respite the execution of the sentence, I will grant the writ and direct the inquest as a means of ascertaining a fact to satisfy your mind. The object of the suspension, at this time, is only to give time to hold an inquisition. Yours, &c.

the prisoner in time to suspend the execution, if he delayed granting the respire until the next day. He then remarked he had decided the case and would not take it up again-and I when he was informed that the friends of Dr. Baker had been induced to believe that he intended to grant a pardon or further respite, from the impressions made by him on Dr. Baker's friends and his own relatives-and that When the above letter was presented to the he was awaiting the arrival of General DudGovernor, he observed that he would consider ley before he could decide upon the case-the of it by morning, (Thursday one day preced- Governor replied that he had "never intended ing the execution.) It was represented to pardoning Dr. Baker," that he had "no idea of him that it would be impossible to reach turning him loose upon the community,"

R. A BUCKNER, Jr. Gov. Owsley, Frankfort, Ky.

MR ROBERTSON'S SPEECH.

The wreck of God's image now before you, under trial for murder, entered the threshold of manhood with hopeful prospects of a long, useful and honorable life. Richly blessed with personal graces and mental gifts, he cast his lot among you, and commenced his professional career, as you all know, under a clear sky, beaming with gilded promises. But how deceitful often are the brightest hopes of men. Already he, whose young horrizon was so recently bright and promising, trembles on the precipice of a yawning gulf, under a black cloud that hangs portentous over his destiny. Doomed to the greatest of earthly calamities -an eclipse of mind-and, as a consequence of that tremendous misfortune, doomed to be the blind instrument of a brother's death-he is now also doomed to an ordeal rare, if not unexampled, in a land of justice, liberty, and

law.

believing that no honest and enlightened jury can, after a full hearing, feel authorized to find him guilty of murder, as charged.

But the legacy of blood must do its full work-and as one of its fruits, we behold the appalling spectacle of four able counsel all zealously seeking, in the name of the Commonwealth, the life of the accused. Apprehensive that the official organ-though known to be faithful and competent-might not exer a moral influence sufficient to insure the object of the legacy, the prosecutors have employed the celebrated gentleman of Madison-not still sure of their victim, they also employed the eloquent gentleman of Knox-and, "to make assurance doubly sure," they have added to this formidable array the shrewd and dexterous gentleman of Laurel. Having already the prepossessions of the county of trial, they have thus secured, as far as they could, the combined influence also of Madison, Knox, and Laurel. And you have seen this four-horse team pulling, as for their own lives, the heavy load of this prosecution, and, at every up hill step of the hired three, you might have heard the whip of the $10,000 crack over their heads.

We do not complain that the Commonwealth is represented by extra counsel-nor do we object to the unusual number. But we do rightfully complain that the hired supernumeraries have argued this case-not soberly and solemnly on the law and the testimony-but, by leaving the field of legitimate argument, and, by assumption and declaration, struggling to inflame your passions and deceive your judgment. It is a melancholy truth that, in some respects, they have all argued as if they were speaking to earn contingent fees and please their clients, instead of faithfully and candidly representing the commonwealth.And, thus seeing money in one scale and blood in the other, we have cause to fear that the money will outweigh the blood, and that our cause may sink under the weight of a combination unsurpassed in activity and wealth.

The man he killed, influenced on his deathbed by a strange spirit of revenge, bequeathed $10,000 to insure his conviction and execution, promised freedom to a slave on condition that he would slay him, and, as a legacy to his own infant son, charged him to see that his victim should certainly fall by the hand of vengeance. Although he was tried and acquitted by an examining Court on the ground of insanity, and was then sent by his friends to a southern climate for the improvement of his health, yet the Governor of Kentucky, at the instance of some of the kindred of the deceased, issued a proclamation advertising him as a fugitive from justice, and the prosecutors offered a high reward out of this legacy of $10,000 for his apprehension. As soon as his honorable father saw that proclamation, he brought his unfortunate son to the jail of your county, in which he has ever since been most uncomfortably imprisoned at the peril of his life. But here he is, voluntarily surrendered for trial in the midst of a high and pervading excitement against him, produced, we know not how, in the county of his numerous, wealthy, and influential prosecutors-relatives of the deceased, and one of them the husband of a sister of the The gentleman from Madison, who opened accused. And to such an extent have this ex- the argument, devoted at least one hour to citement and prejudice run that it is not possi- the irrelevant purpose of proving the alarming ble to be sure of a sober and impartial trial; prevalence of crime and immunity, and the for you know that even each of you avowed on importance of convicting and hanging "one of examination, that you had formed an opinion the ruffle-shirt gentry," and especially "a Dec as to his guilt, and we all behold armed men tor or a Lawyer." Was he then representing wherever we turn our eyes. the Commonwealth? Does she desire unjust Yet, confident that the law and the facts conviction by such appeals? And when the ought to insure his acquittal, his friends deter-law and the facts require conviction, is it ever mined to hazard a trial even here and now-necessary and proper for her to make the

