Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-11-25
lcancLuiad lrom the 49, pn,el

nature. Let the hand OF chastlSement
fall gently on the errors of such as him,
sud reserve your heavy blows for such
as commit crime from motives Of de-
prayity. Up to this point | have fol-
lowed the prisoner, and traced his i'm
mediate coanexion with this sad affair.
You have everything before you. You
have heard bis own account of his strange
and infatuated wanderings up and down
the earth with John Brown and his CO.
AUDITORS; how like fiction it all seems,
and yet how lamentably true how I'M
real &c minds like ours: how like
Tho feyer-dream of a mind warped and
dsordered to the borders Of insanity,
does the part which the prisoner has
played seem to every practical judge
ment Is there nothing in it at all that
affords you the dearest privilege which
man has on earth--thc privilege of being
mereiful ? Why, the very thief on the
cross, for single moments repentance
over his crimes, received absolute for
giyeness and was rewarded with para
disc But, gentlemen, in 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 crimi-
mails who for twenty years have taught
the principles on which he acted, hear
no voice-frorn this spoG2 Shall no mark
be placed on them? Shall this occasion
pass away, and the prime felons vino at
tackled your soil and murdered your citi-
zons at Harper's Ferry escape? The
Indictment before us says, that the pris-
oner was seduced by the false and ma
lignant cOunsels Of other tratorous per-
sons Never was sentence written
more Just and true False and malig-
nant oounsels " 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 seduced not
only bis mind. but 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 in the North, is
every drop of blood shed in the conflict
at Harper's Ferry on their souls rests
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 Boston abolitiouist, (Wendell
Phillips few days ago, at Brooklyn,
New York, in the presence of thousands,
speaking Of this tragic occurrence, says
1t IS the natural result of anti-slavery
teaching For one, | accept it. | ex-
pocted it," I too, accept it in the same
light, and SO viii the country. 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 ia
tai snare which has been frightened
around the hopes and destiny Of John
Il. Cook. and to show who arc fully re-
spo1sible for his conduct, l intend to
link with this trial the names of wiser
and older men than he; and, if he is to
DO punished and consigned to a wretchcd
doom, they shall stand beside him in the
public stocks; they shall be piloried
forever in public shame as the evil and
traitorous persons who seduced him to
his ruin by their false and malignant
eounsels.
The chief of these men, the leader of
great party. a senator of long standing,
has announced to the country that there
is higher law than the Constitution,
which guarantees to each man the full
exercise Of his own inclination. The
prisoner before you has simply acted on
the law of VIM. III Seward, aud not the
law of his fathers He has followed the
Mahomet of an incendiary faith Come
forth, ye sages of aboitionism, who now
cover and skulk under hasty denials of
your 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 hap
peped. Tell this jury why they are try
ing John Il. Cook for his hfe. You ad-
yised 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 sub
mitted. Mr.. Seward, in speaking of
slavery, says: ut can and must be
abolished, and you and | must do it.
What worse did the prisoner attempt p
Again he said upon this same subject,
" circumstances determine possibilities; -
and doubtless the circumstances with
which John Brown had connected his
plans made them possible in his cstima-
ton, for il is in evidence before the
country, Gnispeaeha4 and uncontredict-
cd, that the great senator of New York,
had the whole matter submitted to him,
and only whispered back, in response,
tina. be had better not been told. He
has boldly announced an irrepressible
conflict between the free and slave States
of this Union These seditious phrases,
higher law" and " irrcpressible con-
hict, warrant and invite the construc-
ton which the prisoner 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 and
master spirit of insureection is loaded
with honors aud fares sumptuously every
day. Such is poor, short. handed justice
in this world.