Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-12-07
THE GAZETTE.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER :, 1859.

Quent speech OF MT NoOThtts, 'o '"a'. -
torney for Indiana. IN behalf Of }. r. Cook,
one OF the Harper's Ferry prisoners, to the
Court aud Jury before whom Cook Was tried.
We publish from the speech the following:
True PIcTURE.-''But, gentlemen. III
estimating the magnitude Of this young
mans guilt, there is one fact which is proven
in his behalf by the current history Of the day
which YOU cannot fail to consider. Shall
John + Cook perish and the real CRIMINALS
who Tor twenty years have been taught tue
principles on which he acted, hear n" voice
from this spot. Shall no mark he placed on
them! Shall this occasion pass away. aud
the prime felons v no attacked your soil and
murdered your citizens ut Harper's Ferry es-
care. The indictment before ns says that
the prisoner was seduced by the false and
malignant counsels of other traitorous per.
sons. Never was sentence written more
lust and true. False and malignant coun-
sells have been dropping for years. as deadly
and biighting as the poison OF the bohun
Upas tree, from the tongues OF evil aud
traitorous persons in that section Of the
Union 70 which the prisoner belongs. They
have seduced not only his mind, but many
others, honest and misguided like him, I" re
gard the crime at Harper's Ferry as no CRIME,
your rights as unmitigsted wrongs. and the
Constitution of the country rs league with
hell and a covenant with death. On the
skirts of the leaders Of Abolition fanaticism
North, is every drop Of blood shed IN the
conflict at Harper's Ferry; on their souls
rests the crime ofmurder for every life there
lost; and all the waters of the ocean could not
wash the stains of slaughter from their
treacherous and guilty hands, A noted Dos
ton Abolitionist, wendell Phillips few
DAYS ago, at Brooklyn, n. L.. in the pres
ence Of thousands, speaking Of this tragic
occurrence, says-.It is the natural re-
suit of snti-slavery teaching. For one, |
accept it. | expected it, |. too. accept
it in the same light. and 80 will the coun-
try. Those who taught. and not those who
believed and acted, are the men OF crime in
the sight Of God. And to guard other young
men, so far as in my power, from the fatal
snare which has been frightened around
the hopes and destiny of John +. Cook, and
to show who are fully responsible for his
conduct, intend to link with this trial the
names of wiser and older men than ne; and II
he is to be punished and consigned to q
wretched doom. they shall stand beside him
in the public stocks; they shall be pllloried
forever in public shame as the evil and trait
orous persons who seduced him to his ruin
by their false and malignant counsels.
1.-THE chief Of these men, the leader OF
great party, Senator oflong standing, has
announced to the country that there is
higher law than the Constitution. which guar
antees 70 each man the full exercise OF his
own inclination. The prisoner before you
has simply acted on the law Of VIM. IL. Sew
ard, and not the law Of his fathers
He has followed the Mahomet Of an incendi-
AIRY faith. Come forth. the sages of ab"li-
tionism, who now cover and skulk under
hasty denials Of your completely with the
bloody result Of your wicked and unholy doc
trines, and take your places on the witness
stand. Tell the world why this thing has
happened Tell this Jury why they are try
ing John E. Cook for his life. You advised
his conduct and taught him that he was do
ing right. You taught him higher law,
and then pointed out to him the field Of ac-
ton. Let facts be submitted Mr.. Seward,
in speaking Of slavery, says, 1t can and
must be abolished. and you and | must do
it, What worse did theprisoner attempt
Again he said, upon the same subject. Cir
cumstances determine possibilities; and
doubtless the circumstances with which John
Brown had connected his plans made them
possible in his estimation; for it is in evil
dence before the country, uuimpcached and
uncontradicted. that the great Senator of
New York had the whole affair submitted to
him, and only whispered back, in response,
that he had better not been told. He has
boldly announced an irreprsssible conflict be-
tween the free and slave States of this Union.
These seditious phrases, high law and 'ir-
repressible conflict warrant and invite the
construction which the prisoner and his
young deludsd companions placed upon
them. Yet they are either in chains, with
the frightful gibbet in full view, or sleep in
dishonored graves; while the apostle or mas
ter-spirit of instruction is loaded with hon
ors and fares sumptuously every day. Such
10 poor, short-handed justice in this world.
IAN old man, and for many years mem
Der Of the National Congress from Ohio, next
shall testify here before you that he taught
the prisoner the terrible error which now
involves bis life. Servile instructions have
forever been on the tongue and the lips Of
Joshua h. Giddings. He says that when the
contest shall come, when the thunder shall
roll, the lightning fash, and when the slaves
shall rise in the South in imitation OF the
horrid scenes of the West Indies, when the
Southern man shall turn pale and tremble,
when your dwellings shall smoke with the
torch Of the incendiary, and dismay sit on
each countenance, he will hail it as the up
preaching dawn Of that political and
moral millennium which he is we'll assured
will come upon the world The strocity Of
these sentiments chills the blood of honest
patriots, and no part ofthe prisoners equals
their bloody import. Shall the old leader
escape and the young Hover die! Shall
the teacher whose doctrines told the prisoner
that what he did wasright, go unscathed Of
the lightning which he has unchainedr If
SO, justice has fed from her temples ON earth.
and awaits US only on high to measure out
what 10 right between man and man. The
men who have misled this boy to his ruin shall
here receive my msledctions. They shrink
back from him now in the hour Of his calam-
ity. They lift up their hands and say.
Amen. to the bloody spectacle which their
internal orgies have summoned up. You
hear them all over the land circulating
through false pale, coward lips, Thou canst
not say did it, when their hands are reek
ing with all the blood which has been shed
and which yet awaits the extreme penalty
of the law False. feeting, perjured traitors;
false to those who have acted upon your prln-
ciples; false to friends as well rs country,