Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1859 — “BLACK FRIDAY." [ARTICLE]

“B LACK FRIDAY."

Next Friday Virginia will overspread her hitherto fair fame with inedible disgrace. On that day Old John Brown is to suffer martyrdom on the gallows. Virginia, noble old Virginia, the mother of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Patrick Henry, Clay," and a host of other fbrilliant intellects, is about to prostitute her good fame by steeping her 4hands in the bJood of a crazy fanat ic, whose only fault is an excess of • philanthropy and sympathy for the sdown-trodden. The spectacle will 'be a sickening one—nay, horrible. When we read the executions ordered by Judge Jeffries, of blood-thirsty notoriety, we shudder. We shudder •none the less when we read of the •preparations made *by Governor JWise for this horrid spectacle. lie land all Virginia are impatient waiting for the time when they can gloat over the ebbing blood of the dying inonomaniac. For fear their victim might escape their nerveless clutches, the have stationed two thousand armed men around his prison house, ivith instructions to slaughter the brave but deluded old man and his

rash followers, the moment ail invading foe appears; but our word for it, should seventeen men ride, belter skelter, into Charlestown on the day of execution, or a straw stack be set on fire by some mischeivous negro, the Virginia “chivalry” would show some of the tallest running ever witnessed. Cruelty and cowardice go hand in hand. An “eminent Democrat,” supposed to be Vice President Breckinridge, has written a lengthy article for the “Kentucky Yeoman” on the result of the execution of Brown. He argues that he should not be executed, and among other reasons stated in favor of an exercise of Executive clemency in Brown’s behalf, we quote the following: “If John Brown is executed, there will be thousands to dip their handkerchiefs hr his blood. Relics of the martyr will bejjaraded throughout the North; pilgrimages will be made to his grave, and we shou/d not be surpr sed to hear of miracles wrmight there as at the tomb of Thomas a’Becket. The blood of this martyr would be as seed to this fanatical church, as that of Joe Smith to the church of Latter Day Saints. It would be called in attestation of the purity of their faith; and Governor Wise would be compared to Julian the Apostate, or to Grahame of Claverhouse.”