NOTE.—If the guilty should not, by any means be screened, yet if positive doubts exist, the suspected should have the benefit of such doubts. Accordingly the initials to the names of Moulton and Overall have been omitted; as the jury on “trial” expressed doubts as to what particular parties Copeland referred to in the names given. There are many by the same name, and even part of the same initials, yet have no affinity in anything else. It is said that “public sentiment is seldom wrong, and never wrong long;” therefore with all the circumstances before it, it is requested that the public will approach the subject with an unprejudiced mind, and decide faithfully and justly to all parties concerned. LETTER OF JAMES COPELAND TO HIS MOTHER. (_Written the night before his Execution._) AUGUSTA, MISSISSIPPI, October 29th, 1857. MRS. REBECCA COPELAND: _My dear Mother_—It is with painful feelings indeed, that I attempt writing to you on the present occasion. I take this opportunity, knowing at the same time, that it is the last one of the kind which I shall ever be permitted to enjoy while here on earth. It is long and much that I have suffered while in prison since my first confinement in Mobile county, and yet it seems as though nothing will pay the debt but my life. I have had my trial and was convicted upon a charge of murder, and I have received the awful sentence of death. The sheriff told me to-day, that to-morrow at 2 o’clock I will be hanged, according to the order of court. Oh, my dear mother, what an awful sound is this to reach your ear. Oh, would it could be otherwise; but you are aware that I justly merit the sentence. You are knowing to my being a bad man; and dear mother, had you given me the proper advice when young, I would now perhaps be doing well. It is often I have meditated on this subject since my confinement in prison, and often have I recollected my good old father’s advice when I was young, and repented a thousand times over, with sorrow and regret, that I have failed to receive it as good, benevolent advice. If such a course I had taken, I have no doubt, but what I would be doing well at this time. But it is too late now to talk of things past and gone. The time has come when I shall have to take my departure from this world, and it pains my heart, to know that I have to leave you and my brothers and sisters; and much am I mortified to think how distantly you have treated me while here in prison. Not the first time have you been to see me; but I can freely excuse you for all this, and I do hope you will prepare to meet Jesus in Heaven.