New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-06-05
THE AFTERNOON SESSION.

THE AFTERNOON SESSION.
Judge Neilson-Mr. Evarts, Nr. Beach has
sent word that he Is not quite well enough 10 be mere
promptly, and may not be able to come at all and No
desires you to proceed without him.
Mr. Eyalts-I regret extremely II your Honor please,
that nv learned friend should suffer any inconvenience
in regard to health and obliged to him for not desr
ing the nrotraction Of the cause on that account.
We arc in a position gentlemen OF the Jury, 70
Judge of the value the proper Interpretation ana the m
port of certain papers imputed to Mr. Beecher as argu
mcntatiye confession Of guilt. never attached much
importance lawyer TO any OF the looser reasonngs
by which minds have been turned or affected by
contemplation in that light of expressions of grief, self
reproach compuncton remorse, for 1t is conicssed
only within the region OF moral reasoning that any In
fereDoes thus remote and farfetched can be adduced
When the law has said that of grave crime, there
must be that positive no hypohesisof
consistent with the proved facts when the law
has said confessions reported, or confessions pro-
duced writing ever TO be scrutnzed and doubted
aud if there be any contradiction, anything that saves
them being substantially evidence OF confession
the in the absence OF the proof
OF tie adultery an occurrence noticed In tsproxmae
steps in betrayed vicious purposes In Its opportun
ties its occasions equivalent to the proof OF the
act such an occasion you had your attention called TO
incidentally in a that cited Of confession where,
board a steamboat of the North River state-room
had been taken by the alleged paramour in the name OF
husband and the paramOur and the wife had occupied
it, that kind Of acsomething Of that kind-uness you
have that confirmation you withhold your verdict But,
theD when without the confessions, you have situa-
ton of divided opinions and views to what the facts
are and in the absence of controlling evidence that
brings facts and conduct to your notice. you are turned
over to produce measure and FORM and circumstance,
and date of guilt out of emotional aspirations OF regret
and pain, and notification and pity why you have at
once all the region upon which the Court and jury can
aband
TO supply place. either Of external evidence
Oh OF explicit confessions And the moral reasoning pro-
ceeds upon uncertain and worthy OF all
grounds of imputing the measure and form OF actual
gat according TO your moral estimate OF what is the
moral result of mans emotional nature and his emo
tional expression Where before, since the admnisra-
ton of Justice began there the notion that
you could toll whether man had set fire to barn or
a dwelng -house or had robbed bank or had COM
united MURDER by the strength Of his feelings at some
mischief other that he had DONE without the body Of
the crime being proved otherwise, without the evidence
that he had said 1t was burglary, or an embezzemen
or an arson, or a robbery that you are TO measure
out of grief notification cOncealment Distress the
proof that the crime committed that he referred to
that crime and that he committed It'll But yet such Is
the mature of irresponsible reasoning such is the inatten
ton to the necessary safeguard OF practical Judgment
and definite and important consequences OF punishment
when these matters dealt with in the pecemeal dis
cussions Clowever ntelligent) of men that are not
brought down to feeling that within the walls OF evidence
and under the rules of law there must ever be some
notion that there may have been this or that degree OF
guilt or that there must definite conclusion exclud
ing any opposite conclusion; and when you come
to that, all this loose region, in clouds, Of
moral reasoning ceases to affect mems judgments
No man in his wishes when the verdict strikes
to the heart O woman and her children and destroys
their fame strikes the heart honorable repute OF
the alleged paramour and involves his family in ruin and
dsgrace-discardng for the moment any Of the graver
RESPONSIBILITIES chat grow out OF the public and the i'm
porant character and relations Of this defendant and
the particularly character OF this alleged adueress
leaving all that out, wishes TO put verdict, and
when appealed to t0 know by what he justies it
"Did anybody ever them IN a lewd connection,
treadng devious path from the prophecies OF society
for single Instant" mo" " Did anybody bring you
a confession of the facti" "No. But they brought
In the handwriting, if you please, or under
the report written under dctaton OF this that express
sion of emotion of selferoach OF sefcompuncon, and
there must have been something behind it, and
thought that this behind it, And then, when sud
denly by the admission of alsehoOd by the discovery
of fact all this ruin that has been wrought by hasty
Judgment Is shown TO have been through departure
from legal evidence and legal reasoning into this wild
and imitabc region of moral inference how does the
consccnce-hOweyer innocent at the timcfeel at the
recklessness with which they have rushed out Of the
gon that requires proof into the region that really
upon suspicion.
THE SOURCE OF Mr.. BEECHER'S REMORSE.
Now, have introduced a consideration of
49, antl,e