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442, &. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

justice. We ought to recollect that our present decisions will
be seanned, perhaps through all Enrope. We must not for-
get, that we ourselves will have a reflective hour—an hour in
which we shall view things through a different medium—
when the pulse will no longer beat with the tummlts of the
day—when the conscious pang of having betrayed truth,
justice and integrity, ahall bite like a serpent and sting like
an adder,

Consider, gentlemen, the danger which you, and all of us
are in of being led away by our affections and attachments.
‘We have seen the blood of our fellow men flowing in the
streets. We have been told that this blood was wrongfully
shed. That is now the point in issue. But let it be borne
deep upon our minds thet the prisoners are to be condemned
by the evidence here in court produced against them, and by
nothing else. Matters heard or seen abroad are to have no
weight; in general, they undermine the pillars of justice and
truth. It has been our misfortune that a system of evidence
has appeared in the world against us> It is not our business
to blame anyone for thia, It is our misfortune, I say. It
should be remembered, that we were not present to cross-exam-
ine; and the danger which results from this publication be-
ing in the hands of those who are to pass upon our lives,
ought to be guarded against. We say we are innocent, by
our plea; and we are not to be denounced guilty by a new
species of evidence—unknown in the English system of crim-
inal law.

But, as though a series of ex parte evidence was not
enough, all the colors of the canvas have been touched, in
order to freshen the wounds, and by a transport of imagina-
tion, we ere made present at the scene of action. The prints
exhibited in our housea have added wings to fancy; and, in

» This refers to the narrative of the Boston committee which was
entirely erroneous in many respecte, and the depositions were very
different from the testimony of the same witnesses at the trial, when
the excitement had somewhat subsided, and they were subjected to
& cross-examination, (See Bibliography, ante, p. 418.)

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