Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-11-25


come upon the world" The atrocity of
these sentiments chills the blood Of hon.
est patriots, ard no part of the prisoners
equals their bloody import. Shall the
old leader escape and the young follower
die? Shall the teacher whose doctrines
told the prisoner that what he did was
right, 90 unscathed of the lightning
which he has unclaimed. If so, 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 to
bis ruin shall here receive my maledic-
tons. They shrink back from him now
in the hour of his calamity. They lift
up their hands and say, Amen to the
bloody spectacle which their Internal or
gies have summoned up. You hear
them all over the land calculating
through false, pale, coward lips, "Thou
canst not say did it," when their hands
are rocking with all the blood that has
been shed and which yet awaits the ex-
treme penalty of the law. False, fleet
ing, periured traitors, false to those who
have acted upon your principles, false to
friends as well as country, and periured
before the Constitution of the Republic
ministers who profess to be of God,
who told this boy here to carry Sharpe's
rife to Kansas instead of his mothers
Bible-shall this jury, this court and
this country, forget their guilt aud their
infamy, because victim to their pre-
copts is yielding up his life before You?
May God forget me if here, in the
presence of this pale face, forget to de-
nounce with the whitening, blighting,
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, anew Bible and a new God
were 10 be inaugurated aad to possess the coun-
try. They were to be nelo, because they were
to be anti-slaycry, for the old Constitution, and
the old Bible and the God Of our fathers, the
ancient Lord God of Israel, the same yesterday,
to-day, and forever, were not on the side of alb
Oltionism. Is there no mitigation for his doom
aim at that which coward taught him, but
dared not himself attempt Base, pusIlanimous
demagogues have led the prisoner to the bar,
but while he suiiers-if suffer he must-theY, !
too, shall have their recroant limbs broken on
the wheel. will not leave he soil of Virginia, |
/ will not let this awful occasion pass into his
tory, without giving voice and an utterance
to its true purport and meaning, without heap |
ing upon It's authors theload ofeXccration which !
they are to bear henceforth and forever. Day
aitcr day and year after year has the baleful |
simeon Of revolution, anarchy, discord, and
hostility to the South and her Institutions swept
over that section Of the country in which the
lot of the prisoner has been cast That he has
been poisoned by its breath should not cut him
off from human sympathy; rather should it
render e7ery heart clement toward him lie
never sought place or station, but merely sought
to develop those doctrines which evil and trail
torous persons had caused him to believe were
true. Ministers, editors, and politicians-Beech-
CT, Parker, Seward, Giddings, Sumner, Hale, and
host Of lesser lights Of each class--who in this
court-room, who in this vast country, who in
the wide world who shall read this trial believes
them not guilty rs charged in the indictment
IN all the courts TO deeper and far more fear
iul extent than John f. Cook. Midnight gloom
Is not more sombrc in contrast with the blazing
such men in comparison with that which over
wheims Tic prisoner. Thvy put in rrutiUn the
maelstrom which has engulphed him. They
started the torrent which has borne bin over
the precipice. They called forth from the cav
erns the tempest which has wrecked him on a
sunken reef Belore God, and IN the light of
Eternal truth, The disaster at lIarper's Ferry is
their act and not his. May the ghost of each
victim TO their doctrines of disunon and abom-
nation sit h ayy on their guilty souls May
the late OF the prisoner, whatever it may be,
disturb their slumbers and paralyZe their arms
when they arc again raised against the peace
ofthe country and the lives Of its citizens
know by the CLEAN Of each eye into which
look in this jury box, that if these men could
change places with young Cook, you would
gladly say to him, $50, erring and repentant
youth, our vengeance shall fall on those who
paid their money urged on the attack, and
guided the blow" Let me appeal to you, gen
tlemen Of the jury, in the name Of Eternal truth
and Everlasting right is nothing to be forgiven
TO youth, TO ineXperiencc, to a gentle kind
heart, to a maynard 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 of the prisoner. have
shown you the malign influence of his direct
!
aud malignant counsels' in behalf of this sad
enterprise omanating from those in place pow
er and position. II might have been your pro-
digal son borne away and seduced by such
counscls, as well as my Young client. Dowih
HIM as YOU would have your own child dealthy
under like Circumstances, lie has been stolen
from the principles Of his ancestors and betrayed
from the teachings Of his kindred. If he was
your own handsome child, repentant and con-
Tossing his wrong TO his country, what would
You wish jury Of strangers TO do? That do
yourselves. BY that rule guide your verdict
and the poor boon Of mercy will not be cut off
from him He thought the country was about
TO be convulsed that the slave was pining for
an opportunity to rise against his master; that
two-thirds Of the lahorng population of the
country, North and South would flock to the
standard of revolt that a single day would
bring ten, hlty-yea, a hundred thousand men
to arms in behalf of the insurrection of the
slaves. This is in evidence. Who are rcspon-
sble for such terribly false views and what
Aims at a visionary aud Gie .,a.GT a;ssi = hat
which has so fatally entertained them2 That
The prisoner S mind is plant TO the Impressions
whether for good or for evil, by which ii is SUR
rounded let his first interview in his prison
with Gov. Willard, in the presence of your Sen
ator, Col. Mason, bear witness. Ills error was
placed before him. His wrong 10 his family and
his country was drawn by patriotic and, at
the same time, an ahec,ionatc hand His nat
ural being at once asserted its sway. The in
huonce Of good, and not of evil, once more con-
troled him rs in the days Of bis childhood; and
now here before you he has the merit at least of
a loyal citizen making all the atonement in his
power for the wrong which he has committed.
That he has told strictly the ruth in his state
ment is proven by every word of evidence in
this cause
Gentlemen, you have this case. ! surrender
into your hands the issues Of life and Death
As long as you live, more important ease than
this YOU Won will never be called to try Con-