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

796 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

evincing in the clearest manner 4 settled design to persuade
the public that the President of the United States is not fit
for the high office he bears, and of this you must be fully
convinced from the whole tenor of the expressions which have
been read to you in the indictment.

It is very far from my views to press hard upon any part
of his long address to you, or to make use against him of any
unguarded expression, which, on more deliberate considera-
tion, he might have omitted or corrected; yet, when I cannot
but observe, from the whole tenor of his present argument,
as well as from his publication, that his object is not 90
Much te convince you, gentlemen of the jury, that his amer-
tions are trne, as to’ cast an unmerited reflection on the gen-
eral character and conduct of the President, I cannot help
suspecting him of the motives he disclaims, and I must do
my duty by exposing the design ag well as the fallacy of the
Justification he has set up.

The defendant has used a little observation respecting the
separating in the indictment the text from the context, as I
believe he was pleased to term it; and argued that by this
means the most upright intentions and laudable expressions
might be perverted from their true and obvious meaning.
Such an insinuation, however, is not calculated to influence
your minds. In framing an indictment, it is my duty to leave
out matters of little importance, and to introduce those cir-
cumstances only that are truly and legally reprehensible:
and he well knows that he can read, if he pleases, the whole
of the publication, and thet you will have it with you when
you consider of your verdict. You will judge, therefore,
whether by this observation, it was his, or whether it is my
design to confound and perplex the sense.

‘Whether the reflections he has thrown upon the conduct
of government, in so many instances throughout his defense
as well ag in his publication, evince the regard he professes to
entertain for the intentions of the President, is to me, as it
will be to you, extremely dubious; nor have those professions
been confirmed by the singular manner in whieh he has cited