A Yankee Attorney on Capital Punishment.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 81, 30 May 1871, Page 7

A Yankee Attorney on Capital Punishment.

The following or it ion was delivered somewhere in Wisconsin, by one of the profession, who would seeni to liave quite an aversion to capital punishment:— " May it please your lordship and gentlemen of the jury—the case-is as clear as ice, and sharp to the point as ' No' from your sweetheart; Tha Scripture gaitbj ' Thou shalt not kill;' now, if you liang my client, you brangress the command as slick as grease, and as plump as a goose-egg in a loafer's face. Gentlemen, murder is mur der, whether commibed by twelve jurymen, or by an humble individual 1 ke my client. Gentlemen, I do not deny the fact of my client having killed a man, but is that av.j reason why you should do so I No such thing, Gentlemen ; you may bring the prisoner in 'guilty;' thV. hangman may do his duty, but will that exonerate you J No such thing ; in that case you .vill all bo murdeiers. Who among you is prepared for the brand of (Jain to be stamped on his brow to-day? Who, freemen—who in this laud of liberty and light? Gentlemen, I will pledge my word, not one of you has a bowie-knife or a pistol in his pocket. No, goutlemem, your pockets are odoriferous with the perfumes of cigar-eases and tobacco. You can smoke the tobacco of rectitude in the pipe of a peaceful conscience ; but hang my unfortunate client, and the scaly alligators of remorse will gallop through the internal principles of animal vertebra?, until the spinal vertebrce of your anatomical construction is turned into a railro id; for the grim and gory goblins of

despair. Grontlemen, beware of committing murder! Bnwire, I sir, of mod Ming, with the IDbcnlal prerogative ! Beware, I say. Remember tli-i fate of the min who attempted to steady the ark, and tremble. Gksntlemon, I adjure you, by the manumitted ghost of temporal sanctity, to do no murder ! I adjure you, by the name of woman, the tickling timepiece of time's theoretical transmigration, to Act no murder ! I adjure you, by the love you have for the' osovtlent and coridiirtental gusto of our native pumpkin to do no murder ! I adjure? you, by the American Eagle that whipped the universal game-cock of creac tion, and now sits roosting on themagnetitelegraph of time's illustrious transmigration, to do no murder. And lastly, gentlemen, if you ever expect to wear long-tailed coats —-if you ever expect free dogs not to bark at you—if you ever oSpo'ct to wear boots made of the free hide of the rocky mountain buffalo—and, to sUm up all, if you ever expect be anything but a sot of sneaking, loafing, rascally, cut-throated, braided sffi'itll ends of humanity, whittled down into'indistinctibility, acquit lay clint, and save your country." ,'l'ho prisoner was acquitted.