Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1854-03-31
Booths Speech.
Hay It Please the Court.

sci for the Slave Catcher, on whose nm
supported oath | am arrested as a Grim
inal, and am now on trial for liberty.
| leave that task to my counsel. But
wish to say few words, at this stage
OF the examination, in my own defense.
For the first time in my life, | am ar
ralgned before a tribunal, invested with
the forms of law, on a charge of crime.
The warrant for my arrest charges me
SO the legal fiction runs-with unlaw-
fully aiding and abbetting" the escape
Of human being from bondage.
My answer to that charge is, that it is
not true. Whatever "aid and comforC"
| may have rendered the hunted and
battered fugitive, it was only such aid
and comfort" as the laws permit, as hui
mainly dictates, and as the plainest pre-
cepts of the Christian religion required
Of me, on peril of my soul. So far there
FORE from having to reproach myself
with what have done, | ought perhaps,
to blame myself for not having done
more. Instead of keeping, as | have
done, strictly within theletter of the law,
erhaps, ought to have braved the pen
lily of those who broke open the Jail,
nd set an example of resistance to this
fugitive Law, by aiding in the forcible
'escue of Glover.
But | knew that human blooiholnds
Tere on my track, ready and eager to
ounce on me with all the authority and
Irce of the General Government, and
lat the Federal Courts and the FEEDER
Z. officials, who take so deep an interest
N this prosecution, and whose sugges-
tons have been so valuable to the pros
ecuting Attorney, would rejoice at an
opportunity of enforcing the penalty of
an infamous law, against one who had
done his part to make that law odious
, liberty loving people. | knew that
ne Slave Power would rejoice at an oc-
aston which would enable 1t to silence
ny press, while the Nebraska Iniquity
Vas waiting either for an ignoble birth
md premature baptism by faith break
ing god-fathers, or a hopeless death and
infamous grave, and SO | chose the
path of prudence, and maintained an
outward regard for law | inwarIIy
loathed and abhorred, and treated as a
legal verify what l believe, in my Utmost
=ouI, to be stupendous fraud, as wicked
is stupendous, AMI nuIlity before God
and Man.
But l am frank to say-and the pros
ecution may make the most of it-that
| sympathize with the rescuers Of Gloy-
er, and rejoice at his escape. l rejoice
that, in the first attempt of she slave
hunters to convert, our Jail into a slave
pen, and our citizens into slaye-catchers,
they have been signally foiled, and that
it has been decided, by the spontaneous
uprising and sovereign voice Of the PEG
pie, that no human being can be dragged
into bondage, from Milwaukee. And
am bold to say, that, rather than have
the great Constitutional rights and safe
guards of the people-tle Writ of Ha-
beas Corpus and the right Of Trial by
Jury-stricken down by this Fugitive
Law, l would prefer to see every Felor-
al Officer in Wisconsin hanged on a
GalIows.fifty cuJits hlgherthan Iaman's.
Loud cheering. The Court said, if it
was repeated, the room should be clear
ed of spectators. And Marshal Cotton
elected Mr. Mcneil from the room with
much violence for cheering.
May it please the Court | understand
well, and this community understand
we'll, why have been singled out by
the prosecution. 1t is not because | am
specially guilty, or more guilty than hun
dreds, whom the Shareholders at:or-
ney would not think Of prosecuting, but
because it is desired to make an exam
pile of me, and the Slave Power wants
me for victim. That power wishes to
introduce the discipline Of the slave
plantation among the Editorial fraterni-
~, to silence their voice in behalf Of
Freedom, and therefore it cracks It's lash,
or gets the Dist. Attorney and this hon
orable Court to crack it, about my ears,
rs one thought to be most in need Of
such discipline. Ny conviction and
punishment, it is hoped, will strike ter
ror into the hearts Of the people, and
compel them to stille those feelings of
humanity, implanted in every human
sou1 which prompt them t. feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, hide the out
casts and obey the commands Of mer-
ciful God, instead Of the edicts of cruel
and wicked men.
have done nothing in this case,
which, living, | could wish to forget, or
dying, would wish to blot out Of the
memory of mankind. Whatever may
be the finding Of this Court, | stand ae-
quilted in the Judgment, in the hearts
and consciences of all who love Freedom
and hate opprcssion-of all who stand
for Order, regulated by righteous Law
of all who value Republican instilu-
tions, and would transmit them pare
and free, as a heritage, to their children
of all who scorn the ineslahly mean
and inhuman business of Kidnapping
and slave-catching-of all who honor
manhood and de>pise base $ycophancy
and seryile fawuing to the Slave Power,
and of all who would die on the battle
field or on the gibbet, rather than sac
rifice their conscience, deny their Maker,
and surrender their liberties to the Vi
lest despotism the sun ever shone upon.
With these brief remarks, leave the