Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-11
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
THE MURDER OF JOSEPH WHITE
BY DANIEL WEBSTER

Daniel Webster. 17s2-1S52, was an Amer!-
can statesman and orator. famous for his
Bunker Hin Grafton and his Reply to
speeches. among them this one in u murder
case.
very much regret that 1t should
have been thought necessary to suggest
to you that am brought here to hurry
you against the law and beyond the
evidence" hope 1 have too much
regard for justice and too much respect
for my own character to attempt
either; and were to make such an at
tempt. I am sure that in this court
nothing can be carried against the law.
and that gentlemen. intelligent and just
as you are are not. by any power to
be hurried beyond the evidence
Though l could well have wished to
shun this occasion. I have not felt at
liberty to withhold my professional
assistance, when 1t Is supposed that
may be in some degree useful in investi-
eating and discovering the truth re-
speeding this most extraordinary murder
1t has seemed to be a duty incumbent
on me, as on every other citizen, to do
my best and utmost TO bring to light
the perpetrators Of this crime Against
the prisoner at the bar as an individ-
ual, 1 cannot have the slightest preju-
i
injury or injustice.
But I do not affect to be Indifferent
to the discovery and the punishment of
this deep guilt. / cheerfully share in
the opprobrium, how great soever 1t
may be, which is cast on those who feel
and manifest an anxious concern that
all who had a part In planning, or a
hand in executing, this deed of mid
night assassination may be brought to
answer for their enormous crime at the
bar Of public Justice.
Gentlemen, 1t is a most extraordinary
case. In some respects it has hardly a
precedent anywhere; certainly none in
our New England history. This bloody
drama exhibited no suddenly excited.
ungovernable rage The actors In ii
were not surprised by any lionlike
temptation Springing upon their virtue,
and overcoming it. before resistance
could begin. Nor did they do the deed
to glut the savage vengeance or satiate
long-settled and deadly hate. 1t was
cool. calculating. money-making MUIR
der 1t was all hire and salary, not
revenge" 1t was the weighing of money
against life; the counting out OF so
many pieces of silver against so many
ounces OF blood.
An aged man, without an enemy in
the world, in his own house and In his
own bed, Is made the victim of butch
erly murder for mere pay. Truly, here
is new lesson for painters and poets.
Whoever shall hereafter draw the por-
trait of murder. If he will show it as 1t
has been exhibited, where such exam
pie was last to have been looked for, in
the very bosom of our New England So
ciety, let him not give it the grim
visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by
revenge, the face black with settled
hate and the bloodshot eye emitting liyid
fires Of malice.
Let him draw, rather a decorous,
smooth faced. bloodless demon; pic
ture In repose rather than in action !;
not so much an example of human ma
ture in its depravity and In its parox-
ysIns of crime, as an internal being a
fiend, in the ordinary display and de-
velopment of his character.
The deed was executed with a degree
Of self-possession and steadiness equal
to the wickedness with which 1t was