St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-07
ERwIN,S GREAT SPEECH.
He Opens With a Compliment to
the Jury.

the Jury.
May it please the court, at the re-
quest of the counsel for the defense l
wish at this time to offer to your honor
our sincere thanks and our deepest re-
spect for the indulgence which your
honor has granted towards counsel
during this trial. We feel that we all
have reason to be proud of the manner
In which your honor has conducted
this trial. We wish to say that at this
tlIne TO silence forever any criticism
that might be made upon this noble
bench.
Gentlemen of the Jury: I hardly
know how to begin to talk to you.
Notwithstanding the grave conse-
quences which your most earnest work
in celebrating upon this testimony
must bring by your verdict to my
client, my first impulse is to congratu-
late you upon the end, or approach of
the end. of Shis long and tedious trial.
The people, whom you have served
so faithfully during the past seven
weeks, will never stop to think, and
never know the inconvenience which
you have been obliged to undergo to
do the public service. 1 suppose few
in the nation stop to think that for the
past seven weeks each one of you has
been obliged to forego the endearments
of home association with your families
and loved ones; to be perplexed and
annoyed by reflections upon your own
private business, which undoubtedly
must have suffered by reason of your
absence. No one will ever know what
conflict has been perpetually passing
in your minds when you thought about
the evidence in this case. but by the
order of court precluded from even
discussing it with your fellow jurors,
and having no outlet whatever for the
mind to relieve yourselves of the per-
plexity and the solemnity which the
different considerations from this evi-
dence must necessarily have constant
ly brought up in your minds.
If you have done your duty, and I
doubt not that you have, and will, you
have had profound struggle to await
the close of the testimony, the close
of the arguments, and the delivery of
the charge by the court, to hold your
selves as patient listeners before you
began in your minds to form Judg-
ment. There is no harm in my saying
to you that this case that you have
iASoiiu VI iiCIC 81 piliShlly, anu at SO
much inconvenience and personal an
noyance, has been read all over the
civilized world. All the papers of this
nation in all the cities of the nation
have published nearly as much as the
papers in st. Paul or Minneapolis, your
nearest cities. The interest and curl
ostty which have been elected by the
publication and widespread circula-
ton of the mysteries in this case has
awakened the nation to a most earnest
curiosity, deep feeling and an intense
interest never before noticed in the
lifetime of any one connected with this
trial. And in that way you may be
unable to understand the constant, IN
cessant and perpetual local excitement,
which would have filled this room ten
times over, and which has crowded
these streets with four or five thousand
people at each time the door was
opened or the door closed.
AS you come to progress in the calm
and deliberate investigation of this
case, the manner of it's prosecution
the character Of its evidence, you will
come to understand that this case
about to be confided to your charge is
in certain senses the most important
case which was ever given to an Eng
disappearing jury. And as so well
said by my friend, the county attorney,
last night, your verdict will live long
after you and your children and your
children's children are but dust and
mold.
+ The further consideration of this
proposition will constantly recur to you
during the trial; and do not deem it
fit at this time to attempt to fire your
minds upon the earnestness which is
contained in the proposition that I
suggest to you. 1t will remain, never
theless, truth after your verdict shall
have been rendered; that the civiliza-
ton whom you will benefit lastingly by
your verdict will never know the pri-
walton, suffering, sickness and annoy
ance which you have experienced in
their behalf. Gentlemen, you have, so
far as this defendant and his counsel
can give to you, you have our most
sincere thanks for your duties, for your
deliberation, for your manhood You
shall have that in the end, whatever
the end may be: for we have always
been convinced, from the time that you
were chosen, and are fully convinced
now, more fully than ever before, that