Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1865-06-21
FULL HISTORY OF PAYNE'S EVENT.
Full CAREER.

The Court met at 12 m. to-day in pursuance
Of adjournment yesterday.
Upon the Court being called to order, Mr.
Doster, counsel for Payne and Atzerodt pro-
ceeded to read his argument in behalf Of
Payne.
There are three things, he said, in the case of
the prisoner Payne which are admitted beyond
cavil or dispute. LIST. That he is the person who
attempted to take the life Of the Secretary Of
State, I'd. That he is not within the medical
definition OF insanity. Sd. That he believed
what he was doing was right and justifable.
. The questions as to his Identity and sanity
are therefore settled and among the things Of
the past, and the sole remaining question is
how far shall his convictions serve TO mitigate
ana MS the
that in so doing he admitted that IL the prisoner
Ii a responsible being he ought to be punished,
and he said II because he could not allow his
duties as counsel TO interfere with his conyic.
tons as man SO Tar as TO make him blind to
the worth Of the life Of a distinguished citizen
and to the awful consequences Of an attempt
to take it away. II, indeed, such an attempt
should be allowed TO go without rebuke, then
1t seemed to him the office is but perilous ex.
posure to violence; the highest compensation
for public service is the distinction which fol-
lows assassination; and then our public SER
wants are but pitiable and defenseless offerings
to sedition. And surely If any public servant
deserved 70 be excepted from that fate it was
the 1llustrious and sagacious statesman who
during long life Of arduous services has
steadfastly checked all manner of faction and
public discomfort, who in the darkest days of
dIscord has prophecied the triumph of concord,
and who at all times has been more ready to
apply anttdotes than the knife to the nations
wounds. "-T
That we may accurately, and as fully as the
occasion demands, understand the con yictions
OF the prisoner, the counsel proceeds to give a
sketch Of his life, the customs under which he
was reared, and the education which he re.
Rev. George q. Powell, a Baptist minister, at
present supposed TO live at Live Oak Station,
on the railroad between Jacksonville and Tall
lahassee, in the State OF Florida, and was horn
in Alabama in the year 1916. Besides himself
his father had six daughters and two sons He
lived Tor some time in Worth and Stewart
counties, Georgia, and in 1859 moved to Flor.
Ida at the breaking out of the war, but four
years ago, the prisoner was a lad Of sixteen.
engaged IN experimenting his fathers pIanta.
lion ams .s number Of slaves. We May safely
presum that occupied in the innocent pur.
suits OF country life, he daily heard the nre
cepts OF the gospel from his father, and that IN
planter was softened by the charms of re.
fined and religious circle, and that in the mar.
0IaI course OF events he would be to-day, as
~ ,ss1 tnen, Iarmer and an honest man But
pestiience OF the race The signal which
spread IKE nre, was not long in reaching
and Lewis, though but sixteen, enlisted In
Capt Stuarts company in the Cd Florida imam
Try ..s som%spdsd BY Col. Ward, and was Or
Mr.. Doster proceeded to consider what in
the eyes OF this Florida bow was the meaning
OF inc war, and what the thoughts that drove
MN from pleasant home to the field of arms
Inc counsel pictured in vivid language the
auspices under which young Powell was
framed IN slave community, where il was
the custom to defend the institution OF slavery
N meeting houses, at political gatherings, and
In family prayers; where 1t was the practice
70 nip and burn men who preached against
tne institution. and to hunt fugitives with
bloodhounds, and also those who helped them
70 freedom. In the eyes of the lad the war
meant TO abolish this custom, and upheave So
Grey from its foundations. His inheritance
Wesb be dissipated, bis yassaIs equal. his
AVE- INVADED, his religion COMPOUNDED, his
For this the lad was .o,n, % e.,,
q the s 81 snI
was going 10 fight to shonrT nj, .n,ra reason, he
man than the northerners, nder NV was Sa oetter
yiction prevailing In his seton that t Sva
northerners. The fourth reason W.. shat OF
invasion. These were his lncentiSs. 10 repei
had been schooled and trained to war put ne
there. ~nt
The counsel asks whether, in the wide worla.
there Is another school in which the prisoner
could so well have been trained for assassina.
ton as in this slave autocracy? Mr.. Doster
proceeds TO argue that in this prisoner is to be
found the Legitimate moral Offspring Of slavery,
goes on TO inquire II we, as the American peo-
pie, are not responsible for the wicked school
IN winch ne was educated, and If we i'll de.
termine TO destroy him because he learned but
as we instructed.
But there is another school before hiu-tbs
school OF war. At Richmond his regiment
Joined the army Of Gen. Lee and was Joined
70 n. Films corps. With IL he passed through
the peninsula campaign and the battles of
. Chan ceforsvnle and Antietam Here he
heard that his two brothers had been killed AZ
tDe ostue OF ID urfreesboro. Finally on the Sd
OF yuiy, 1853, In the charge upon the Federal
center ~ 1euy sourg he WAS wounded taken
prisoner and detailed as a nurse in a Penn.
syivania hospital. 1-I - = oAH
The demoralizine effect of his two xaar.,.
paigning as private in the army, which he