The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1859-12-07


counsel for Cook, tried and convicted at
Charlestown for his participation in the Har
per's Ferry rebellion. Mr.. Voorhees, is des-
cribed as tall, splendid looking man, with
a magnificent voice, over which he has great
command. His speech before the jury was
most eloquent effort, and we give below
that portion of it in which be boldly traces
the responsibility for the insurrectionary
attempt. The picture is forcible and true
But, gentlemen, in estimating the magni-
tude Of this young mans guilt, there is one
fact which is proven in his behalf by the cur
rent history of the day which you cannet
fail to consider. Shall John f. Cook perish,
and the real criminals who for twenty years
have been taught the principles on which he
acted hear no voice from this spot? Shall
no mark be placed on them? Shall this Oc-
casien pass away, and the prime felons who
attacked your soil and murdered your citi
zens at Harper's Ferry escape? The indict-
ment before us says that the prisoner was
seduced by the false and malignant counsels
of other traitorous persons.
Never was sentence ..writton more just
and true. "False and malignant counsels,"
have been dropping for years, as deadly and
blighting as the poison of the Bohun Upas
tree, from the tongues OF evil and traitorous
persons in that section of the Union to
which the prisoner belongs. They have So
6uced not only his mind, bat many others,
honest and misguided like him, to regard
the crime at Harper's Ferry as no crime,
your rights as unmitigated wrongs, and the
constitution of the country as league with
hell and covenant with death. On the
skirts of the leaders of abolition fanaticism
North is every drop of blood shed in the con.
fict at Harper's Ferry; on their souls r ests
the crime of murder 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 Bos-
ton abolitionist, wendell Philhps,) few
presence of thousands, speaking of this ira
gic occurrence, says: 1t is the natural re-
suit of anti-slavery teaching. For one, ac-
cept it. expected it," /, too, accept it in
the same light, and so will the country
Those who taught, and not those who be-
lieved and acted are the men OF crime in the
sight of God. And to guard other young
men, Sc far as in my power, from the fatal
snare, which has been frightened around the
hopes and destiny of John 3. Cook, and to
show who are fully responsible for his con-
duet, l intend to link with this trial the
names Of wiser and older men than he, and
if he is to be punished and consigned to a
wretched doom, they shall star beside him
in the public stocks; they shall be pillored
forever in public shame as the evil and trai-
torous persons who seduced him to his ruin
by their false and malignant counsels.
The visionary mind Of the prisoner heard
from a member of Congress from Massachu-
sets that new constitution, new Bible
and new God were to be inaugurated to
possess the country. They were to be new,
k..o,,,o ~ oXx xraro ~ ha Nils 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 for
ever. were not on the side of abolitionism
Is there no mitigation for his doom in the
fact that he took his life in his hand, and
aimed at that which coward taught him,
but dared not himself attempt? Base, pu-
sillanimous demagogues have led the prison
er to the bar; but while he satfers-if suffer
he must-they, too shall have their recreant
limbs broken on the wheel. will not leave
the soil of Virginia, will not let this awful
occasion pass into history, without giving a
voice and an utterance to its true purport
and meaning, without heaping upon its au-
thors the load of execration which they are
to bear henceforth and forever. Day after
day, and year after year has the baleful 81
moon of revolution, anarchy, discord, hostil-
ity 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; rath-
err should it render every heart clement to-
ward him. He never sought place or sta
ton, but sought merely to develOpe those
doctrines which evil and traitorous persons
had caused him to believe were true.
The chief of these men, the leader of a
great party, a Senator of long standing,
has announced to the country that there is a
higher law than the constitution, which guar
antics to 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
follor ed the Mahomet OF anincendiary faith.
Come forth, the sages of abolitionism, who
now cover and skulk under hasty denials of
yonr completely with the bloody result OF
your wicked and unholy doctrines, and take
your places on the witness stand. Tell the
world why this thing has happened. Tell
this jury why they are trying John +. Cook
fer his life. You advised his conduct and
taught him that he was doing right. You
taught him higher law and then pointed
out to him the field of action. Let facts be
submitted. MIR. Seward, in speaking fslave-
ry, says: at can and must be abolished, aud
YOU and must do it.
What worse did the prisoner attempt?
Again, he id,apon this same subject, "Cr-
oamstances determine possibilities" and
doubtless the circumstances with which
John Brown had connected his plans made
them possible in his estimation; for it is in
eyidencence before the country, unimpeached
and unconstradicted, that the great Senator
of New York had the whole affair submitted
to him, land only whispered back, in response,
tina: he had better not been told. de has
boldly announced an ifrepressible conflict
between the free and slave States OF this
Union. These seditious phrases, "higher
law" and "irrepressible conflict warrant
and invite the construction which the pri-
soner and his young deluded 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 master-spirit Of insurrection is
loaded with honors and fares sumptuously
every day. Such is poor, short-h anded
in justice world.
a L..