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378
TRIAL OVJ JOHN W. WEBSTER.
principles of impartial justice, demand the execution of the sentence.
I hope it is not necessary for me to say that it would have given me
unspeakable pleasure to come to a different result, and that I would do
anything on earth in my power, short of violating duty, to alleviate the
sufferings of a crushed and broken-hearted family.
Council Chamber, 19th July, 1850.
Pursuant to the above determination of the Executive, a warrant for
the execution of the prisoner, of which the following is a copy, issued on
the next day, the 20th of July:
GEO. N. BRIGGS.
THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
To Joseph Eveleth, Esquire, Sheriff of our County of Suffolk,
Greeting: '
Whereas, at the term of the Supreme Judicial
(Seal.) Court, begun and holden at Boston, within the
county of Suffolk, and for the counties of Suffolk and
Nantucket, on the first Tuesday of March, being the
fifth day of said month, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and fifty, John W. Webster,
of Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex, was con-
victed of the crime of murder, and was thereupon by
our said Court sentenced to suffer the pains of death,
by being hanged by the neck, until he shall be dead; all which, by an
exemplification of the record of the said Court, which we have caused
to be hereunto annexed, doth tows fully appear:
We therefore command you, that, upon Friday the thirtieth day of
August, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, between the hours of
eight and eleven o'clock before noon of the same day, within the walls
of the prison of the said County, or within the inclosed yard of the prison
of the said County of Suffolk, agreeably to the provisions of the one
hundred and thirty-ninth chapter of the Revised Statutes, you cause
execution of the said sentence of our said Court, in all respects to be
done and performed upon him, the said John W. Webster; for which
this shall be your sufficient warrant.
Whereof fail not at your peril, and make return of this. warrant, with
your doings thereon, into our Secretary's office, within twenty days after
you shall have executed the same.
Witness His Excellency, George N. Briggs, our Governor, with the
advice and consent of our Council, and our seal hereunto affixed,
the nineteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United
States of America, the Seventy-Fifth.
By His Excellency the Governor, by and with the advice of the Council.
W. B. CALHOUN,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.
The foregoing warrant was read to the prisoner by Sheriff Eveleth
on the 22d day of July; and on the 30th day of August, 1850, was duly
executed on him by that officer, by hanging him on the gallows, as
appears by his return made to the Executive upon the back of the war-
rant, of which the following is a copy:
(Signed)
Geo. N. Briggs.
Suffolk, ss.
By virtue of the within warrant to me directed, and in obedience to
the command therein contained, I, this day, between the hours of eight
and eleven before noon,-to wit, at twenty minutes before ten o'clock
before noon, of the said thirtieth day of August, eighteen hundred and
Boston, August 30th, 1850.
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