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150 &X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

him to search the pockets of the deceased, appropriate their
contents, conceal the body, and take and carry away his horse,
saddle, saddlebags and watch? Was it under this irresistible
impulse, that he changed his name, sold Gordon’s horse to
Gould and fled to Dover?

Why is it that we are left in the dark when the gentleman
had it in his power to explain this extraordinary phenomenon,
of the human mind?

It is now, gentlemen of the jury, two weeks since you were
‘Impanelled, and as this, the last day of the week, is fast draw-
ing to a close, you no doubt feel anxious to return to your
homes and families; I shall therefore detain you but a few
moments longer. The facte developed in this case show one
of the most cruel and bloody murders ever committed on the
highway. Indeed, the annals of crime scarcely furnish a
parallel to it; and now it remains for you to say what shall
be done with the murderer. You must convict him of mur-
der in the first degree or discharge him, for his case contains
none of the elementa of a lesser offense.. It may be painful
to consign a fellow-man to death, but the duty is enjoined
upon you by both human and divine law. ‘‘Moreover, ye
shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer who is
guilty of death, but he shall eurely be put to death; for the
land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but
by the blood of him that shed it.”

Tt is a lamentable fact that of late years crime has in-
creased in our country with fearful rapidity. You cannot
take up a newspaper without being startled at the recital of
some bloody deed. In our large cities no man is secure who
walks the street after the setting of the sun; and if it is
known thet he has money about his person he is shot down
or dirked with as little ceremony as a butcher slaughters his
beef for market, This is no doubt to some extent owing to
our greatly increased population and partly to the luxurions
habits of the age, but a more potent cause than either grows
out of our remissness in executing the laws. Jurors lose sight
of the fact that the chief object in punishing an offender is
to deter others from committing a like offense; they seem to

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