It was agreed that they should meet near Paine’s house about dark, or soon after, and endeavor by some means or other to decoy him away from the house to the river, where they were to fall upon him and kill him with weapons they should provide for the purpose; then they were to tie a large weight about his neck and throw his body into the river. Accordingly they repaired to the place of rendezvous appointed, each one armed for the diabolical purpose with some deadly weapon. After waiting some time without being able to see or hear anything of Paine, for he happened to be away from home, and did not return until late, they repaired to a low public house near by, to consider what should be done, as they were now frustrated in their design. They here drank deeply, and urged on to desperation by the maddening and intoxicating draught they had taken, resolved upon the death of their victim at all hazards. After disguising themselves as much as possible, they went back again to Paine’s house, and stationed themselves one on each side of the house, to give the alarm if they were likely to be discovered. Smith then entered the house and groped his way through the dark until he came to the room where Paine and his wife slept. Paine hearing the door open, raised himself a little in the bed and enquired who was there, when Smith raised an axe which he picked up outside the door, and struck Paine upon the head nearly burying it to the socket, and splitting his head in a horrible manner. He then threw down the axe and drew a large butcher knife, and rushed upon him, and stabbed him to the heart, and cut his throat from ear to ear and otherwise mangled his body in a most horrible manner. During this time Paine’s wife was screaming as loud as possible, but Smith paid no attention to her cries, intent only on the death of his victim. His companions outside fled upon hearing her cries, and persons in the neighborhood, on hearing the alarm repaired to the house. Smith was taken just as he was coming out of the house; he was kept in custody until the following day, when a warrant was signed and he committed to prison, until the first sitting of the Supreme Court, where he received the just merit of his cruel and blood-thirsty crime. He was tried, condemned and sentenced to be hung, I believe, in 1822, which finished his cruel and unlawful career. Had he himself fled after striking the first blow, he too might have probably escaped, but perhaps he was too much intoxicated. Thus some means are always left whereby the guilty are sooner or later brought to punishment. It was on the gallows, just before he was swung off, that he made a short confession from which we copy the words above stated.--The names of his companions we did not learn, as he would not discover them, as he said they were the fathers of families. We give this short history of him who was the father of the subject of this narrative, in order to show the source from which she sprung.