524 Slide – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

492 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

proceeding therefrom; and have pressed the defense of the
prisoners, by such appeals to the passions, in favor of life, aa
might be grating to your humanity should I attempt the like
against life. Numberless are the observations which have
been made, in order to set the prisoners in a favorable point
of view, and to bring them within the notice of your com-
passion, Tt has been represented, ‘‘that the life of a soldier
is thought to be leas valuable among us, than the life of a
private subject;”’ than which nothing can be more un-
founded. Whatever of wrath and bitterness may have been
expressed, by some, on account of the unhappy transaction,
it was no more than would have been said, had the persons
who did it not been soldiers. Nay the very appearance of
this trial, the conduct of the witnesses and spectatora, and all
concerned in it, must satisfy any one, that a soldier’s life is
by no means undervalued; but that they have as fair an op-
portunity of defense as any other subjects. It has also been
observed to you, that the evidence against the prisoners has
been, for a long time past, published, and put into all your
hands; and the supposed inconveniences which the prisoners
labor under on that account, have been displayed with a ve-
hemence of expression, the design of which, for my part, I
am really at a loss to determine. The whole of the fact is
this—immediately after the unhappy homicide, it was very
naturally considered as attended with such cirenmetances as
would engage the attention and authority of Great Britain;
and as it was well known that representations were making
and despatches about to be sent respecting the matter, it was
thought necessary to collect and send such evidence as was
feared would be omitted, that so we might not suffer in our
conduct for want of it. The copies of these depositions were
here sacredly concealed; nor would the contents of them have
got abroad, but that copies from the other side of the water
came over here; and being free of the contro! of the town,
were reprinted, and for what I know, in some manner dis-
persed before the trial came on. But I am actually at a loss
to determine, whether this undesigned or unexpected event,