On

demagogue's harangue? The guilty should such a course of argument as this should be be punished, and I know that too many have answered in a manner more light and ludicrous; escaped. But it is the art of lawyers, chiefly, and I will, in that way, give it and much else and not so much the ignorance and compas- like it, the finishing blow by an appropriate sion of juries, that has paralyzed the criminal anecdote. When the steam locomotive first law. And my friend from Madison must al- began to run from Lexington to Frankfort, a low me to remind him that no criminal advo- little curly-headed and horned animal with a cate within his range of practice has been more bobbed tail, while grazing on the poor lands instrumental than himself in preventing the near the latter place, seeing a car approaching condign punishment of the guilty. And I am him with its accustomed force and velocity, not sure that his resort, in this instance, to and thinking that this great "Lexington" mahis accustomed arts in defence of criminals, chine was no better than himself-though only may not do for the Commonwealth what he a scrub of the Franklin hills-fixed himself in has so often done against her-produce an un- the track and, drawing himself up for battle, just verdict. I am for upholding and enfor- gave it a triumphant butt as it approached him; cing the law. But does not this gentleman and, as might have been expected, he was know that the law is made for the protection of thrown several rods and effectually "used up;” the innocent even more than for the punish- at the sight of which a venerable gentleman ment of the guilty? We too invoke the law-exclaimed, that he admired the animal's courand in its name, and under its panoply, we ask | age, but thought very badly of his discretion. for an acquittal; for we feel that nothing but Now, whoever has the temerity to butt against God or the law can save the accused from the the Lexington Doctor and ridicule the facts powers of destruction that are combined against and the law on which we rely, should rememhim. It is not mercy so much as money that ber the doom of the short-tailed bull. has effected the escape of criminals, and there- this subject let the counsel take this coup de by encouraged crime. And the only danger grace. now is, that money may produce the opposite result the condemnation of a guiltless man. And does the gentleman, suddenly changing from the advocate to the prosecutor, expect to restore the law he has so much helped to paralyze, by hanging an insane man? And why does he so wish? Why now shall insanity be hung? And why has guilty sanity so often escaped the gallows through the gentleman's influence? The love of money is the root of all evil!" It is this, more than anything else, that saves the guilty-and it is this, too, that the accused in this case has most to fear. The same counsel, not being able to meet fairly the conclusive testimony of Dr. Richardson, assumed that he is himself rather insane on the subjects of phrenology and mesmerism -and told you that these "Lexington Doctors," one of whom was brought here "to enlighten and astonish ignorant mountaineers," could look We appeal to the law. There at you and through you, and feel your pulse have been war and bloodshed enough. But and your head, and "then tell you all you are, if the menaced crusade against the life of the and all you think and feel." Is this a grave accused shall be lawlessly waged, then, too, argument of our just mother, the Commonthe war may be carried into Africa, and a wealth? Was there any testimony which could give even a color to these improper as-fall never to rise. proud Carthage, instead of devoted Roine, may sertions? I know that Dr. Richardson has no faith in mesmerism, and but little in phre- The gentleman from Laurel also has gone nology. And, though he is a Lexington Doc-out of the way to excite and deceive. He has tor, I presume that truth from his lips will be read to you the Mosaic law on homicide, and as true in the mountains as in his own city. shown you that, by that law, the manslayer But he is "an enemy to free government," said could legally escape the avenger of blood the gentleman. And what if he be? Does only by fleeing safely to "a city of refuge." this impair the force of his evidence or tend to And does he wish you to understand that such prove the guilt of the accused? I will tell the is law here? If it be, the accused has reached accuser that Dr. Richardson is as devoted to a city of refuge. His country is that city, and the free institutions of his country as he him-you are that country and that refuge? And if self, and was risking his life in the North- you will determine his doom from the law, western army, in the year 1813, when we were and the testimony alone, we feel that he both at home learning or practising law. But is safe, and fear not the avenger of blood.

