The pirates own book : $b authentic narratives of the most celebrated sea robbersEllms, Charles
History
The pirates own book : $b authentic narratives of the most celebrated sea robbers
Ellms, Charles
Pirates
If, peradventure, there was the slightest foundation for a doubt of your
guilt, in the mind of the Court, judgment would be arrested, but there
is none; and it now remains to the Court to pronounce the most painful
duty that devolves upon a civil magistrate. The Court is persuaded of
your guilt; it can form no other opinion. Testimony has been heard
before the Court and Jury--from that we must form our opinion. We must
proceed upon testimony, ascertain facts by evidence of witnesses, on
which we must inquire, judge and determine as to guilt or innocence, by
that evidence alone. You have been found guilty. You now stand for the
last time before an earthly tribunal, and by your own acknowledgments,
the sentence of the law falls just on your heads. When men in ordinary
cases come under the penalty of the law there is generally some
palliative--something to warm the sympathy of the Court and Jury. Men
may be led astray, and under the influence of passion have acted under
some long smothered resentment, suddenly awakened by the force of
circumstances, depriving him of reason, and then they may take the life
of a fellow being. Killing, under that kind of excitement, might
possibly awaken some sympathy, but that was not your case; you had no
provocation. What offence had Thornby or Roberts committed against you?
They entrusted themselves with you, as able and trustworthy citizens;
confiding implicitly in you; no one act of theirs, after a full
examination, appears to have been offensive to you; yet for the purpose
of securing the money you coolly determined to take their lives--you
slept and deliberated over the act; you were tempted on, and yielded;
you entered into the conspiracy, with cool and determined calculation to
deprive two human beings of their lives, and it was done.
You, Charles Gibbs, have said that you are not guilty of the murder of
Roberts; but were you not there, strongly instigating the murderers on,
and without stretching out a hand to save him?--It is murder as much to
stand by and encourage the deed, as to stab with a knife, strike with a
hatchet, or shoot with a pistol. It is not only murder in law, but in
your own feelings and in your own conscience. Notwithstanding all this,
I cannot believe that your feelings are so callous, so wholly callous,
that your own minds do not melt when you look back upon the unprovoked
deeds of yourselves, and those confederated with you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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