Year: 1859


guilty of murder and insurrecon, it argues as fol-
lows:


Punishment in the government of God and man
does not spring from spirit of revenge. It is the
fruit Of love. Love demands that one who has
made war upon society shall die. Philanthropy,
the love Of man, the love of the human race, the
love Of the greatest number, require that murder
crs be punished God, who is love, ordained.
And we tremble less in view of Browns mad freak
than we do in face of the fact that there is abroad
in the land a sentiment that would shield him and
others from the just consequences of their crimes.
When those men embarked in this upon the
State, when they prepared guns for the white men
and thousand spears for the blacks to be used in
barbarous slaughter, when they imbrued their
hands in blood by taking the first victim Gan honest
coored man, who made no resistance, but was
only seeking to escape fro4 their hands,l and
numbering him in cold blood hen they refused to
lay down their arms after being overpowered, and |
continued their m.srderOus work, they threw away
all claim to compassion and put themselves on the
hazard of the revolution they had begun. If Others
can find any cause for pardoning such crimes, we
cannot
The foregoing views true, sound and logically
put; and we take much pleasure in reproducing
them i'll our columns. The position assumed is i'm
pregnable, and the train of reasoning which sus-
tains it is irrefutable. All honor to the able and
influential church organ which has assumed such
Christian patriotic and honorable grounds. May
its counses net be without power in the section of
country where they are most needed-the North.
One of the worst signs of the times, which lowers
upon Northern popular sentiment, is the we'll
nigh universal cry which has gone up through
out the length and breath of that section of the
confederacy, calling for the absolute pardon, or
commutation of punishment, of old Ossawotame
Brown-a man guilty of murder OF burglary, of
treason against the laws, and man who sought to
stir up servile insurrection, which, if crowned
with any degree of success, could only eyentuate
in arson, assassination, rape and all other horrible
crimes known to the criminal calendar. This proves
depravity of taste corruption of public morals,
| and smothering of honorable emotions among our
| Northern g brethren" such as BODIES no good for
the future.


| Governor Wise has been importuned, begged,
and promised even the Presidency by the Black
Republicans, if he would pardon this hoary- headed
callous- hearted, calculating murierer-old Brown.
The letters he has received are almost innumerabe.
But, it so happens that, according to the laws Of
Virginia, Governor Wise has no over to pardon
even if he had the disposition, which he has not
without the consent of the Legislature, declared
through formal resolution. And influential North
ern journals-some repudiatng the name and doc
trines Of Black Repubcanism, and others claiming





together with the entire Abolition and Black
Republican press, call loudly and increasingly
for pardon or commutation of punishment


Why this anxiety for man who has forfeited
every claim to honest sympathy Why this deep
seated, concerted effort to prevent condgn punish
ment from overtakng a man whose hands are ret
with innocent blood, and whose intentions wer,
even more horrible, if such thing be possible
than his murders? Is it thought if condemned t,
the Penitentiary, a few years will suffice for hi
release, and that then he can enter anew upol
course of rapine and bloodshed? Possibly
Abotionists are proverbial for cowardce and tn
only redeelnng trait-a thing not uncommon
among assassins-about old Brown, is the nerve h
has thus far displayed. Or, do they fear that vhe
the fated moment draws nigh-when the rope
coiled about his neck-when the very last sand i
dropping from the hour glass, and the instant is a
hand when his guilty soul shall be ushered into tn
presence of an offended GoD, dabbled with bloc
and stained with crimes innumerable-that oil
Browns boasted courage and nerve will fail him
: and that he will make such a full confession, an
produce suchirrefragible proofs or designate wher
the evidence is, as will convict of criminal CON
pcity in his reasonable and murderous effort
n certain prominent AbolitiOnists and Black Repub
cans in the North-without whose teachings Ii
never would have acted-which will cause thei
apprehension, and bring upon them the penalt
justice eXacts as an atonement for crime?


We are inclined to the belief that the wide
spread, apparent sympathy for Brown, has ii
origin i'll this latter feeling than in any othel
An offer of an escape from immediate death, o
f condition of full confession and the productio
:, of important evidence, made when Brown wa
E standing on the line which separates the know
from the unknown world, would probably nc
be without effect upon the conscience-strcke
. murderer. Consequently, his secret aiders an
abettors have good ground for fear. Hence the
: absorbing anxiety to get old Brown clear of tn
death doom.


But their efforts will be unavailing, except o
the terms indicated. Ii Browns revelations shoul
: be worth more than his life, probably the Cover
nor and Legislature may commute his punishmer
0 into perpetual imprisonment. If not, he will q
surely hang as the day of execution arrives.