The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-06-10
$ WASHINGTON, D, c., THURSDAY JUNE TO- 1853

triofs fell there. One of our Leonidases was
struck here. And so the man fires through the
door at somebody. The whole majesty Of the
United States firing at random! 81 -f
Is that the calm tread of Law, or the rush of
= mob? Law requires that before you lay a
hand upon me, you show your authority Did
these men do that7
Well, the Marshals got into the room, the
city Is taken, two niggers are captured, and
the wounded enemy carried, not as in Christian
countries, to hospital, but to courtroom.
There the man, reeking with his blood, almost
dying, as if to prefgure the other judgment seat,
ID made over to the claimant. he fingers q
few weeks, and then goes up to that other
court where the laws of Kentucky no longer
apply to him. The woman is delivered over
with her husband, and is now in the custody of
some one who claims to be her owner. MY
client, knowing that pre- cess is issued against
him, and not having the money to conduct a
defence, leaves the city, and you know the rest
Mr.. Corwin then pressed the point of the dis.
belief, by eminent jurists, in the principle that
q slave taken into free State by his master is
q slave any longer, and asked If there was any
la~sto require his client to know more than
Judges Mills and Mclean, and other profound
jurists did? ..l.-t.,. sr
L NO hoWu vi power Is u4eU on nlm, tn6 Elk
ecutive department of the Government com.
mands him to be arrested, and the Judicial dc.
partment has him indcted-because he hasn't
read Ben. Munroe. for that's what it amounts
to. The District Attorney, thinking that the
venerable JUDGE beg your Honor's pardon,
bot you have so long occupied high places
OF trust, that we think you venersble--didn't
know Kentucky law, brings Kentucky law
yer to teach him, and then indicts newspaper
reporter for not knowing more than his Honor
Gentlemen, have you ever heard of any des.
potism which has more effsctual contrivances
for torture, torment, and confinement, than has
been here applied? / am not here to censure,
but did it become this mighty Republic, the
most imposing Republic in the world, covering
one.tenth of the globe, to chase this poor news
paper reporter from the Queen City of the West
to the commercial metropolis of the Western
World, prosecute and fix the VOLTS head upon
him? Don't you rejoice to know that you are
citizens of such country? And all this has
been done because my client has determined
the law as Judge Mclean has determined it.
Judge Lean says that you have Q right to shell
ter and feed fugitives; but Judge Mclean is
not indicted, while Connolly, who acted upon
his decision, is. Suppose you send him to pris.
on, won't you feel happy to know what you
have done for the country?
When the future Tacitus or Herodotus of our
country records this days work as the turning
point in our nations history, how will your
grandchildren exult that you had a part in it |!
shall feel myself honored, although am op.
posed to killing man because he hadn't read
Ben. Munroe. Yes, turning to Mr.. Matthews, J
honestly opposed, for / have no fee. 1t would
be the greatest absurdty in the world for me
to expect one from my client, poor newspaper
reporter, who hasn't got any money, and never
will have; a man who eats Bologna sausages !
If you have dramatic ideas, you may imagine
the figure we shall make in some epic. The
twelve honest jurors, and Corwin and Matthews
next to Washington and Jefferson. Washington
and Jefferson and Franklin and Rittenhouse
had something to do with starting the Republic
but didn't we take it in its dark day, and save
1t from ruin, by arising in our majesty, killing
niger, breaking a transom window, and i'm
prisonipg man who eats Bologna sausages that
would give Connestoga horse the dyspepsia
Let the eye of beauty shed its influence on the
scene; let the grave aspect of justice lend its
countenaloe; and If any say hereafter that nsy
friend Matthews and myself had nothing TO do
here, let US reply in the words of the North
Carolina orator to an opponent who charged
him with not having fought Billy Bowlegs-
"Feller citizens, was thar AS have had
q classical education, excuse me for quoting
from Greek poet quorum magma pars .tui.
Which means part of whom l was which"
The speaker next drew an ironical picture
of the satisfaction which law and the majesty
of Kentucky would derive from the conviction
of Connolly. He then returned to the evidence.
He referred to Mr.. Matthew's bristling answer,
lis the jury to be stultifed, &C., to the ques.
ton of the defence, what the carrying of bread
by Connolly, testified to by Riley, had to do
with fugitives.
| Jupiter presided, he said, over the the old
gods who held courts at Olympus and when
he got the worst of an argument, he would take
up his thunder bolts, move the previous ques
| ton, and stop the debate. He asked Mr.. Ju.
piter Matthews to drop his thunder. bolts, and
| sages and bread under his arm, without peces
sarily aiding fugitives to escape, by concealine
them in No. l8 Taft's Building.
| BE might be an old fogy, but, like the old
lady and the doctrine of the Trinity, he didn't
suck it in that way. r.
| In conclusion, he told the jury that, before
they could convict, they must find that the de
fendent KNEW that the persons he sheltered
were slaves. Let them weigh the meaning o.
that word carefully. They had duty to thei,
conscienees, as well as to the laws of Kentucky
| and Ohio.
You have sworn, said he, to judge rightly
Take care that your consciences tell you thai
you have done your duty as citizens and al
men. Remember the Injunction of the Saviour
to treat every man as q brother. When the
whole world does this, no one will have occa
sion TO say, Know the Lord.
| Then every one will excuse his brother,
frailties, hide his failnRs, reform his vices, if h'
has them. You do not often have such an op
portunity to help brother as now.
| You can bind up broken heart, you car
pour oil upon q wounded spirit, and can fulf
your duties to the law and to yourself by a yer
| At of ono initial