[315] person, on Southern Institutions, in the course of which that Liberator asked, “if he was in favor of slavery?” and, on receiving the reply, that, although a non-slaveholder, yet, “as a citizen of the South, he would sustain the cause,” immediately answered, “Then you are the first man I would hang; you deserve it more than a man who is a slaveholder and sustains his interests.” He could not swear whether the marines fired after they broke into the engine house; the noise, he said, was great, and several shouted from the inside that some one had surrendered among the prisoners,
This evidence ended the proceedings of the Court on Thursday. The official report closed with this extraordinary announcement: “Orders have been given to the jailers to shoot all the prisoners if an attempt is made for their rescue.”
When it is borne in mind that the only offence of these prisoners was an effort to fulfil two commands of Jesus, “Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you,” and “Remember those in bonds, as bound with them;” and that, by the laws of every free Commonwealth, the accused man, until convicted of a crime, is held to be guiltless,--what a fearful picture of the civilization and Christianity of Virginia does this barbarous and bloody order hold up to our view!
