Attend then to the sentence of the Court. You have been arraigned and
tried before this court, and convicted of one of the highest crimes in
our criminal code. You have been convicted of plotting in cold blood,
the indiscriminate destruction of men, of helpless women, and of infant
children. The evidence before us leaves not a shadow of doubt, but that
your hands were often imbrued in the blood of the innocent; and your own
confession tells us that they were stained with the blood of a master;
in your own language, "too indulgent." Could I stop here, your crime
would be sufficiently aggravated. But the original contriver of a plan,
deep and deadly, one that never can be effected, you managed so far to
put it into execution, as to deprive us of many of our most valuable
citizens; and this was done when they were asleep, and defenceless;
under circumstances shocking to humanity. And while upon this part of
the subject, I cannot but call your attention to the poor misguided
wretches who have gone before you. They are not few in number--they were
your bosom associates; and the blood of all cries aloud, and calls upon
you, as the author of their misfortune. Yes! You forced them unprepared,
from Time to Eternity. Borne down by this load of guilt, your only
justification is, that you were led away by fanaticism. If this be true,
from my soul I pity you; and while you have my sympathies, I am,
nevertheless called upon to pass the sentence of the court. The time
between this and your execution, will necessarily be very short; and
your only hope must be in another world. The judgment of the court is,
that you be taken hence to the jail from whence you came, thence to the
place of execution, and on Friday next, between the hours of 10 A.M. and
2 P.M. be hung by the neck until you are dead! dead! dead! and may the
Lord have mercy upon your soul.


_A list of persons murdered in the Insurrection, on the 21st and 22d of