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THOMAS COOPER. "797

and selected the passages on which his defense has been
grounded. Throughout the quotations he has made, par-
ticularly from the addresses to the President, and the an-
swers to them, there has been a series of misrepresentations,
which it will be my duty to observe upon when I come to
consider that part of the charge and his vindication of it. But
it is fair to observe that if, from the perusal of partial ex-
tracts and passages selected from various publications, he has
thought proper to publish a libel, such as that for which he is
indicted, against the character of our President, there is no
excuse for his conduct; if, on the other hand, he had the
whole of the publications before him, and has extracted from
them partially and unfairly, his conduct is still more repre-
hensible, and there is the less exeuse, as it is evident, and as
you, gentlemen of the jury, must have observed, that he is a
man of talents and letters.

Gentlemen, you have attended to the words of this charge
in the indictment, and you cannot but be impressed that they
eonvey on the face and in the very tenor of them, a conclu-
sive proof of a mala mens, of a malicious and deliberate inten-
tion to injure the character of the President. No man ean
read them without receiving this impression from the perusal.

I have not touched on the article respecting the embassies
to Prussia, Russia, and the Porte; because I did not think it
of importance sufficient to oeeupy much of your time, In-
deed, I believe no embassy was ever sent to Russia. There is
enough for your consideration against the defendant, without
dwelling on these lesser articles of the indictment.

Gentlemen, I have no personal animosity against Mr.
Cooper; but I have instituted this prosecution because I
thought it my duty so to do, and I must make those remarks
which the same duty calls forth.

The defendant has endeavored to show that his publication
was without malice; but his conduct with Buyers, and his
expressions in that publication, proved otherwise. The na-
ture of his defense, though he has stated his opinion of the
good intentions of the President, evidently shows that he

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