizens have been sacrificed?
answer that it is laentably true but it is also true
that life has been taken already 70 atone for life
that the blood of murderers, older and wiser than
the prisoner. has been poured out in response to
the cry Of the blood Of your citizens from the
ground You will say that the soil of your State
has been polluted by the foot of the traitorg an
yer that that footstep rested but as for moment
on your border, and was swept away by whirl-
wind of patriotic indignation. You will say that
your law has been violated, your dignity and honor
as free people insuted; answer, alas. it Is too
true but answer also that it is equally true that
your laws have been fully, thoroughly, and justly
indicated. Here, in this court, again and again,
the sword of justice, welded by an even hand, has
fallen upon the miserable remnant of the confed-
Grated band who impiously Knocked the integrity of
the American Union by assailing the institutions Of
Virginia. The leader stands at the foot Of the gal
lows, and on its nights will expiate many crimes
against the peace and laws of the country; not
least amongst which is the crime Of cnlisting young
men, such as the prisoner, in cruise Of piracy
against you and and all law abiding citizens Of
this happy Union. Let the leader Of the mutiny on
shpboard perish, but if it appears that young men
have followed false guidance, and been bound in
the despotism of an iron will, order them back to
duty and give them one more chance to show
whether they are worthy Of life or death. Virginia
can thus afford to act. 1t Is one Of the Chief
blessings Of power that it extend mercy to the
nd A.
nmity to the fallen.
But there is another point on which Virginia,
though mourning for the death Of her citizens has
triumphantly met the aspersions and calumnies of
the enemies of her domestic institutions by reason
of the late outbreak at Harper's Ferry. The nsti-
tuition Of domestic slavery to-day stands before the
world more fully justified than ever before in the
history Of this, or, indeed, perhaps of any other
country. The liberator, urged on by false and
spurious philanthropy, decetful and sinister in its
origin, and selfish and corrupt in its practice, came
into your midst to set the bondsman free, and
though violence tore him from his master, though
liberty was sounded in bis ear, though leader was
proclaimed to lead him to the promised land, though
an impiously selfstyled Moses of deliverance came
in the might of the sword and placed arms OF bold
attack and strong defence in his hands, yet what
spectacle do we behold The bondsman refuses to
be free; drops the implements of war from lis
hands, is deaf to the calls of freedom turns against
his beratofs and by instinct obeys the Injunction
of Paul by returning to his master. Shall this pass
of the logic of our Government Shall the voice
of the African himself die unheard on the question
of his own freedom? No. It shall be perpetuated
1t shall be put in the record. The slave himself
under circumstances the most tempting and favor
able to his love of freedom if lie has any, surround
ed by men and scenes beckoning him on to ven
geance, to liberty and dominion, with the power o
life and death over his master in his hands, and thu
\ world open before him, with the manace ant
| chain, which was never forged or welded exceptil
the heatedfurnace of a rotous and prurientlmagna
| tion stricken from his body, turns eagerly AM
fondly to the condition assigned him by law, no
merely of Virginia, not merely Of Legislatures ant
| lawmakers, but by the law Of his being. by thu
| law which governs his relation to the white maj
| wherever the contact exists, by the law whicl
made the hewers Of wood and drawers of waite
under government formed by God himself, AM
which, since the world began down to the presen
time has made the inferior subordinate to the su
| perior whenever and wherever two unequal race
have been brought together. Let this fact go fort
to the country. Lett be fully understood by thos
| men and women who languish and sigh over tn
condition of your institutions, that their sympath
| is repudiated, and that they themselves are de
! spised by both races in the South This, too, Vii
| gina has proven.
in peremptorily taking the life of the prisoner an
| offering it sacrifice to heal the wrongs of you
I State / humbly conceive that Virginia. in no re
| spect needs, such a sacrifice. This much think
/ have shown.
4 y
through you. can afford to be clement. your inqur
| will then be- IL the object on whom you are aske
4 to b,s.ow yonr cemency worthy to receive it!
know the field on which | now enter is filled wit
I preconceiycd IDEAS but in the spirit of truth sla
| explore it, and by the truth OF what say | al
| willing that my unfortunate client may DC judge
by you, and moreover by that God in whose pre-
| sence no hidden things exist, and before whom, a
no distant day. yau and shall stand with him an
see him and know him he IS and not rs We see hil
now encompassed by the dread and awful calam
ties of the present hour.
Who is John u. Cooke He has the right bmsc
to be heard before you, but will answer for hin
| Sprung from an ancestry OF loyal attachment t
the American Government, he inherits no blood c
tainted impurity. His grandfather an officer G
the Revolution by which your liberty as well a
mine was achieved, and his gray-haired old father
who lives to weep over him. soldier OF the war q
| 1872 he brings no dshonorca lineage into you
presence If the blood which flows in his vein
has been offered against your peace. the sam
4 blood i'll the Veins OF those from whose loins h
spraug has been offered in fierce shock of battl
and foreign invasion in behalf Of the people q
| Virginia and the Union. Born of Il parent stoc
occupying the middle walks of life. and possesse
| of all those tender and domestic virtues whic
escape the contamination of those vices that dwe
on the frozen peaks in the dark and deep cavern
| of society," he would not have been here had pre-
| cept and example been remembered in the prod
gal wanderings Of his short and chequercd life
Poor deluded boy! hayward, nisled child Al
1
| with gloom. The hour in which thy mother Dor
| thee and blessed thee as her blue-eyed babe upo
her knee, is to her now. one Of bitterness as sll
| stands near the bank of the chill river of death
and looks back on name hitherto as unspotte
| and as pure as the unstained snow. May Co
stand by and sustain her, and preserve the mother
| of Virginia from the waves of sorrow that now rol
| over her.
| Not only the ancestry of John Il. Cook, but al
with whom his life is now bound up, stand befor
| the country as your friends and the friends of tn
| Constitution, as handed down to us blythe valo
| and wisdom of Washington. | will not shrnl
/ from the full and absolute recognition of my posi-
| ton. You and I, gentlemen of the jury, can Iav
| no secrets in this case from one another. w
| will withdraw the curtains and look each othe
fully in the face. A citizen of the State in which
live who, by virtue of his brilliant and command
ing intellect and because of his sound and nationa
principles, has been placed at an early period O
his life in the highest position in the power of
| State to give, is here beside me, and wears nea
his heart sisters likeness to this boy; and Their
is not in the wide world, on the broad green fac
of the EARTH a man whose heart is not who'll,
abandoned to selfish depravity, who will not 50,
that his presence here is commended by honor
love- duty and fidelity to all that ennobles our poo
fallen race. Letpoor, miserable, despised, loathed
spurned and abhorred miscreants cay and revil
at this proud act of painful duty. The true am
eternal impulses of the humanheart, the world over
constitute our appellate court.
But the Governor of the State Of Indiana need
catholic opinions, nor as man fully appreciatin
the duties of domestic life. Rather do | allude t
his presence here and his position as to the ag
tatinr estinna of the dav tn show that some thin