Samuel T. Spear. The Punishment of Treason. A Discourse Preached April 23d, 1865, in the South Presbyterian Church, of Brooklyn. Brooklyn, New York: "The Union" Steam Presses, 1865.

8vo, 38 pages. Original wrappers, string-bound. FIRST EDITION. Sabin 89098.

A fascinating sermon by Samuel Thayer Spear, preached just nine days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Spear argues that, while the church is a gospel community, the government is a justice community, divinely ordered by God to punish wrongdoers. He urges, in no uncertain terms, that a government of Christians would demand capital punishment be imposed not just on Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, but on a whole host of leaders and perpetrators in the Confederate cause. 

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