The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-12-06

~ " Ss0saW eohteuefate fdttn, on question Of
sacn Vital importance 70 as, and viii cease.
Immediately and absolutely cease. 10 disturf
ous peHee, 10 destroy our lives and propertv.
anu s. . oeprise us cfnI protection and redress
snSs ~ me peryerted forms and distorted work.
sssss. - sae Union, we must take arms The
,s ,ssue - 700 essential to be compromised ANY
sm"se. s we cannot stand such insults and ou +
ierine warss ross o. harpers Ferry without ruf.
o1s N seuersHg dfshonor, the death OF Sta,e
e TOT Quarter OF a century we ha We beer ner.
ss 20 iafncaT. and patiently TO wait for ihe
men,s IA 'nu nnr Worklsg OF the conservative ele-
Iorenorhe, and waited in vain. we kna"v ,ha, n..,
We nave many sound and sincere friends ~ .,is ,n
arn mnss n,,.,g states ~ may be that they
such wrongs as these; hut il is not IN "a AZ
guised mat the conservative elements re ~.
s,rt whist the fanatical are aefirs, aud the
former are last diminishing whilst the Inter
are increasing in numbers and in force Unt
where is the evidence that the CONSERVATIVE
elements are most powerful. do we look To
the schools and colleges I to the pulpits and
clergy, and churches and congregations To
the press to the Journals to the books to
the professionss the artizans. to associations
which are marked characteristics of the age .
TO politics to public ass embiies and speakers !.
10 Legislatures TO Congress to laws either
State or Federal to elections TO the admin-
istration oflaws tojudicial decisions. Alas |!
turn where we will and to what We will, we
find that the judgments OF the courts only are
with us. but they have lost all reverence and
respect, and we are left without protection,
and the Supreme Conrt of the United States is
itself assaiied for not assailing our constitu-
tional defeEces. And these last are assailed
in denying the rights of protection itself.
new sovereignty and a new law is set up over
the old, and We are denied protection under
both. Where the Federal government has no
power to Cypress, il is assumed; and where it
| has the power and il is its duty TO protect, it
| is not allowed to Intervene. And the non.
siayeholding States are in nearly solid array
| opposed TO us. We, united, may contend for a
! while by the aid of pluralites, but for short
| time only, and uncertainty atany time, and at
| hest have no maioriiies on which We can rely
| in n least sixteen States, having the power OF
| the Union. The active has overcome the pas
| sive elements; fanaticism has subdued cunser
| vatlsm in all these States, aud these can now.
IN our present condition, prac ticaiiy WELD our
| Gestlnies for veal or woe. Will they come
| back 10 the Constitution and abide its cove
| pantS or not What those covenants are, l
1 have fully discussed in a reply To the resoin-
\ tions of Vermont, which are herewith SUBJ
mitted, with my response appended, as part
| of this message l put it upon the archives OF
State as the most elaborate study OF the sub
| ject of which / am capable.
But no words can elaborate the issues to
| which we are now practically brought by the
events at Harpers Ferry.
1t is vain to point to the paucity of the mum
| bers of the marauders The daring of their a T.
| tempt would prove not more their fool-haroi-
1 ness than their full assurance that they were
l
| bic. III they had not mistaken the number aud
| disposition OF the slaves, who they expected TO
seize the spears, which they brought to cap
| ture an arsenal of arms, it is not known, and
| will never be known, now many other white
| fanatics would have sweiled their numbers,
| nor how much blood and treasure it would
! have cost to queli their rebellion. Few they
were, but they were fatal to the lives of sever
| al of our most worthy citizens; and ins ulting-
| ly dared the chances of doisg immeasurable
mischief to our entire northern border.
| And 1t is mockery to call them monomani.
| acs. Maniacs they We're, only all great
| criminals are and monomaniacs they were
only as the subject of slavery makes men more
| insensate than any other one subject can. II
| these men were monomaniacs, then are a large
| portion of the people of many Of the States
monomaniacs.
