Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-11
. STEPHEN ,. stEANY. Z
His Defense and Sentence-EIOquen
q Speech.

. W
His Defense and sentence-EIoquent
Speech.
The case of Stephen j. Meany, of Toledo,
Is attracting good deal of attention in
Great Britain, from the fact that he made
very brilliant defense. He was arrested.
not for anything done in Ireland, but for
conspiracy in New York. He was offered
his liberty on condition of turning inform
er, but Indignantly refused. In speech OF
singular ability he dissected the evidence
brought against him, and denied the right
of the court to convict him. He was SEN
fenced to fiften years penal servitude. The
following are extracts from his defense.
Regarding certain charges made against
him in the newspapers, Mr.. Meany said:
There had been much poetic fiction cir
culated concerning him. Before his trial
by jury he underwent a trial by Journal
But there was one fact to which lie should
especially refer; he alluded to the language
OF the Attorney General when he said that
he (the prisoner) was one of the host OF
plunderers that were living on the money
of the Fenian Brotherhood. and other pet
| ty charges of that kind. In that Court, he
should protest, and before a higher and
more just tribunal, that never, directly or
| indirectly, was he the recipient of one pen
ny profit or emolument. in any shape what
ever, from the Fenian Brotherhood, or any
other political organization,Dorw was he ever
paid or salaried officer of the Fenian
| Brotherhood.
The speech closed with these words: 1
stand at this bar a declared citizen of the
| United STATES of America, and l protest
against the right to pass any sentence in
any British Court. for acts done or words
spoken, or alleged to be done or spo ken,
on American soil, within the shadow of the
American flag, and under the sanction of
American institutions 1 protest against
the assumption tnat would in this country
bind the right of thought, or control the
| liberty of speech in an assemblage of
American citizens in an American city
The United States will, doubtless, respect
and protect her neutrality laws, and
observe "the comfy of nations" whatever
that may mean, in practice; but repeat,
1 protest against the monstrous fiction
| the transparent fraud-that would seek in
ninety years alter the evacuation of New
| York by the British to bring the people OF
New York within the vision and venue
of a British jury i'll British law
court. L protest against the "super-
stition'' that. in ninety years after the
last British bayonet had glistened in an
| American sunlight-afser the last keel OF
the last of the English fleet plowed its last
furrow in the waters of the Hudson or the
Delaware, would restore the city of New
Yark; its people, its institutions, to the do
minions of the Crown and Government OF
Great Britain. That is the meaning of this
case. And so, disguise it as the Crown
may, will it be interpreted in America.
On all grounds, then, submit this is not
a case for sentence. Waving for the pur-
pose, the international objection, if 1 may
so term7it, 1 appeal to British justice itsel
on the matter. The professed policy o.
that justice has ever been to give the bene-
fitot doubt to the accused. Judges in theil
charges to juries have uniformly theorized
on the principle; and surely judges them
,,1 .rs,,
feet to the theory. If ever there was g
case which, more than another, suggested
doubt it is surely one in which
so many judges have pronounced against
the legality OF the trial and the validity
of the conviction, on which am arranged
for sentence. Each of these judges, be il
remembered, held competent in his indi
viduality to administer the criminal laws
of the ecountry-each of whom, in fact, il
his individuality, does so administer it, un
challenged and unquestioned. A sentenc'
under such circumstances, be it for Ions
period or short, would be wanting il
that element of moral effect-the effect o
eXample-which is professedly the end anC
aim of all legal punishment. A sentenct
under such circumstances, would be fal
from reassuring to the public; it would no
make {" the glorious uncertainties of tn
law" more certain, and would fail to com
mand the approval or win the respect 0
any man within the realm or without,
whilst to me, the prisoner, the sufferer-in
chief, it would bring the bitter, and GER
tainly. not the repentant feeling, that suf
fered in the wrong; that was the victim
=, of an injustice based on an inference whicl
not even the "tyrants plea of ne
cessity,' can sustain-the supposition tina
at particular time was at a distance @
three Thousand miles from the place wher
1 then actually stood in bodily presence
and that at that distance actually though
the thought and acted the acts of men un
known to me even by name. 1t will brini
to me, repeat, the teeling-the bitter feel
ing-that [ was condemned on chanc
offense, on an unindicted charge, presse
suddenly into the service of the Crown, an
sentenced for constructive crime, whic
some of the best authorities in the lam
have declared. by solemn Judgment 10 ope
court, not to be crime cognizable by an
tribunal in this country. Let the Crow
put forward any supposition they please
indulge in whatever special pleading the
will, sugar over the bitter pill of consecu
tive conspiracy as they eau, to this com
pleXion must come the triangular injustic
of this singular case-an illegal and uncon
stitutional kidnapping in Englaud-an un
fair and invali trial in Ireland-an allege
otfoDse in another hemisphere and unde
another sovereignty. My lords, L hav
now done.