Lewis Tappan

The committee condemned him TO BE HANGED IN AN HOUR AFTER SENTENCE.

Here we have a record of no less than TEN men, five black and five white, probably all innocent of the crime alleged against them, deliberately and publicly put to death by the slaveholders, without the shadow of legal authority.

Now I must close by saying, before my Maker and Judge, that I go into his presence as innocent of this charge as when I was born....

For our part, WE APPLAUD the transaction, and none in our opinion can condemn it, who have not a secret sympathy with the Garrison sect.

Thus, SIXTEEN human beings were deliberately and publicly murdered, by assembled crowds, in different parts of the State of Mississippi, within little more than one WEEK, in open defiance of the laws and Constitution of the State.

And now we ask, what notice did the chief magistrate of Mississippi, sworn to support her Constitution, sworn to execute her laws--what notice, we ask, did he take of these horrible massacres?

If the victims were innocent, no necessity required their murder.

If guilty, no necessity required their execution contrary to law.

Would that we could here close these fearful narratives; but another and more recent instance of that ferocious lawlessness which slavery has engendered, must still be added.

We think we have fully proved our assertion respecting the disregard of human life felt by the slaveholding community; and of course their contempt for those legal barriers which are erected for its protection.

Let us now inquire more particularly how far slavery is indeed a stable basis, on which free institutions may securely rest.

If we are permitted to apply this rule in testing the moral condition of the South, the result will not be favorable.