| Before these crimes, they were deemed sane
| soldiers in notable crusade against slavery
| and shareholders. Many of those who now
plead their insanity for them, put Sharps RI
| fies in their hands and enlisted and framed
| and trusted their wits for war in Kansas.
| Contributions were raised for them in churches.
| They had be- puifed with the praise OF the
| professedly pious for being the very men of
| des tiny for the mission against slave settle
| ments. They had been furnished with money
| TO make sharp spears of butchery for the
| throats and breasts of masters, and 10 supply
munitions and stores OF regular campaigns.-
| They assembled together from parts as far be-
| tween they themselves were few. They
| were provided, supplied and furnished with
much beyond their own wants or means. And
tits passing strange that they. madmen. 81 uid.
| few as they were, have been SO many madmen,
meeting from so far apart so we'll supplied by
| others than themselves, at point SO well Sc
| with so much method rs TO be so successful
| against such apparent odds. Were these par
| ties, known and unknown, so situated, all
| mad 1t is enough to say that the leader
himself spurned the falsehood, hypocrisy and
cowardice of this mawkish plea Of monoma-
MIA. and neither he, nor one of his men, ner
| their counsel, put it in npon their trials. He
expected from his prompters and hackers and
sympathizers better pretence and more potent
| defence than that. Before his failure and de-
| feat i'll what, in their correspondence with
him. they call & " glorious cause,'' their SYM
pathy was all with his desperate daring and
/ success and now it is with his insanity for a
| plea against The legal penalties OF his crimes,
which had their origin in this very sympathy.
sympathy which saw his insanity too late TO
snatch from his hands the weapons it had
placed there: too late to save the lives taken
by its own Indictment; and too late to save
him from a felon'S fate.
BY our laws, the plea of insanity could avail
| at any time in any stage of trial, and after
| conviction before sentence of the court; and
after the judicial tribunals We're done with
| the prisoners, and they were turned over To
! the executioner, the executive authority could
| forefeud the laws sentence upon the insane
| If either could show or prove insanity, either
now, or on trial, he could not be executed as
long as am Governor of the Commonwealth,
/ until cured in an asylum; and, if insane at
| the time of committing the offence he could
| not be executed, cured or not cured, at ALL
| But these men needed no mental cure theirs
was a moral maady of devils, which no power
but Divine could cast out. They We're delibe-
rate, cunning, malignant malcfactors, despe-
rately bent on mischief with malice afore-
| thought, gangrened by sectional and social
habitual hatred TO us and ours. Their yen-
/ geance whetted by previous collisions,
| hundreds of miles from us, and it whetted
| Jagged ledge spears, which it brought the hum
| dreds of miles for our destruction. They
came, few, like thieves in the night did their
| deeds OF death, and were easily crushed; but
| they were prompted by an evil spirit of in
| cendiarism, which demoralizes numerous
| host of enemies behind them, who now bia-
| tantly sympathize with their deeds in open
| day before the world These hired them to be
assassins, robbers, murderers and traitors,
without themselves incurring the risk of their
| crimes and il is no wonder that they now
sympathize with them even TO madness, and
| that John Brown despised the hypocritical
| cant of their pretence that he was INSANE.
The details of this conspiracy and of its de-
noument at Harpers Ferry are given in the
various accompanying reports. Much of the
correspondence and mai y OF the papers OF the
culprits were found. i have had them col
lected and copied by competent amanuenses,
and they are hereto appended. Suffice IL to
saw in reference to my own Official action,
that the first intelligence of the outbreak
reached me in the morning OF the 18th Octo-
ber and was very vague. Orders were dis
patched Immediately to Col. Gibson, OF JET
ferson, TO call ont the necessary force OF ms
own aud adjacent regiments. But late in the
evening Of the same day, about 7o'clsck, the
telegraph announced more serious and pre-
else cause of danger. The news was that $50
marauders had seized the arsenal at Harper's
Ferry, with all its arms and munitions and
were araing the slaves, and that actual mnr.
der was done, and several citizens were killed
and wounded. / Immediately called out the
lst regiment of volunteers, and rs many men
g - oavfv nnsf nj mil pR n