The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-13
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the. Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-Compied Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
MIR. SPENCER'S OPENING IN THE
MCFARLAND CASE.


amiable, refined, and scrupulous of advocates,
respecting the opening of defense to the
jury In criminal case, is simply that counsel
have right to say whatever they may think
proper, suggest whatever they please, declare
that they are ready to prove that which they
well know to be impossible of proof, and,
generally, to fill the heads of jurors with ali
manner of irrelevant notions, without OBJ
serving the least distinction between what is
and what is not competent evidence. 81
have no fault to find, said Mr.. John Graham.
with MIR. Spencer's opening at all"
'T don't find fault" retorted judge
Davis, with its statements of facts: all
find fault with is its almost unparalleled
statements of falsehood." To this Mr..
John Graham vouchsafed no reply at the
moment. He reserved his response until
the adjournment of the Court, when with
much ribaldry and many oaths he assaied
Judge Davis, and made to all the spectators
demonstration of his proficiency in the use
OF profane language. No wonder the un-
fortunate prisoner at the bar, with his life
depending upon the good conduct and u-
dicious management of the case, cried out in
well-grounded pprehension:-''Hushl Mr..
Graham, hush! Don't you know that you
owe something to me?" An unfortunate
culprit indeed One of his lawyers had
already, after doing him infinite damage.
deserted him, while the other remained only
to complcate and intensity the immortality
of the defense
1t may be true, as was observed by the Re-
corder, that counsel are to be allowed great
liberties in opening a case or (to use his own
language) that ''the widest scope, the utmost
license, should be given where mans life is
involved" But surely his Honor never in
tended TO express the opinion that an advo-
cate is at liberty to
"Distort the truth, accu muate the lie
And pile the pyramid Of calumny"
Surely his Honor will admit that if great
freedom is allowed in an opening speech to
the jury, he who makes it is responsible in
some degree to the court of which he is an
officer, to the public of which he is servant,
and to justice of which he is a minister
Surely the Recorder will not affirm that even
in the discharge of delicate and difficult
duty an attorney for the defense may pro-
perly disregard all distinctions between truth
and falsehood, and dole out to the panel with
simulated sincerity theories which he knows
to be bottomless, and notions which are
simply the creations, dirty and distorted, of
bis own malicious ingenuity. Is lawyer to
disregard all the suggestions of honor, and
to run a muck against innocent persons who
may cross the path which he has pleased or
has been forced to take? Is it consistent
with professional purity, judging by the ac-
cepted standard of the profession itself, to
anticipate impossible proceedings on the part
of the prosecution, and upon the strength of
such surmises to toss to the jury all manner
of er pd7te insinuations aud absurd coniec-
lures What is to be thought of an advocate
who does this, and who, upon being properly
Tebuked for it, can make no better apology
than Mr.. Spencer made Pan apology which
pleased the public not at all, and the gentle
mans associates just as little pan apology
which can satisfy neither the honorable,
because it is immoral, nor the dis.
honorable, because their eyes see in it
only the evidence of cowardce? What is
to be thought of that professional enthu-
siasm which leads lawyer, for the sake of
his client in jeopardy, to make a complete
sacrifice of his own reputation, and to fling
away in an hour that standing in court which
1t may have taken years to secure }? To be
sure, MIR. Spencer might ask, with tears in
his eyes, why he should be made the scape-
goat, and why Mr.. John Graham should have
piled upon the shoulders of his Junior the
responsibility of leading in the work of defa-
nation, and insult, and abuse, to be Judi
ciously employed in the future management
OF the defense? Does Mr.. Spencer remember
certain fable of a monkey who wanted his
chesnuts roasted, and of cat who was COM
PEELED to roast them?
If any reader thinks that we are speaking
too harshly of Mr.. Spencers opening speech,
we commend him to the second perusal of the
speech itself-an Grafton which piously began
with an appeal ''to that Divine Creator who
holds us all in the hollow of His haRd" the
same Divine Creator alluded to by Mr.. John
Graham in these energetic remarks of ed
d-n you, which he subsequently addressed
to Judge Davis, and of cd d-n it,
which he flung in the face of the astonished
recorder. Are we right in supposing that
Mr. Spencers 'Divine CREATOR and Mr..
Graham's Cd are one and the same
Being? Between these two lawyers the trial of
the cause most certainly assumed highly
theological aspect. 1t is hardly to be supposed,
however, that a God of truth would smile
upon Mr.. Spencer's farrago of falsehoods
direct and insinuated; aud that He has not
smiled, we may reasonably assume from the
forlorn and morally ragged condition in
which MIR. Spencer to-day finds himself He
has discovered by this time that inconsiderate
appeals to Heaven may sometimes be followed
by an uncomfortable and unwelcome re-
sponse; for the objects of Mr.. Spencer's in
discriminate and upchristian wrath can now
look with pity upon their reckless and merci-
less traducer. The wife, first driven to seek
separation from one who had promised to
cherish and protect her, and who then con-
signed her by his murderous hand to a second
wiaowhood, Is held up, in her great sorrow,
by TINS unscrupulous advocate, to the iury, as
'T7oun9 on the proceeds of Mr.. Richardson's
hte-lnsurance" even she, this norninp.
can afford to pity her slanderer The excellent
lady whose friendly heart would not permit
her 10 measure the words of sympathy which
she sent to solaee an injured wife, is de-
nounced by MIR. Spencer as "a plotter. a con
splrator, panderer, and a procuress"-
epithets flung at her with criminal reckless
ness, as theV would have heen Ann, 81 -,