The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1859-12-08

lIhItIlIE huOhy Nv "'t' 49,
shall rise in the South in imitation oil the
horld scenes of the West Indies, when
the Southern man shall turn pale and
lremble, when your dwellings shall smoke
with the torch Of the incendiary, and dis.
may sit on each countenancc, he will
hail it as the approaching dawn Of that
political and moral millennium which no
Is well assured will come upon The world.
The ~atrocily Of these sentiments chllls
the blood Of honest patriots, and no part
Of the prisoners equals their bloody i'm
port. Shall the old leader escape and
The young follower die? Shall the teach.
er whose doctrines told the prisoner that
what he did was right 60 unscalhed Of the
lightning which he has unclaimed. lfso.
Justice has fed from her temples on earth,
and awaits us only on high to measure
out what is right between man and man.
The men who have miSled this boy 10 his
ruin shall here receive my maledictions.
They shrink back from him now in the
hour Of his calamity. They lift up their
hands and say, Amen /! flo the bloody
spectacle which their internal orgies have
summoned up. You hear them all over
the land calculating through false, pale,
coward lips, ''Tbou canst not say ] did
it," when their hands are reeking with
all the blood that has been shed and
which yet awaits the extreme penalty Of
the law. False, fleeing, perjured trait.
ors, false to those who have acted upon
your principles. false to friends as well as
country, and peri ured before the Cons,i.
tuition Of the Republic-minis!ers who
profess to be of God who told this boy
here TO carry a Sharpe's rife 10 Kansas
instead Of his mothers Bible-shsll this
jury, this court, and this country forget
their guilt and their in(amy because a
victim TO their precepts is yielding up his
life before you May God forget me'il
! here, in the presence Of this pale face,
forget 10 denounce with the whitening,
bIighting, blasting power of majestic
truth, the tall and stately criminals Of
the Northern States Of this Union.
The visionary mind Of the prisoner
heard from a member of, Congress from
Massachusetts, that a new constitution,
a new Bible, and a new God were TO be
inaugurated and to possess the country.
They we're to be neao, because they were
to be anti,slavery, for the old Constitu.
ton, and the old Bible, and the God OF
our fathers, the ancient Lord God Of Is.
rael, the same yesterday, to-day, and for.
ever, were not on the side of abolition.
ism. Is there no mitigation for his doom
in the fact that he took his life in his
hand, and aimed at that which a coward
taught him, bat dared not himself al.
tempt. Base, pusilanimous demagougues
have led the prisoner to the bar, but while
he suffers-ii suffer he ~must-,hey, too,
shall have their recreant limbs broken on
the wheel. | will not leave the soil Of
Virginia, will not let this awful occa.
sion pass into history, without giving a
voice and an ulterancc to lis true pur.
port and meaning, without hcaping upon
its authors the load of execralion which
they are TO bear hence(orth and forever.
Day after day, and year after year has
the balelul simeon OF revolution, anarchy,
discord, hostility 10 the South and her in.
stitutions, swept over that section Of the
country in which the lot of the prisoner
has been cast. That he has been pois.
oned by its breath should not cut him
off from human sympathy rather should
it render every heart element toward him.
He never sought place or station, but
Soughtmorely to develop those doctrines
which evil and traiiorous persons had
caused him TO believe were true. Min.
listers, editors, and politicians-Beecher,
Parker, Seward, Sumner, Hale, and q
host Of lesser lights Of each class who,
in this courtroom, who, in this vast
country, who, in the wide world, who
shall read this Trial believes them not
guilty as charged in the indictment in
all the courts to a deeper ard far more
fearful extent than John Z. Cook? Mid.
night gloom is not more sombro in con.
trast with the blazing light Of the merid.
ian sun than j, the guilt Of such men in
comparison with that which tverwhelms
the prisoner. They put in motion the
maelstrom which has engulled him.
They started the torrent which has borne
him over the precipicc. They called
forth from the caverns the tempest which
wrecked him on a sunken reef. Before
God, and in the light Of Eternal truth,
the disaster at Harper's Ferry is their
act, and not his. May the ghost Of each
victim TO their doctrines of disunion and
abominalion sit heavy on their guilty
souls May the fate Of the prisoner,
whatever it may be, disturb their Stun.
bers and paralyzc their arms when they
are again raised against the peace of the
country and the lives Of its citizens
know by the CLEAN of each eye into
which look in this jury. box, that il
these men could change places with
young Cook, you would gladly say to
him, eco, orring and repentant youth,
our vengeance shall fall on those who
paid their mon6y,Turs&l on the. attack,
and guided the blow" Let me appeal
to you, gentlemen Of the jury, in the
name of Eternal truth and everlasting
right, is nothing to be forgiven to youth,
10 inexperience, TO a gentle, kind heart,
to a hayward and peculiar though not
vicious character, strangely apt TO be led
by present influences? | have shown
you what those Influences, generally and
specially, have been over the mind ofthe
prisoner. | have shown you the ma.ien
influence of his direct leader. have
shown you, also, the "lalse and malig.
nant counsels" in behalf Of this sad ell.
terprise, emanating from those in place,
power and position. 1t might have been
your prodigal son borne away and seduc.
ed by such counsels, as well es my