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‘758 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

But, gentlemen, all the indulgences I have enumerated have -
been granted, not to facilitate the escape of guilt, but to af-
ford protection to the innocent; else were our laws a mock-
ery, and our courts of justice but a theatre, where the prize
of eloquence is to be won, and where, instead of protection
of the rights of our citizens, guilt might, more than in any
other place, revel in crime, and defy discovery. . . . If
the prisoners are innocent, none of you, gentlemen, I am sure,
will regret the length of time, and the great labor which has
attended this investigation; on the other hand, if they are
guilty, and it shall become your aclemn duty to render that
verdict which will consign them to chains and the scaffold,
will it not be a satisfaction to you, that you have heard all
that could be said in their behalf; and that could enable them,
if innocent, to prove that innocence. My duty in this case is
plain. The counsel for the defense have had their duty to
perform; and they have done it manfully, A duty has also
been assigned to me. I have given a pledge to my country,
that if I posseas any talents, those talents shall be exerted to
the utmost in the discharge of my duty. I have taken ar
oath to this effect, and I must not be found recreant to that
pledge,-—unmindful of that oath. Yet you shall hear from
me no rash expressions of anger against the prisoners. It is
not my duty to excite prejudices against them; but calmly,
and with a firm step, to progress through the mertis of this
case.

In parsuing this course, I shall endeavor, ay much as poe
sible to simplify this transaction—-to clear it from the mass
of words, beneath which it has been, doubtless unintention-
ally, buried. After these introductory remarks, let us pro-
seed at once to the facts of the case. There would be no
doubt that the Mexican had been robbed in lat. 33, lon. 3414,
by pirates; the great question was, whether the captain and
crew of the Panda were the individuals who committed that
robbery. Let us examine the evidence bearing upon this sub-
ject. There was a achooner named the Panda, in the harbor
of Havana on the 12th of August, 1832. She sailed thence

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