The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1865-07-08
The Cecil Whig.
ELKTON, JULY 3, 1865.
JU STICE!!
SENTENCE OF THE ASSASSINS.
Payne, AtzerOth, Harold and Mrs
Surratt to be Executed.
DR.. Muld, Arnold and O'Laugh.
lin Imprisoned for Life.
Spangler to be Confined 10 the Peniten.
tiary for Six Years.

tiary Tor DIX ears.
The Sentence Improved By the President and
the Execution ordered to take place on the
! It'll Of July, bet,ocen the hours of 10 d. 2 o. elk.
President johnson has approved the find
ing of the Military Commission convened in
May to try the parties engaged in the late
conspiracy against the Government. Payne,
Harold, Atzeroth, and Mrs Surratt are sen.
fenced to death, and yesterday they expiated
their crime upon the scaffold, unless the Ex-
ecutive granted them brief reprieve, which
is not probable Spangler is sentenced to
Imprisonment at hard labor for six years,
| while Mudd, Arnold and O'Laughlin are
sentenced to imprisonment, at hard labor
| for life.
The finding of the Court. ard the appro.
val of the President, together with the
prompt execution of the sentence. will meet
the sanction of all loyal men. The horrible
crime of which the condemned were guilty
demands Immediate retributon. The blood
of our dead President cries from the ground
for justice, and the attempt upon the life Of
Secretary Seward requires no less punish.
ment, since Payne had the will to murder,
though he failed,
1t is proper that an example be made of
these culprits. Hereafter it will serve as a
warning to all evil-minded and traltorous
persons They will remember the fate of
the men who were employed as assassins, to
effect, or rather attempt, the overthrow of
the Government which the leaders of Rebel.
| hon had vainly essayed to accomplish by
force Of arms.
But why execute those puppets of the
Rebel leaders; alone, and let the real felons
| l. I
termined yet, but how many mawkish senti-
mentalists do We find advocating such
course? jeff. Davis and his associates
planned the overthrow Of the Republic, and
the murder Of the President by their tools
was but mere incident in the great plot
The starvation of our prisoners at Bell Isle,
Libby, Andersonville. Salisbury, and other
prison pens in the South was done with their
val. This crime was thousand times more
barbarous than the sudden blow that robbed
the nation of its chief, and the evidence is
as clear in the one case as in the other
Then if the murderers of the President are
executed, what shadow of excuse have those
who would discharge those greater and more
barbarous murderers of our imprisoned sol
diars?
Ifthe execution of the Presidents muir
derers is to serve as warning against
such crimes, would not the execution of
Davis and his conspirators serve as a
warning to traitors not to starve thousands
of captves to death in any future rebellion
| AN the long catalogue of crimes which have
covered the Rebels in this war of treason
sprung from the plot to overthrow the gov
eminent, and that plot was concocted by the
! Rebel leaders.
Nor has any serious attempt to justify the
rebellion ever beer made by its leaders.-
No cause of oppression, no encroachments
upon the civil or religious liberties Of the peo
pie of those States, no oppressive or unjust
taxes levied upon them, nothing thai has in
the past been proclaimed as cause sufficient
to Justify rebellion against the constituted
government has ever been attempted as an
excuse for the enormous crimes of these
conspirators. And if the assassins of the
President deserved death, and justice de-
manded their execution, how much greater
is the demand ofjustice for the execution of
those who wontonly murdered by starvation
captive men? And how much more impor-
tant is it that a warning should be given to
those who would conspire against the law
fully constituted government, while they are
unprepared to give to the world single rea-
son for their acts?