Amador ledger., 1905-05-26
The Power of Eloquence
BY W. Bob Holland.

bled to watch the final struggle for
the life of John Freeman. ii was OH
trial for the murder of Cyrus Max
we'll, and all the evidence had beel,
heard.
The prosecution had establish ed a
strong circumstantial case-there was
no direct evidence of the prisoner d
guilt.
Cyrus Maxwell is Dead" asserted
one citizen, "and some one killed
him. If John Freeman didn't do it,
who did? Tell me that?''
No one could tell, and the belief
was general that Freeman would be
convicted. He said that he had no
money, and a young attorney who felt
little interest in the case had been
appointed to defend him.
A few days before the trial stran-
ger appeared, had a consultation with
the prisoner and later met the prisou-
er's counsel. The announcement was
attorney, would be associated with the
drfeuse. But during the trial the two
attorneys did little, and the cross
examinations uf the states witnesses
were perfunctory. The strange attor-
ney took no part in them, and paid
but little attention to the trial.
The prisoner was young man an6
comparatively stranger. The man
he was accused of Staying was not re-
garded as a particularly desira ble
citizen; if plea of self defeuse had
been made and had been fairly we'll
established. the community would
have been glad if John Freeman had
been set free. But the deieuse was
an alibi, tie most dangerous defense
chat can be made when it is not clear
ly proven; and John Freeman did not
prove a complete alibi.
Few witnesses were examined for the
defense; then the strange attorney
rose to make plea for the prisoner.
He was tall and dignited. His smooth
shavep face was clean and his eyes
we're sharp. Pictures of such face
may be found hanging on the walls of
many state capitol i'll the South
His hair was white and long and as
fine as silk. His frock coat was but
toned tightly around his slender form
and black string tie was knotted
around his tall collar.
The attorney paid no attention to
the jury. He addressed the court and
said few words that were scarcely
audible to those in the jury box, and
which were entirely lost to the spec
tators that crowded the court room.
Then he turned to the prisoner, gazed
for moment on the young man, and
said:
John, my boy, you must die. You
must leave the world in which you
have spent only your youth, and must
go to another world about which we
have all surmised much, but of which
we know little. And you must die by
hanging.
"You must die the death of a felon
in the manner prescribed by the stat
ute. But it will be through no fault
of yours, and through no fault of the
judge OF jury. And it is no fault of
the law. The law of this great com
monwealth is all right, John, though
you die innocent.
The law may sometimes expose
perjury, but it cannot always reach
the man who swears falsely. 1t cannot
always take into account the mistakes
of human judgment, to say nothing of
the deliberate falsitier who wants to
swear away another mans life.
Judges and jurles have not the power
of Almighty God, though they some
times exercise his authority.
'The human mind cannot look down
into the hearts and minds of men and
see the malice, hate, vindictiyeness
facts until they seem to mean some
thing entirely different from what
they do mean.
But it is toe late to change all that.
We can't help it now; and you must
die as you have lived, brave man,
81 know that you will do that. You
come Of race of brave men and brave
women. You gill go to your death as
uncomplainIngly as ever man ac-
cepted the cards that fate dealt to
him. Your mother, when she was a
bride and yet in her teens, carried
from bloody battlefield the bleed
ing, senseless form of your father,
shot down on the plantation where he
was born. And as she carried her
loved one to the shelter of the old
brick house in which you first saw the
light of day, bullets and shells whis-
tied around her and the shrieks of
the wounded and dying filled the air.
Z" Your father recovered, and for
many years be repaid by his tender
devotion the bravery of that loving
wife. We laid his manned body to
rest only last week, John. lie is
sleeping with his forebears in the
little cemetery you remember so we'll,
and in which l promise that you
shall rest. You have lived and will
die among strangers, John, but your
body will then lie among your kins-
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