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APPENDIX. 391
the jailer, alone present. Of this interview we cannot say much. There
was no confession contradictory of that already made by the prisoner.
Professor Webster declared himself willing to die on the gallows, as
"a partial expiation of the great wrong he had done to society."
His serenity, he said, was established on religious conviction. He
alluded to the ceremony of his execution, and remarked that if he
faltered, it would be through no fear of dying, through no effect upon
him of the horrible surroundings and accompaniments of his doom,-
but because of his misgivings as to the efficacy of his own repentance,
and as to the future to which he was going,--because of the " clouds "
that might come over his spirit at the last. He hoped, however, that he
should bear up,-arranged that he should be pinioned by Mr. Andrews
in preference to any other officers,-and said that he expected to be
tranquil during the night, although he might not sleep.
He spoke often during the night of the morrow, and of the manner
of his death, apparently with firmness. Dr. Putnam left him at nine
o'clock. Afterwards, until about midnight, he conversed with his
watchers, his conversation being principally of a religious character.
At midnight, lie fell into a sort of doze, but did not seem to sleep
heavily.
He would awake, converse, and fall to sleep again. The usual sounds
of returning day seemed to agitate him; but he soon recovered his
composure, and, when the watchers left, he was perfectly calm.
THE EXECUTION.
The scaffold was not erected until after daylight this morning. It
was placed in the centre of the yard, visible from the rear of Lowell
street, and the houses on the west side of Leverett street. A change
had been made in its construction, a spring having been sub-
stituted to cause the falling of the drop upon which the condemned
stands, instead of the cutting of a rope.
At an early hour this morning, those persons who had been fur-
nished with passes began to assemble in the jail yard. They numbered
about one hundred and fifty, of whom some fifteen or twenty were rep-
resentatives of the press. The constables, police officers, and other
city officers, to the number of about one hundred and twenty-five, kept
order within and without the walls of the jail.
The prisoner partook of a slight breakfast, and at a quarter before
eight was visited by Dr. Putnam and Mr. Andrews, the jailer. The
arrangements for the execution had all been explained at a previous
interview. Dr. Putnam having spent an hour or more with him in
religious conversation and devotional exercises, at Dr. Webster's request,
Sheriff Eveleth and the officers of the jail were then sent for. When
they entered, he thanked them, as he had previously Mr. Andrews, in
warm terms for their many kind attentions, and for their considerate
conduct during his long confinement.
At a quarter past nine, the legal witnesses of the execution, headed
by the Sheriff and his deputies, and followed by the spectators generally,
then entered the archway of the jail, to the prisoner's cell, where a
short but fervent prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Putnam.
He prayed for a brother now about to pass from this life of sin:
to be removed from this world to another. He invoked for him the
aids of the Holy Spirit, and prayed that his repentance might be accepted,
and be accounted to him as such in the sight of the Searcher of all
hearts. He prayed that the humble hope of forgiveness that the prisoner
had been permitted to entertain, might be realized in a blissful fruition.
He also prayed for those who had been bereaved by the transgressions
of the condemned man; for the ministers of the law, who, while they
performed their bounden duty, did it with mercy and tenderness: that
the memories and admonishments of this hour might be sanctified to
all who stood before God, mortal, and soon to die. " We commit," he
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