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

788 ZX. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

alluded to in the indictment, you will reverence as you ought
the sacred obligation of the oath you have taken.

Gentlemen of the jury, I acknowledge, as freely as any of
you can, the neceasity of a certain degree of confidence in the
executive government of the country. But this confidence
ought not to be unlimited, and need not be paid up in ad-
vance; let it be earned before it be reposed; let it be claimed
by the evidence of benefits conferred, of measures that compel
approbation, of conduct irreproachable. It cannot be exacted
‘by the guarded provisions of sedition laws, by attacks on the
freedom of the press, by prosecutions, pains and penalties on
those which boldly express the truth, or who may honestly
and innocently err in their political sentiments. Let this re-
quired confidence be the meed of desert, and the public will
not be backward to pay it.

But in the present state of affairs, the preaa is open to
those who will praise, while the threata of the law hang over
those who blame the conduct of the men in power. Indis-
eriminate approbation of the measures of the executive is not
only unattacked, but fostered, and reeefved with the utmost
avidity; while those who venture to express a sentiment of
opposition must do it in fear and trembling, and run the
hazard of being dragged like myself before the frowning
tribunal, erected by the Sedition Law. Be it 20; but surely
this anxiety to protect public character must arise from fear
of attack. That conduct which will not bear investigation
will naturally shun it; and whether my opinions are right
or wrong, as they are stated in the charge, I cannot help think-
ing they would have been better confuted by evidence and
ergument than by indictment. Fines and imprisonment will
produce conviction neither in the mind of the sufferer nor of
the public.

Nor do J see how the people can exercise on rational grounds
their elective franchise, if perfect freedom of discussion of
public characters be not allowed. Electors are bound in eon
science to reflect and decide who best deserves their suffrages;
but how can they do it, if these prosecutions in terrorem