"In conversation," said Mr. B., "he is pleasant, familiar, easy and polite, and often his countenance is lighted up by an artificial smile. He is a man of quick discernment, and possesses a mind of unusual strength and great composure in the hour of trouble; yet he sometimes weeps at the most trifling circumstances. He feels great attachment to his friends, uncommon fondness for his children, and an ungovernable hatred to his enemies. I found Mr. How almost in a despairing state of mind. He asked my opinion of 1 John 3:15: 'No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.' I informed him that the same verse said: 'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer' and that no person while possessed of hatred, or in the act of murder, could be in possession of eternal life. He wept at my remarks, and asked many questions. I informed him 'all manner of sin should be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Ghost;' and I endeavored to hold up the way of life to him. We united in prayer several times, and after an interview of six hours I left him overwhelmed in grief.
"March 3d, entered the dungeon at 8 o'clock, A. M., found him very much composed. After attending prayers we sung two hymns, and his heart was apparently filled with love to all the creatures of God. He commenced speaking in the most affecting language. He spoke of the sin of profanity and drinking, described the murder of Mr. Church in the most affecting manner, and mourned that he had no time to prepare to meet his God. He said he could not think that God would forgive him, as his sins were of such an aggravated nature, and were committed against so good a Being, and against such great light. I made him three visits, and the dungeon became a pleasant place. He this day requested me to write his journal, to preach at his execution, and superintend his funeral.
"March 4. Spent four hours in my first visit, found him much composed and well resigned. I entreated with the sheriff for the removal of his irons, and succeeded, for which he expressed much gratitude."
It were indeed too long for our purpose to transcribe the half of what Mr. Badger has interestingly written on this topic. His duties were faithfully and ably done; and, what might be anticipated, he gained, and for a holy purpose, the entire mastery of the murderer's heart; turned his revengeful passions, for the time at least, into prayerful kindness for his enemies, and, through his free choice, became the agent of his most sacred trusts. On the 5th, he received and delivered to Mrs. Church the imploring and penitent address of Mr. How; also visited the family and plantation of the murderer; on the 6th, witnessed the interview between Mr. How and his own family, to whom he administered appropriate advice. Through all his doubts and fears, he accompanied the spirit-wanderings of the culprit, and succeeded in bringing his mind to a state in which he was conscious that an eternal sun shone somewhat brightly through the cloud openings of his dark horizon.
"On Sunday, the 14th, in the afternoon," says Mr. B., "his daughter, a beautiful little girl about 19 years of age, arrived. She trembled as she approached the gloomy apartment of her father. They embraced each other with great affection, and all the spectators wept. He called his daughter and friends to view the coffin, which, he informed her, was like her mother's. They wished me to pray with them; and, at the close of prayer, I found the father and daughter leaning upon the coffin, with their hands joined; he exclaimed, 'Oh, my Harriet! must we part? You are the image of your excellent mother—you have derived your good disposition and all your good qualities from her. You have nothing good from me.' They both wept aloud, and every heart seemed to be moved with grief. On the 15th I witnessed a reconciling interview between Mr. How, Mr. Palmer, and Sheriff Wilson, men of business who had once been great friends, but whose friendship had been broken by serious difficulties.
"March the 18th. He sent for me at daybreak. I found he had a restless night, and was in great distress. I made him several visits; his family came to take their leave of him forever. At 3 o'clock P. M., the Rev. Mr. Roach, a Methodist minister, preached a short discourse in the dungeon from John 3:16. Five clergymen were present, and the scene was solemn. Mr. How took the lead in singing two hymns, and carried his part through in a graceful manner. In singing the first, he stood up and leaned partly on the stove; held his little girl by one hand, who sat in the lap of her mother, and with the other he took the hand of his affectionate brother, who stood by his side. At the close of the meeting, his wife gave him her hand for the last time. He embraced her with fondness, and when he pressed his little girl to his bosom (about four years of age) he wept aloud. He requested that several Christian friends should spend the night with him in prayer; thus his last night on earth was spent in imploring God for grace and mercy.
"March the 19th. I entered the prison at break of day, found him much resigned. He observed, as I entered, that his last night on earth was gone, which he had spent in prayer. At 7 o'clock I visited him again with a company of ladies who had never seen him. Mrs. Richards, of Dansville, took him by the hand, both fell upon their knees, and she prayed for him in the most fervent manner. He then prayed for himself, for his family, for the family of Mrs. Church, who were afflicted by him, for his executioner, and all the world. As we came out, a gentleman remarked that he had never heard a man pray like him. At 9, I entered his apartment for the last time, accompanied by his beloved daughter and a young man who was soon to become her husband. We entered with serious hearts; he received them very pleasantly, and made remarks to me on the fine weather, and the lady who had prayed with him. He asked of me the privilege of walking into the yard with the young man. They spent a short time together. He then asked me to wait on Harriet to the door. He placed her by the side of the young man, and delivered her to his charge, saying that she had long been deprived of the counsels of a mother,[36] and would be in a few moments separated from her father forever. 'I now commit her to you as a friend, protector, and lover.'"
For Mr. H. there was much public sympathy, owing to the belief that he had suffered many provoking wrongs. Passages like these have a moral, and even philosophical value, in showing that the human spirit is not exhausted of wealth, no, not even by capital offence; that great sentiments of manliness may temporarily occupy an invisible throne within, though clouded and veiled from general recognition.
On the 19th, in the presence of six thousand persons, Mr. How was executed, to which immense throng Mr. Badger preached a sermon of thirty minutes, from Numbers 35: 33, which we have heard spoken of as a masterly effort. With all his feeling for the offending, he had no morbid sympathies to pour out on the injustice of his punishment; he spoke of the propriety and the majesty of the law; of the necessity of cleansing the land of murderous crimes; alleging that, while government exists, its principles must be faithfully carried into action; that the officers who, in their different official capacities, executed this solemn law, were as much in the way of their duty as he who tills the soil, and supports the government by his labor. Mr. Badger was no ultraist. He held that this world, on which golden sunlight is scattered, was not made for rascals; nor did he accuse the world of ignorance when the deliberate murderer died for his crime. In these quoted paragraphs, we see how Mr. B. passed the larger part of a month in the spring of 1824; and though the acrimony which attaches to religious sects was industrious in the misrepresentation of his theological sentiments, he cleared himself triumphantly of all their charges, and came off with the decided approbation of the judges, officers, and indeed of all the leading men whose acquaintance he had formed, for the able and faithful manner in which he had performed his high duties, and for the proper course he had pursued both as a gentleman and a minister.