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

462 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,

sion of the person thus attacked; and the law goes not upon
the absurd supposition, that a person can in these cireum-
stances thman himself, Hence we find, if a husband, taking
his wife in the act of adultery, instantly seizes a deadly
‘weapon and elays the adulterer, it is not murder. Nay, a
fillip upon the nose or forehead, in anger, is supposed by the
law ta be sufficient provocation to reduce killing to man-
slaughter. It is, therefore, upon principles like these, prin-
ciples, upon which those, who now bear the hardest against
us, at other times, so much depend; it is, I say, upon the
right of self-defense and self-preservation we rely for our
acquittal,

Here again it should be kept in view, that whenever the
party injuring has escaped by flight, and time sufficient for
the passions to cool, in judgment of law, hath elapsed, how-
ever great the injury, the injured party must have recourse
to law for his redress. Such is the wisdom of the law; of that
Jaw, than which we are none of us to presume ourselves wiser ;
of that law, which is founded in the experience of ages, and
which in condescension to the infirmities of flech and blood
‘(but to nothing else) extenuates the offense. For ‘‘no man,’’
says the learned Judge Foster, ‘‘under protection of the law,
ig to be the avenger of his own wrongs. If they are of such
a nature for which the laws of society will give him an ade-
quate remedy, thither he ought to resort. But be they of
what natare soever, he ought to bear his lot with patience,
and remember, that vengeance belongeth to the Most High.”

Now, gentlemen, those, whoever they were, who committed
the outrage in Cornhill, had absconded—the soldiers, who
are supposed to have done them, were confined in their bar-
racks. People were repeatedly told this, and assured by the
military officers, that they should not go unpunished. But
what followedt Are all present appeasedt We are con-
strained by the foree of the evidence to affirm they were
not. But to get regular and right ideas, we must consider
all the commotions of the season, and endeavor to come at