The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling DetailsAyer, I. Winslow
History
The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details
Ayer, I. Winslow
Knights of the Golden Circle; Northwestern Conspiracy, 1864
On Tuesday April 18, Judge Advocate Burnet made his closing argument for
the Government. It was truly a master-piece, complete in every part. It
was such an effort as might have been expected, of one who has,
during this long tedious trial, shown himself a gentleman, a profound
counsellor, a true patriot and an advocate of justice, whose only aim
has been to elicit truth, and be the better enabled to serve the true
interests of the country. We would gladly present every argument and
address he has made, during the trial, but space will not admit, and
we therefore invite careful attention to the following sketch of his
address:
The Judge Advocate, in referring to the accused, said:
There are two sides to this case; two sides for the manifestation of
sympathy. While here is an old, white-haired man before you, whose every
thing is at stake; while here is a father, a generous, open-hearted,
and impulsive man, whose all is at stake; and here is a soldier, who has
fought in every clime, and who has taken up his sword to destroy life
in every cause, whose everything is also at stake, yet there is, on the
other side, your Government at stake. If these men be guilty, justice to
the nation demands of you this day that you should convict them, and
you must not waver. In the consideration of this case, you must bring to
your aid a power, that may be a little more than is ordinarily given
to human nature. You must, for the time, sink all hatred, malice, even
human sympathy; and rise, God-like, to determine the truth and adjust
the punishment.
That these accused would enter upon the commission of so heinous a
crime, I can scarcely permit myself to believe. They have made a strong
appeal to your sympathies. Each counsel has advocated the cause of his
client with an earnestness and an eloquence that does him honor; I shall
always respect them, and bear them in kindly recollection.
But there seems to have been something, during these four years of the
nation's trial, that has appeared to paralyze the native instincts of
the American heart. This phantom, this siren of secession, with her
enticing song, seems to have lulled to sleep the better part of human
nature. At the sound of her voice, and the flash of her eye, men have
sprung to arms, to grapple with the life of the nation, because it
was free! They have followed, at the beck of the siren, over desolated
homes; they have trampled over the dead corpses of murdered brothers,
and innocent women and children. They have blackened the land with
desolation, and made it the abode of moaning and woe. She has blinded,
while she has demoralized them. Old men, forgetting their white hairs,
have joined in the conspiracy at the beck of this phantom, who has taken
out of the human heart its heaven-born instincts, to plant there those
of vengeance, and the thirst for blood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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