But the gentleman from Knox, after pouring alarm you by telling you that, like Hannibal, on you floods of eloquence, endeavored to young Bates had made to his deceased father, a solemn pledge to avenge his wrongs-and that, as Hannibal had sworn that he would that he would kill the prisoner at the bar-destroy Rome, this youth had asservated thereby intimating that you ought to hang him, to prevent his being shot! And does this, too, come from the mouth of the Commonwealth? It is not only extraneous but signally unlucky. Let it be remembered that, after the battle of Canna, Hannibal was compelled to desert Italy him at Zama, drove him to inglorious exile -Scipio carried the war into Africa, vanquished and death, and destroyed Carthage-and that, years afterwards, Caius Marius of Rome, sat a hopeless exile, on its melancholy ruins. We desire peace.

of the truth of all that the accused said and seemed to believe respecting Bates' treatment to his wife and himself-or he was undoubtedly insane on that subject also; for, if there

Instead of arguing the question of insanity, the same counsel has also endeavored to ridicule the insane expression of the prisoner's countenance, and said that it showed only the mark of Cain. This idle assertion is contradicted was no ground for his belief of them, there is by the unanswerable facts—and therefore these have been answered only in this unauthorized manner. And in reference to all these unusual efforts made by the three hired counsel, I must be permitted to warn them that, in my opinion, if the prisoner shall be hung, their hands will be dyed with his blood.

But, gentlemen, I am sorry that I felt it my duty thus to notice fragments of the great mass of extraneous matter that has been thrown into the argument of this case by the triumvirate counsel of the prosecutors. I know that all such irrelevant arguments indicate the want of those that are better; and therefore ought to operate for us rather than against us. But lest you might be improperly affected by them, duty to my client required that I should take some preliminary notice of them. They shew the spirit of the prosecution. I will now proceed to those facts and to that law, according to which you are sworn to decide this case; and I will not again depart from them.

Our chief defence is insanity-though we would not despair of his acquittal of the charge of murder on the ground of aggravated provocation and strong necessity of self-defence.

no adequate or even rational motive for his great hostility to Bates, and his suspicions of his designs on his life, before his marriage. Then, not only have you a right to accredit them, but in charity and justice, you ought to believe them, as there is no proof of their impossibility or even great incredibility. There is no disproof of any one of them.

Moreover, on the day of the catastrophe and before the accused had reached the fatal spot, he was told by several persons whom he met on the road, that, since he left Kentucky, Bates had declared that, if he should ever return, he would shoot him on first sight-that he and his slaves carried guns for that purpose

and that he was then at his furnace on the only road the accused could travel to Manchester, the place of his destination—and some of those imformants urged him not to pass the furnace until night. Being resolved, however, not to leave the highway or hide himself and steal along in the dark, he endeavored to procure a gun, so as to have some chance of defence against the guns of Bates and his slaves; but failing in this defensive object, he went on with no other weapon than one of the smallest pocket-pistols. Now these simple and undeniable facts, forbid the presumption that the accused, before he heard them, intended (if he then were sane) to shoot Bates when and where he did-for, as a rational man, he could not have hoped that he could be able, alone, as he was, to succeed in killing him at the furnace with a small pistol and at a distance of eighteen yards. But as a sane man, hearing what he had, he must have apprehen. ded that, in passing the furnace, Bates must see him before he could escape the range of his gun, and, so seeing, would shoot him, unless he could, on a forlorn hope, accidentally shoot Bates first with his pistol, and thus possibly save his own life. If he were rational, had he not abundant cause for such apprehension?—and did he not thus reason, think, and act to save himself from destruction? If so, the law, read on the other side, acquits him. Was he guilty of cold-blooded murder? Who could hang him on such facts?

The Commonwealth herself has proved that the accused, antecedently to his marriage, often declared that Daniel Bates had maltreated his own wife (the sister of the accused) by lying, every night, for nearly a year, on the floor in her bedroom with a negro wench, and frequently going to his wife's bed and drawing a a bowie knife across her throat and threatning to kill her that she invoked his (her said brother's) protection, and entreated him to remain at her house to save her life-that Bates, understanding this, became, therefore, very hostile to him, had conspired with his slaves to take his life, and had, in fact, attempted his assassination. And it appears that, on one occasion, the accused when in the town of Manchester, received a note from said sister warning him not to return to their house that evening, because, as she wrote, her husband was prepared with guns to shoot him from an upper room as he approached the house. The Commonwealth having introduced these facts, they are legitimate evidence, which you have But the fact that the accused incurred so much both a legal and moral right to believe. If unnecessary peril, and acted with so much temerthey be false, the prisoner's belief in them is ity is strong evidence of his insanity. And it is evidence of his insanity; and if they be true, not only probable, but almost certain, that, bad they must operate powerfully in his favor. he been perfectly rational and self-poised, be The fact that he was undoubtedly insane, af- would not have passed the furnace as and terwards, as to his own wife and the imputed when he did, or that he would not have connexion of Bates and others with her, can- shot Bates then, if ever-although we mainnot destroy the credibility of these facts as to tain that he had a ight to pass the highway in Bates' conduct to his own wife and his deter-daylight, and to defend himself. Upon the mination to assassinate the accused; for a per-facts as proved, is not this case one of justifison insane on one subject may know the truth cation or of very strong mitigation, even if on another. Besides, there is intrinsic evidence the prisoner had been as sane as you? But

to prove.

