Alexandria Gazette

Commonwealth vs. Curry.

The Hustings Court was engaged the day through, on Friday last, with the trial of Isaac Curry, charged with improper interference with slaves, and teaching them that their owners had not the right to hold them in bondage. The accused is an Irishman by birth, but recently from Pittsfield, Mass., of youthful appearance and good countenance, and appeared quite composed at his trial. The prosecution was conducted by T. B. Barton, Esq., Attorney for the Commonwealth, and the defense by John M. Forbes, and W. A. Little, Esqs. A large number of witnesses were examined on both sides, with much care and patience. When the examination of the testimony was completed, the case, without argument, was submitted to the jury, who brought in a verdict of guilty against the accused, assessed his fine at $50, and recommended him to the mercy of the Court.

So soon as the verdict had been rendered, the Attorney for the Commonwealth rose and addressed the Court (in substance) saying that the accused had been convicted of a high crime endangering the safety of the community and in violation of the injunctions of that Christianity which he professed to have taken as his guide, and which inculcated obedience to the laws of the land; that he thought the verdict of the jury fully sustained by the evidence, but that he hoped the Court would regard the recommendation from the jury in behalf of the accused with that high respect to which it was entitled; would take his youth and good character into consideration and remit the term of imprisonment which the law authorized them to impose or not, at their discretion, in the case before them: but that they would admonish the young man of the obligations resting upon him, to yield implicit obedience to the laws of the Commonwealth so long as he remained therein, of the certainty with which he would be punished for the repetition of a like offence, with that of which he had been convicted. We cannot do full justice to the remarks of the Attorney for the Commonwealth: they were not only eloquent, but magnanimous, liberal, merciful, creditable alike to his head and heart, and reflecting high honor upon the responsible position he so faithfully fills.

The Court remitted the imprisonment and set the accused free, with an admonition.- Thus has terminated the trial of a Northern fanatic before a Southern tribunal, composed of "merciless slaveholders." Is it not enough to put to shame those who denounce us as Southern hot-spurs? We can show mercy to our enemies and spare the deluded ones whom they have duped, even when they are sowing the seeds of sedition amongst our slaves. A fairer and more dispassionate trial no man ever received, than did Isaac Curry, at the hands of a Southern Court and jury, and that too when charged with an offence not only threatening the tenure of a large portion of our property, but involving our peace and safety. Let a Southern man go to a free State, to recover his slave, and he will be met by a brutal mob ready to trample him, and those sacred rights which the Constitution has guaranteed to him, under their feet.

The termination of this case, and the manner in which it was conducted, were not only creditable to the Court, jury, and counsel on both sides, but to this law-abiding community, and we trust will teach the North a moral lesson.- Fredericksburg Recorder