Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 20, September 4, 1858

Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
We are told by the Holy Scriptures that one of the Apostles, who, preaching integrity and truth to the Pharisees of old, offended those who belonged to the Tabernacle of libertines, was brought before the council, which, by arousing public sentiment in a seditious manner, caused Stephen to be stoned. And in our modern day they have likewise stoned Stephen by placing him, unaccustomed to toil, and guiltless of all crime, save the free exercise of opinion, to labor in a quarry along with felons, thieves, and other obnoxious convicts; and in this wise have our modern Pharisees stoned Stephen.
The Warden of the Penitentiary, suffering from din of public opinion, has seen proper to extenuate his conduct by stating that he was compelled, by rigidity of duty, thus to place Mr. Branch in a position of labor. Thus has he communicated his thoughts for publication to the editor of the Sunday Mercury , and when he uttered them he was well aware that they were a mere subterfuge to avoid personal indignity. And now we challenge the Warden to show one single word in his instructions rendering it compulsory upon him to employ any one soul in the quarrying of stone. On the contrary, his instructions particularly enjoin upon him the exercise of moderation and forbearance as a taskmaster, and most explicitly direct that no prisoner, incapable of physical labor, shall be employed at manual servitude. The law of the State, despite the tendencies of Mr. Fitch, recognizes every being, created in human form, to be possessed of a soul, as well as being of value to the commonwealth; for a man incarcerated in the penitentiary, is not devoid of civil life as is the case with a convict to the State prison, and wherefore then did he stone Stephen?
Mr. Fitch, the Warden, may remember that a woman, convicted of the most brutal of crimes, which the law unfortunately has left unvisited by proper punishment, that of the murder of the innocents, as yet unborn, was, during her residence at the Island, favored not only with the comforts, but the luxuries of an easy existence. And still they stoned Stephen.