375·
PAPERS OF iI1RABEAU BuoN.\PARTE L.\;\UR
master-work of Praxiteles. I would not mar the least of he1· beautie ; •I would not offer violence to one of her pure and holy precepts for all the diadems of all the Ca ars. Amongst her sacred principles, that which demands an impartial administration of public law is perhaps the most exalted and preeminent. I require only that this be not set a ide in adjudicating the case of our distinguished prisoner. Let the same' pmii hment be awarded him, which we would feel bound in honor and conscience to inflict on a subaltern, charged and convfoted of the like offen e. This i all that justice can require. If he have committed no act which would brhig condemnation on a private incli~ vidual, then let him be protected: but if he have perpetrated crimes for· which a man in hnmblc life would bave to expiate upon the caffold, then why shield him from the just operation of a law to which another is held amenable? The exalted criminal finds security in negotiation, whilst the subaltern offender is given over to the sword of the executioner. urely no con idcration of interest or policy can atone for such a violation of principle. View the matter in every possible light, and Santa Anna i still a murderer. If it were any other person we should all £eel. it to be our imperiou duty to invoke "11 his hc:'ld the thunders of the violated law; but being him, what becomes of this imperious duty? It holds a parly to calculate the profits of a dereliction. I "·oulcl most re pectfully press upcn the Cabinet the extreme danger of an policy that conftict with an im- partial execution of strict justice; and would also enforce the im- portant reflection that a negotiation with a villain, for his forfeited life, is but the licensing of crime. The impropriety of the course, which I fear we arc nbout to pursue;· in giving life and liberty to one so unworthy of either, in consideration ·of pecuniary or political advantages, may be easily illustrated by an imao-inary ca e. (Turn to any of the bloodthir ty t •rants whose murders darken the pages of ancient hi tory; 1 Tero for in tance · and place him upon trial for bis multiform iniquities against God and nature.) Behold him in the pride of his power; the wheels of his chariot rattle on the bones of his foes, and the banner of extermination floats in the ighs of a heart broken people. Behold him in his hours of revelry; the wailing of the widow is the music of the festal hall, and the tear of the orphan is the nectar of the banquet. Behold him in the moments of cruelty and wrath; he rips the womb of hi mother; stamps his iron heel upon the bosom of beauty, and drinks the blood of the blue-eyed infant. (Suppose he were now arraigned before us in all the plenitude of crime, with the accumulated guilt of forty years flowering on his bead and staring us in the face;) suppose it were proven upon him that the history of his whole life was one continued series of slaughter, rapine, and desolation; that he could devote himself to the amusement of the viol in the midst of a burning city, and walk over the prostrate bodies of the dying, and the dead, from the instinctive love of cruelty and blood 7 I ask you in the name of outraged nature and insulted justice, what hould be om· verdict against so .foul a demon? Every virtuous emotion, every manly feel- ing, every ennobling principle of the human heart, proclaims in a voice of thunder, --- .instant and ete,·nal shame. But suppose i1~
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