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

828 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

dent, wished that the executive had power to control the
public will.

This teatimony, when compared with the books of the
President, will substantiate the charges in the book written
by Mr. Callender. it will go strongly to a confirmation of
the charges in dispute; it goes directly to that part of the
indictment where he is charged with having said that the
President is a professed aristocrat. It has been stated that
as there are nineteen charges in the indictment against the
traverser, though we prove eighteen of them to be true, yet
he must be found guilty, because we do not prove the truth
of the nineteenth ;—but how is it possible for us to defend
ourselves, or how can we be prepared for trial, if the wit-
ness, by whom we can prove that particular charge, be ab-
sent? If the court think that, in order to justify ourselves,
‘we must prove the whole libel to be true, and it shall appear
that testimony to prove a particular charge is wanting, the
eourt will afford us an opportonity of adducing it. I con-
ceive, with submission, that the former judgment of the
eourt, in particularly postponing the trial, admitted the evi-
dence of Mr. Giles to be material, and that his personal at-
tendance would be essential to justice.

Juves Cuase. Mr. Nicholas has not apprehended the
opinion of the court rightly, although on the application of
the counsel for the traverser, the court had given them the
choice of postponement of the trial till today instead of a
few hours; yet it waa not meant by that indulgence, either
to declare the testimony of Mr. Giles material, or to post-
pone the trial till another term, on account of his absence.

Mr. Nicholas urged the neccasity of postponing the trial
till Mr. Giles could attend. The question, on a motion for
8 continuance ig, ean the testimony of the absent witness
substantiate the defense or the point in issue? How can it
be done, if the witness be net present? When a witness, to
prove the truth of a particular charge, is absent, I trust the
court will give us time to avail ourselves of his evidence,
and will not precipitate a trial, when a trial will not demon-