Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-02-01
NLnnthornc stonned and listened.

Mahthurpe stopped and listened
Il thought heard them. lie said, in low
voice. but it was only the wind in the dry
leaves. suppose. Well-my story will not
detaiu you much longer. l was a convict in
State Prison dressed in the degrading garb
of malefactor, and ordered daily to my work
as the galley slave is ordered l accepted all
without a murmur. There is something great
er in this world than happiness, success,
wealth, consid deration it is the consciousness
that yOu are innocent With that supreme
sentiment at heart, man retains his self-re-
spect untouched, his personal pride sustains
him; be is if not happy, at least calm. l
might have been pardoned, | believe; for my
dear Annie, my good friend Hamilton and
others spared no eXertions but / resolutely
refused to accept pardon, and had the fact
notified to the executive, Why should !? l
was innocent it was not /, it was the Law
which was guilty. Pondering hour after hour,
in the darkness, ON my hard prison bed when
all others were asleep, this thought incessant-
ly REQUIRED. The Law is an oppressor, a
tyrant that crushes me. | am innocent
Twelve men, with Il Judge, and constable
behind them. have stolen my good maine and
my personal liberty from me as a thief robs n
home, or n highwayman n wayfarer of his
purse. | am poweress to resist yield to
brute force. All that remains to me is what no
power can take from me-the resolute will
not to cringe to the brutality / suffer under.
To accept n pardon is to acknowledge my
guilt. ] will accept none l will escape if
can And from the day when l entered the
prison ] began necessarily to revove the
means Of freeing myself from the hands of
that mis-callcd Justice which loathed, and
in my inmOst heart defied. You may not full
ly understand the sentiment shall here brief
ly touch upon, 1t is that of many victim of
wrong. If pride remains to man, he deties
oppression, and resolves TO meet force with
force. 1t is only when his pride is broken
that he cringes, and mine was unbroken.
resolved TO escape if could.
"A year or two after my incarceration the
moment came. As before, l cannot enter in,
to every detail-time is wanting. There was
in the prison man of sixty, convicted Of kill
ing another in brawl. This man had been
employed by my fa er once, who had res
cued his family from tarvatiOn. As soon a.
| he saw me he recogni4 | me, and / recogniz
| ed him. sudden glow On his brutaliZed face
for prison brutalizes-told me that he re-
membered From that moment he seized
every opportunity of being alone with me
| and talking of ''old times" There was a Sc
cret bond between us. Soon he began tC
| speak of his schemes to escape from the pris
! on-the one which promised most success be
| ing to undermine the wall of his cell which
adjoined my own-and at length, after many
! months our plan was determined upon, thu
| work begun. Three months afterwards the
| plaster had been so loosened that it only re
mained to remove it and the stones and es
! cape.
Il remember hesitating ON the night pre-
ceding that fixed upon for making the attempt
l shrunk from it as from confession of guilt
But the consciousness of wrong had hardened
and embittered me. felt, to the very bot
tom of my heart, an inexpressible hatred oi
the power in whose grasp l was writhing
! Society had struck me down with its bruta