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152 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,

ment, say so, and let him abide the consequences. It was a
voluntary act on his part, and he committed it with a full
knowledge that he thereby justly forfeited his life. Should
you find him guilty of the charge, how different even then
will be his fate from that of his victim! The law, in ita
merey will give him ample time to atone for his crime, to make
peace with an offended God, and to receive the parting ben-
ediction of his family. But poor Gordon was sent into eter-
nity without warning; without even time to say, ‘‘God be
merciful to me a sinner!’’

The learned counsel has invoked your sympathy in behalf
of the prisoner's parents, particularly the mother, who has
been a daily attendant upon this trial. The appeal was un-
necessary, for I presume no one within the hearing of my
voice is so destitute of the kinder feelings of our nature as
not to commiserate their condition. I know well the tie that
binds a mother to her child, and if sympathy ean lighten the
burden that presses upon her heart, most cordially will we
unite with the counsel in extending it. But he should not
have exhausted his sympathy here; he should have gaved at
least a portion of it for another whose heart has also been
made desolate by this foul murder. Poor Gordon had a
mother, She atill lives, wrecked in body and mind. Left
a poor widow when the deceased, her only son, was in hia
tender years, she struggled hard to give him the benefit of a
liberal education, and finally succeeded, although it left her,
in her old age, reclining upon him for support. Nobly did he
respond to the eall; for from the time he reached manhood
till his death, he never failed to divide with her the product.
of his toil. He was a son worthy of such a mother, kind,
affable and affectionate, and free from those vices which so
often lead astray the youths of our country. By this ernel
murder this mother is thrown upon the charity of a cold and
heartless world, and at a time of life when illy prepared to
encounter its frowns. May God in his mercy throw around
her his protecting arm. Could you see her as others have
seen her, bowed down by a grief too deep for tears to quench,

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