Excerpt from A Discourse on the Alton Outrage, Delivered at Peacham, Vermont; December 17, 1837 As to the lamented victim of this outrageous violence, it does not appear, - so far as I have seen, it is not even pretended, that he was chargeable with any violation of the Constitution, or of any law of the State, or of his country. He barely asserted and defended his right, the right, too, and one of the dearest civil rights, of every freeman in the country, to write and publish his sentiments on what ever subject he pleased, the subjects of popery and slavery not ex cepted, responsible only for his abuse of the privilege. Even in taking arms in defence of his rights, and of his property, on the fatal night, he did only what he was sustained in doing, by the laws of the State, and by public Opinion. He was only defending his undeniable rights, and his property, against unprovoked aggression and violence. The taking of his life by his infuriate assailants, therefore, was an outrageous and most aggravated murder, which must have involved every one of them in awful blood-guiltiness. Yes, against every one of them the voice of a brother's blood crieth unto heaven from the ground. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.