St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-08
OPENS HIS SECOND DAY.
Mr. Erwin Resumes His Talk TO
the Hayward jury.

she hayward Jury.
May 1T please the court, gentlemen.
the only excuse l have for taking mn
SO much of your valuable time is the
fact that it is utterly impossible to
attempt to cover and mention in the
most casual way all the elements of
th1s testimony without taking time.
You must remember that we have
peen nearly six weeks taking testi-
mony constantly, as fast as men could
talk, and the topics in the testimony
are long, are numerous, and to treat
them and refer to them in the slight
est possible way requires much longer
ume than in ordinary cases in court.
Will, as rapidly and just as briefly
as think 1T proper and honorable to
my client, and proper towards you,
hasten through this case, so that you
may take it and decide 1t, and be re-
lieved from your labors.
we commence again at the point
where we left off in the discussion of
the logic Of this case. / would like
earnestly to call your attention to
the great primal truth which has been
slowly marching through the cen.
turleS since Christ came All the
world was slave when Christ came:
slave in physical labor and slave In
mental economy. The highest of .di-
vine direction has been simply the
laws of the commandments which men
must follow. But the liberty of the
mind was matter undreamed of, un-
thought of. Since His coming, the
birth of the soul has been constantly
coming up before the visions and
minds of men. At first, as the soul
began to dawn upon the minds of men,
1t increased that feeling, that con-
sciousness, increased mems devotion
to moral law, and made him such a
strict follower of the lines of the law
and not the spirit of the law that a
man for a time lost liberty of action!
But little after little, after struggle
upon struggle, the human race began
to emerge from the mental and moral
slavery which hung over the minds of
men, and the sunburst which made it
possible for men to see in our liberty
as God intended that men should have
liberty, came by reason of the gath
cred forces, who from their souls
sent out to all the world the declara-
ton of independence of the state.
What was that declaration? Not in
its political sense, for 1 do not in
tend to call attention to any thing of
that character; but in it's moral sense,
what was it? 1t was this: Behind the
declaration lies this great primal
truth, which was the reason of the
declaration, the immediate reason, of
1t, and which is the reason today of our
advance. 1t was this: That common
sense, nothing more, nothing less than
common sense, must be the true cri-
terion of all things in mans life. The
mysteries of Gods laws are no longer
held up before man as the reason for
mans service of his law Mankind
began to follow Gods laws in ac-
cordance with the. dictates of their
common sense and not their suspi-
cions and their fear. That we cannot,
as a race, rise higher than our COM
mon sense was always the error of
men. That we had walked in common
sense, in accordance with the condi-
tionS in which we are created, has
come now to be understood by our
race, and so in every department of
life; we have begun in the department
in peace, in deliberation, in careful
ness, to reform all the tyrannies, all
the wickedness which exist in each
particular system. And mankind are
walking up the steep towards God;
walking up the steep towards broth
erly love, walking up the steep to-
wards fraternal government, follow
ing the white banner of the risen
Christ, which is today the north star
Of all human thoughts. But guided
only by their common sense, and the
definition of liberty which will ul-
timately prevail in the mind and souls
Of men will be simply this: That
liberty, human liberty, in all its sense,
mental, moral, physical, political, per-
sonal consciousness, in every way, lib
erty is to be the untrammeled exercise
of common sense.
If you use that criterion in this trial,
If you lift yourself out of the imagina-
tive and fanciful picture which the
mind brings you in regard to condi-
tions that may affect society, which
may affect the public mind, or which
may affect yourselves; if you are easy,