Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1858-08-19
A Georgia Layers Plea up
on an indictment for Duel

on an indie tlment for Duel
ling.
May it please the court, arise in de-
fence of lacerated Justice; she is bleeding
in every pore, and it is high time that the
political Doctors, clothed in the consecrat-
ed folds of the legal wordrobe, were ad-
ministering the pungent acid of Justice to
those who have dared to hurl the brick
bats of insolence against her person, or
with lancets of unequivocal impertinence
to phlebotomize her pure and undefiled ar
teries. 1t is in this capacity that | now
represent myself before this honorsble
court, with the heaven born desire, as be-
fore intimated, ofapplying the healing balm
of retribution TO those who have. with such
gasconading vilifcation, collected our va
por crimnality which f1oated in our haley
on atmosphere, and thus brewed the
storms of war and the whirlwind of STRIFE
which Ike the fermenting mushroom, nc
longer able to contain its own foul breath,
has emptied forth, with all its incarcerat
ing malignity, upon the devoted 'golgotha,
of my illuminated client. 1 shall endeavor
to track the gentleman of the prosecution
| along his serpentine sweep through the la
byrinthian maze of fact and fiction. 1 feel
like divesting this case OF the facts, and
giving it an abstract trial on general
principles.
Time. in its rapid quickstep, has wro't
MANY mutations in the course of human
events. and modification has made an un-
timely vision to this land of heg-wallow
prairie, and broad horned cattle. Will the
Court allow its stupendous mind to take
retrograding glance DER the stubble field
of the past, and indulge itself on the mo-
mentary ecstacy in the contemplation of
the times when the chivalrous impulse of
our nature were not ruthlessly dragged in
to blacksmith shop of legislation, to be
manacled in the adamantine fetters of con-
tracted views ofpublc policy? Then were
the times when men sat at the helm, and
who could safely pilot the canoe of State
down the stream of time. But, now could
one of the departed spirits oft hose aged
sires who surround the illuminated throne
Of the great antemundane architect Of this
terrene sphere, look down from the top
loftical region of ecstatic falicity upon the
terrestrial habltation of Adams wayward
race how deformable would be presented
to the minds eye, when he would see but
scattering few tying to raise tho stand Of
political emancipation, and nail thereon
the milk white banner of Justita. But
contend tha. it is in the centrifus sal sphere
of this Courts action, clothed as it is,
with the plenary powers of intimate juris-
prudence TO sweep from the atmosphere
of its Influence this whirlwind of prosecu-
ton, which is roaming around the hoary
temples of my sexagenarisn elient-like
the stormy car of Neptune rattling along
its pathway of cloud. | contend that it is
strictly within the administrative range of
this Cour's cognizance, to move its bowels
of compassion by An immediate appopria-
ton Of my clients generous offer of tripe,
and enrich the evil of society to fructify-
ing regeneration of a more adolescent'pub
lie opinion.
When gave to my mental vision a caste
commensurate with the multiplicity of in
terest therein involved, when l regard my
self as l now stand before this honorable
Court, the trustee of my distinguished
client, when 1 contemplate that in ms re-
sides the task of wiping the marks Of Cain
from his noble brow, and make it glow
with halo as radiant as the belly-gisth
of Saturn, / feel like / could "play on
harp of thousand strings" feel like l
was standing on the summit of Mount O.
lympus before the mortal Jupiter Tonans.
and it rested on me to scatter to hypebor
can REGIONS. their indiyidious clammer. to
send the noble Tantalus to the dark abodes
of Tartarus, there to endure enternal thirst
tied fast to pine sapling lip deep in water.
Well may my noble client wish he could
sit on the tail of the American Eagle, and
soar away tc one of those warm bright isles
that gem the oriental seas, where the nut
meg, the orange. and the persimmons grow
where the passions of men. like the dill
cious sweets of those unplucked fruits
curdle into jelly with their own exuberance.
/ shall not endeavor to make the shuttle
cock of eloquepce weave into the warping
of this Courts judgment tbs Alling ofsym-
pathy l demand his releasement entirely
upcn that lattudinous construction of con-
servative right which operates serrepti-
tious superabundance of the "habius cor
pus," and ends in its glorious mission on
ly in an unmitigated enfranchisement of
personal Will. sG sdT
9e4 Life