The Execution of the Harper's Ferry Malefactors

Mobile, Alabama, Register, 2 December 1859.

This day, before the sun has ended his course, the criminals who in a fair trial were solemnly convicted of the crimes of treason, sedition, and murder, will have expiated their crimes on earth and stand before a higher tribunal to answer for the deeds done in the body. No sensible man in any land can doubt the justice of their sentence, nor accuse the law of hardness. Few, if any reasons, even of policy, could be urged for mercy; none of law or upon the ground of extenuating circumstances. Many an unfortunate who had shed the blood of a fellow being in the heat of passion and the madness of wrath, has paid the forfeit which these men are about to pay. They have not even that to plead. Coolly and deliberately, after months if not years of premeditation, they put to death innocent men who never had wronged them, and they aimed at crimes incomparably greater than those they were able to commit. Mercy tempers punishment where the intent is less than the crime, with them the crime, great as it was, was less than the intent. Rightly, therefore, the sword of justice falls upon their heads.

While we do not rejoice in the death of any human being, however stained in guilt, we must confess that we draw a freer breath at the consciousness that this evening one source of baneful agitation will be removed. A thorn of irritation will be plucked from our side, and the wound will, we trust, soon heal over. If we of the South are wise, we shall have learned a lesson. Not with the spasmodic action of a convulsed organism, but with the calm determination that becometh the strong, we shall prepare for the future, and the approaching conflict shall find us in arms. It is not the sudden inauguration of lynch law, not vigilance committees nor a crusade against a few wretched individuals, that will fit us for an independent existence. These are but the nostrums of political empires; more radical remedies or preventives are needed for present or future ills. Let us thoroughly review the spirit of our legislation, too frequently a mere copy of a legislation based upon ideas hostile to our own; let us establish a sound and efficient military organization throughout the South; and above all let us foster a Southern literature: and establish centres for Southern intellect and focuses for Southern thought.

From: Furman University Secession Era Editorials Project