Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-11-18
Virginia Earabarity.

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gNos one can read the testimony Of Henr,
hunter, in the late einsurrecton case. withou
feeling his blood boil with indignation at tn,
savage barbarityaof the men who murdered
Thompson, a wounded and defenseless spris
oner, notwithstanding his piteous cries fol
mercy, and the noble intercessionl of a young
lady, who vainly endeavored to protect his
life, as Pocahontas did the life of John Smith
from the more humane savages who inhabited
Virginia over two hundred years ago. The
witness was the son of Mr. Hunter, the pros.
ecuting lawyer. tsShall mention names ~
asked the son. 'sEvery bit of it, Henry;
state all yoa'saw, replied the father. Then
followed the testimony of the young man.
Beckman, who was shot on the bridge, was
his grand-uncle; she loved him above all
others;;" he went with others to the room
where Thompson was guarded a young lady,
Miss Fouke, sister of the hotel keeper, sat in
Thompson's lap covering his face with her
hands, and begging them for Gods sake not
to kill him, but to wait and let the law have
its course; the young man was 'cool aboue
1t, and deliberately" they pushed Miss Fouk}
aside, and "slung him out of doors - they
"shoved him along the platform and down the
tresse work of the bridge, he begging for his
life all the time, very piteously at first; bye
the-bye, before we took him out of the room,
l asked the question what he came here for !?
he said their only purpose was to free the
slaves; that he begged, Don't take my life
a prisoner but put the gun to him, and
he said, you may kill me, but it will be
revenged; there arc eighty thousand persons
sworn to carry out this work that was his
last expression; we bore him out on the
bridge, with the purpose then of hanging
him; we had no rope, and none could be
found; it was a moment Of wild excitement
two of us raised our guns-which one was
first | do not know-and pulled the trigger
before he had reached the ground suppose
some five or six shots had been fired into his
body he fell on the railroad track, his back
down to the earth, and his face up" as
that all, gentlemen ~ asked the father. 1t
was all 'Stand aside,n said the father to |
the heroic son. and we imagine that every
right minded man present execrated the
wretch in his heart. .r....-l
Let the reader, in contrast to the above,
(remarks the N. Y. Post, recall the touch.
ing story OF John Smith, fugitive slave
and adventurer, who afterwards became one
of the first coonists of Jamestown.-
His small company of men would soon have
persisted for want Of food if he had not
stolen the Ii dian idol, Okee, made of skins
stuffed with moss, and compelled the natives
to redeem it with a large purchase of corn.
While exp oring the Chick kahominy, how
ever, he was seized by the enemy, having
xii ed three Of them in the encounter, and
taken before the great Powhatan-the pre.
decessor of Gov. Wise who, seated on his
stump of a throne and clothed in raccoon
skins, condemned the poor fellow to death.
But beside The throne of the chief stood two
of his dusky daughters, who compassionated
Smith, and one of whom, the chiefs favor
lie, Pocahontas, resolved to save his life.
When the grim warriors, therefore, brought
I,ol, Al l..
head, and their war-clubs We're raised to
drop upon his daylight forever, she rushed
between the cXecu;ioners and their victim,
and, by her passionate entreaties, induced
the sayages to suspend their blows and suffer
Smith to depart. Those old red Indians
seem to Us to have had more real humanity
in them than many of the whites who now
occupy their places. The story of Thomp-
son is similar in some respects to the story
of Smith. lie had committed an outrage
upon the idol of the Virginians in
this case Cufee, not Okee-had been cap
tured, and would have been tried and con.
demned to death if the blood thirsty feroc-
ity Of the modern Vrginians, less capable
Of restraint than that Of the old Virginians,
could have awaited the slow decisions of
authority. But it could not !; and the world
is left to contrast the nobleness of the untu-
tored savages who inhabited Virginia in
1906 with the merciless, barharity Of the
Christian people trodding the same soil at
the present day.