he was insane, and this we will now endeavor understanding, reason, and all-as long as that mind co-exists with the body, is affected Both the mind and body of man are, in the by the condition of the body; the theory of ultimate sense, incomprehensible. We know dreams, and the influence of sickness, of infancy also that the physical element of our nature is and of old age, on the mind, are alone sufficient material and mortal, and we believe that that to prove that reason itself, however ethereal which is rational and moral is immaterial and and pure, is dependent on the perfection and immortal. And consequently, man is the sub-soundness of the physical organs, through the ject of two distinct sciences-physiology, or instrumentality of which it acts and is acted the phenomena of animal life-and psycholo-on in the entire drama of earthly existence. gy, or the phenomena of the spirit or soul. All that is external is communicated to the Vitality, whether vegetable or animal, we can- mind by the material organs of sense. These not understand. The material organization, are the heralds of the mind; and we are so which produces and sustains physical life, or is constituted as not to be able to discredit the produced and sustained by it, we may well testimony of our senses. Consequently, sencomprehend. But being so constituted as not sible facts are, and must be, as much accredito be able to understand any ultimate truth, ted as intuitive or self-evident truths;—and, element, or principle, but only their phenomi- when the mind reasons or acts from these nal developments or results, we can know no premises, its deductions or its acts are inevitamore of the principle of life than of that of bly wrong whenever the premises are wrong. gravitation or electricity. We do, however, The brain, which is the centre of the nervous know that animal life depends on physical system, is the seat and throne of the mind. health-and that derangement of the body, If the reason be immaterial and immortal, it whether organic or functional, is unsound- cannot be unsound; but still, as it acts through ness, or disease. So also we all know that the ministry of the brain, it must be either oblife, even of the lowest grade in the scale scured, eclipsed, or dethroned by any unof animal existence, feels, perceives, remem-soundness or disorganization of the brain.bers, and is self-conscious; and consequently, Whenever the brain is unsound it will, to some it is not easy to discriminate the essential dif-extent, present to the mind, false and delusive ference, except in degree, between the mind of images, which the reason necessarily believes a man and that which we may denominate the to be true, and of the falsehood of which no mind of a horse. The distinctive difference, proof or argument can convince it-because it as generally recognized, is that between reason must believe that which the senses communiand instinct. The beaver, the bee, and even cate. When any organ fails to perform its the caterpillar, and every living creature, pos- proper function, it is said to be unsound; and, sesses the faculty of adapting the means of ex-consequently, when physical unsoundness is istence and enjoyment to the ends of that ex- the cause of false sensations, images, or imistence and enjoyment. The silk-worm knows, pressions, which delude the reason or pervert and finds, and feeds on, the mulberry leaf, and its action, the mind, dependant as it is, on the the calf and the child alike know, and find, body, is, to the extent of the delusion, said to and suck, as soon as born, their mother's pap. be-and certainly, for all practical purposes, This adaptive and conservative power, com- must be admitted to be-unsound. And this mon to men and brutes, may be called the un-is intellectual insanity. It proceeds necessaderstanding; and the health and perfection of rily from physical disease or derangementthis depend necessarily on the soundness and and is, therefore, nothing more or less than the perfection of the physical organism. But morbid imagination of a fact which does not man possesses a higher faculty-a power both exist-for the supposed existence of which moral and intellectual-a capacity to know all there is no evidence that could possibly operhis moral relations and obligations, and to as-ate on a sound mind-and of the non-exiscertain, by analysis or induction, abstract tence of which no proof can convince the truth, mathematical truth, ultimate truth. It reason. If, for example, the brain or organ of is this that ennobles his nature and elevates vision be so diseased as to present to the mind him above all other animated beings. This an object as red, which, in truth, is green, or ennobling attribute we may, for the purpose imprint on the retina images of objects which of contradistinction, call reason. Many en- do not exist, the mind is inevitably deceived, lightened minds believe that the understanding and, reasoning correctly from the facts and or instinct of sound animal life is the offspring premises, impels erroneous belief and wrong of organic matter, and is, therefore, material action. And thus, while the reason is sound and perishable; and that the reason, peculiar and the reasoning correct, the conclusion is to man, is alone immaterial, and is, of course, indivisible and immortal.

But it is not necessary here either to detain or confuse you by speculative reasonings on metaphysics, or by elaborated theories either phrenological, physiological, or psychological; every person knows that the mind of man

false, because the foundation is deceptive-the very source of thought impure-the premises imaginary and not real. And not only is the source of the delusion physical, but as long as the morbid cause exists, it will be impossible to undeceive the mind because what we feel, or sec, or hear, no extrinsic argument or