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Line 83: On the question of a commutation, Lincoln wrote that "I think I would personally prefer to let this man live in confinement and let him meditate on his deeds, yet in the name of justice and the majesty of law, there ought to be one case, at least one specific instance, of a professional slave-trader, a Northern white man, given the exact penalty of death because of the incalculable number of deaths he and his kind inflicted upon black men amid the horror of the sea-voyage from Africa."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Soodalter|first=Ron|date=2009-08-18|title=Hanging Captain Gordon|url=https://www.historynet.com/hanging-captain-gordon.htm|access-date=2021-12-23|website=HistoryNet|language=en-US}}</ref> Lincoln did give him a two-week [[stay of execution]] to "[make] the necessary preparation for the awful change which awaits him", <ref>Behn, Richard. [http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=3&subjectID=1 "Introduction."] ''Mr. Lincoln and Freedom''. The Lincoln Institute, 2002.</ref><ref>Lincoln, Abraham. ''Stay of Execution for Nathaniel Gordon'' (February 4, 1862). 5 ''Collected Works'' 128 (1953).</ref> setting the new execution date for February 21, 1862, on the grounds that Gordon had been misled into thinking he would not be executed.<ref>[http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=184 Text of the stay of execution granted to Gordon by Abraham Lincoln] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040901191023/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=184 |date=2004-09-01 }}, 1862, Gilder Lehrman Document Number: GLC 182, ''Digital History''.</ref> Early the morning before the execution, Gordon unsuccessfully attempted [[suicide]] with [[strychnine]] poison.{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|pp=210–211}} Three doctors worked four hours to keep him alive by pumping his stomach, [[catheter]]izing him, and force-feeding him [[brandy]] and [[Whisky|whiskey]]. After regaining consciousness, he cried out "I've cheated you! I've cheated you!" Gordon then begged the doctors assist his suicide, saying he would rather die alone than suffer the humiliation of being publicly executed. He said he'd "suffered the agony of a dozen deaths."{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|pp=210–211}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=How the Slave Trade Died on the Streets of New York |url=https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/how-the-slave-trade-died-on-the-streets-of-new-york |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=The Gotham Center for New York City History |date=September 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Daily Dispatch: February 27, 1862., [Electronic resource], The recent execution in New York. |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2006.05.0411:article=pos=54 |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> He was sufficiently revived to ==References== | |||