The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1859-11-17

the State, taken from the report Of the
trial in the New York Herald exhibits
a degree of barbarity on the part Of
conspicuous Virginian shareholders to-
wards helpless, bound, and unarmed
prisoner, which hardly finds a parallel
in the annals of savage warfare. The
atrocities of the Chinese, and of the
native East Indians in the recent in
surrection, are almost the only kindred
instances which the nineteenth century
has developed Of cruelty 30 wanton
and SO hideous. Even the savage race
that once inhabited Virginia would
have felt itself degraded by an action
at once SO barbarous and SO cowardly.
For, brutal and bloody as it was, &C.
cording to the plain statement of the
witness Hunter, himself one of the
principal actors in the horrid butchery,
its mean and skulking cowardice was
fully equal to its inhumanity. Con-
trasted with such . transaction, the
doinps of tire demented Brown, for
which he is now under sentence of
death, beam with heroism and virtue.
But the testimony shows one bright
side. If Virginia men have exhibited
themselves as assassins of helpless
prisoners, Virginia woman has shown
herself worthy of the birthplace of
Pocahontas. Eternal shame will follow
the brutes, who disregarded her just
appeals on behalf of law, and torn her
protecting arms from defenseless
man, that then; might murder ham.
hunters testimony is given in full,
as follows:
Henry Hunter called-Examined by
counsel for defense.
Q. Did you witness the death of this
man Thompson? A. l witnessed the
death of one whose name have been
informed was Thompson.
@. The one who was prisoner? a
Yes, sir.
@ Well, sir, what were the circum-
stance attending it?
Witness-There was prisoner con-
fined in the parlor of the hotel, and
after Mr.. Beckham's death, he was
shot down by number of us there
belonging to this sharp shooting band.
Mr.. Andre,o Hunter-Will you al
low him to state, before proceeding
further, how he was connected with Mr..
Beckham.
Mr.. Green-Certainly, sir.
Witness-He ives my grand uncle
and my especial friend-a man loved
above all others; after he was killed
Mr.. Chambers and myself moved for
ward to the hotel for the purpose of
taking this prisoner out and hanging
him we were joined by number of
other persons, who cheered us on in
that work; we went up into his room
where he was bound, with the I'M
doubted and undisguiscd purpose of
taking his life !; at the door we were
stopped by persons guarding the door,
who demonstrated with us, and the ex-
element was so great that persons who
demonstrated with us one moment
would cheer us on the next; we burst
into the room where he was, and found
several around him, but they offered
only feeble resistance we brought
our guns down to his head repeatedly
myself and another person = for
the purpose of shooting him, in the
room; there was young lady there,
the sister of Mr.. Fouke the hotel keeper
who sat in this mans lap, covered his
face with her arms, and shielded him
with her person whenever we brought
our guns to bear; she said to us, ssFor
Gods sake wait and let the law take
its course" my associate shouted to
kill him "Let us shed his blood" were
his words; all around were shouting
"Mr. Beckham's life was worth ten
thousand of those vile abolitionists -
! was cool about it, and deliberate ;
my gun was pushed up by some one
who seized the barrel, and then moved
to the back part of the room, still with
purpose. unchanged, but with view to
divert attention from me, in order to
get an opportunity at some moment
when the crowd should be less dense,
to shoot him; after moments thought
it occurred to me that that was not the
proper place to kill him; we then pro-
posed to take him out and hang him
some persons of our band thep opened
a way to him, and first pushed Miss
Fouke aside, we slung him out of doors;
gave him push and many others did
the same; we then showed him along
the platform and down to the trestle
work of the bridge, he begging for bis
life all the time, very piteously at first;
by-the-by, before we took him out o1
the room asked the question what he
came here for ? He said their only
purpose was to free the slaves-&that
he came here to free the slaves or die
then he begged, "Don't take my life
prisoner !" but ! put the gun to him
and he said, You may kill me, but il
will be revenged; there are eighty
thousandpersons sworn to carry on this
work." that was his last expression
We bore him out on, the bridge with
the purpose of hanging him; We had
no rope and none could be found II
was a moment of wild excitement
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