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106 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,

ing, if the answer should be “‘alive,”’ to crush its life out;
if ‘‘dead,’’ to open his palm and give the captive liberty,
with this difference in the cases: The life of the bird hung
upon the caprice of a mischievous youth; that of the prisoner
hangs upon the judgment of his peers, sitting to administer
the humane and merciful spirit of our law. You will bear
me witness that the defense has, in its entire scope, addressed
your intelligence and reason only, It has never made one
appeal even to that sympathy from which man should never
be quite shut out. I have been slone—alone, against a pow-
erful array of talent and learning, combined for the destrac-
tion of the prisoner. I have been at great disadvantage in
meeting them, but I have, in behalf of the prisoner asserted
no doctrine, advanced no principle of law or morals, which
will not survive the passions of this hour and continue to be
eherished a8 true by all good men. Mine is the only voice
that has been raised for the prisoner, and now that voice is
still,

‘MR. BAY, FOR THE STATE,

Mr. Bay. Gentlemen of the jury: Repeatedly during my
professional life have I been called upon to defend, and in
some few instances to prosecute, persons charged with a vio-
lation of the criminal laws of the land; but never under cir-
cumstances so painful, and responsible as those which sur-
round me on this occasion.

Gladly would I have evaded the task could I have done so
without disregarding my obligations to society and the re-
quirements of my profession ; but the necessity of a prosecutor
in the attainment of public justice is equally as great aa that
of a judge or jury. It is true the State is here represented
‘by the regularly appointed officer of the law, but to have im-
posed upon him the entire labor of the prosecution, under
the peculiar cireumstances of the case, would have been ex-
tremely unkind, inasmuch as the crime was not committed
in his cirenit, and the witnesses supposed to have any know!-
edge of facta pointing to the perpetrator, reside beyond the

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