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156 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

tion. The labors of this case have been unexampled. We can
find no parallel to them in the history of judicial proceedings
of this country. None of us have aa yet, however, broke down
under them, although many times the body has been weary
and the heart sick and faint. Still I do not know that these
labors ought to be to us a subject of regret, when we consider
the great importance of the case now to be decided. It is im-
portant, inasmuch as it involves the lives of twelve men, and
the interests of public justice, not only in this, but in every
other civilized eountry.

It is of consequence, not only to our own citizens, but to
“all those who go down to the sea in ships,’’ that, when re-
moved from the protection of their friends and neighbors,
they should yet be safe-protected by the moral influence of
the law, spreading over the wide expanse of ocean, and ex-
tending from one continent to the other, When then, I say,
you consider the momentous nature of this trial—that it is
connected with the interests of every nautical people, I think
I am justified in the remark that the labors of the cause
ought not to be regretted. Not only should we dismiss from
our minds all thoughts of the labor we have undergone, but
every, the slightest, personal feeling, ealenlated to bias our
minds, or impede the ends of justice. We should come to
the decision of this case with pure hearts, and minds freed
from all feeling of anger or irritation, however much the
course pursued for the defense has been calculated to pro-
duce them. We should come bearing in mind the great max-
im of the law, ‘‘That every person is presumed to be inno-
cent until he is proved to be guilty,’? but with a resolution
also, should the guilt of the individuals before us be proved,
to do our duty, The prisoners have had a fair and noble
trial If they are far from their friends; if the forms of
this court are new to them, yet have they had privileges, which
in their own country they could not have had. They have
been furnished with copies of the charges against them, in
order that they might know what those charges were. They
have had individuals acquainted with their own language to

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