EXECUTION OF AN AMERICAN CAPTAIN FOR IMPORTING SLAVES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 163, 24 May 1862, Page 5

EXECUTION OF AN AMERICAN CAPTAIN FOR IMPORTING SLAVES.

On the 21st of February Captain Nathaniel Gordon I was executed at New York, in pursuance of the sen- " tence pronounced upon him some mouths ago. The c charge against him had been clearly proved at his Jj trial. A citizen of the United States, he was accused J of importing African slaves in defiance of the Act of ° Congress of the year 1819, which declares that offence «■ to be punishable with death. Although this Jaw is i' upwards of 40 years old, we believe this is the first F instance in which it has been acted a upon. It is notorious, indeed, that a large proportion of the capital employed m the slave trade is supplied by New York, to ancl we are not surprised to learn that a petition, t signed by hnnclrcds of merchants in that city, was presented to President Lincoln on behalf of Captain Gordon. In the days of President Buchanan there would have been no necessity for any such deinonstratioit. The unhappy man who has just died a felon's death would have incurred no risk, at least of capital punishment, in tlie time of Air. Lincoln's predecessor. This change of policy in the government of the Federal States is therefore an event of great importance in the history ofthe slave trade. The news of Captain Gordon's execution will lie received at Havana, at Lisbon, and on the coast of Africa with mingled feelings of in- v dignation and alarm; for the slave dealers of all conn- D tnes have long regarded the American law prohibiting j, the traffic as a dead letter. In Captain Go. din's j case, great uncertainty appears to have prevailed to X the last as to his fate. ' Although he was tried in the beginning of December, he wis sentenced to be cxc- t cuted on February 7. This long interval between 0 the date of his conviction and the day appointed for c his death led to a very general belief that the capital 0 sentence would not be carried into effect. That im- (, pression was confirmed when, as the fatal day ape proached, he received a respite for another fortnight. a Why this additional time was allowed after the long t interval tliat had elapsed since his trial is not ex- a plained. But under such circumstances we read witli- v out surprise that he was buoyed up almost to the last ,\ witli the belief that liis life would be spared. _When [ he was at length convinced that his doom was inevit- 0 able, he attempted to poison himself. On the day 0 fixed for his death he was barely sufficiently restored g to undergo the sentence of the law. In fact, it was a necessary to administer to him such strong alcoholic j stimulants for the purpose of keeping up his strength fc that, when he was brought upon the scaffold ho was ; nearly if not altogether drunk. t