Year: 1867




INTEREST IN THE CASE.


GENTLEMEN OF THE jury: A
stranger coming into this Court House
during this trial, and witnessing this
very large attendance, male and fe.
male, the solemn attention of Judge
andJury, and the einterested, anxious eff
forts Of counsel in the progress of tho
investigation, of which you have taken
part, the question would most natu.
rally have arisen in his mind, What is
the meaning of all this? For it is an
unusual thing; it is a spectacle which
never saw presented in a Court
House before 1 presume it is not fre.
quent here, and it would denote to the
mind Of any one familiar, or other.
wise, with the proceedings of courts
OF justice, some extraordinary and
some unusual trial.


And suppose he had questioned q
neighbor, What is this? What is that
jury sitting in the box for? What
are all these women doing in the un.
accustomed place ofthe hall of Justice?
Why is this earnest attention? The
answer would have been, gentlemen,
that these parties whose names are
written on that blackboard (for CON
venience, there being too many OF
them for counsel to rememberl, OF
whom ali but four are females, are on
trial upon an accusation that they
have committed penitentiary offence,
that they have violated one of the
provisions of the criminal laws of the
State; that they have wilfully and
maliciously been engaged in the des-
truction of property of the value of
more than one hundred dollars, on
conviction of which they are liable to
be sentenced to COnefinement in the
prison Of the State for a period not less
than one nor more than three years.
And although the question is not pre-
sented upon the indictment of a grand
jury, where the verdict must be fol-
lowed by that consequence, yet as to
its effect upon their character, upon
their reputation, upon their own sense
of self-respect, upon their standing in
the social world, in their estimation
as regards the community in which
they live, and, gentlemen, of that
larger and wider community to whom
these things are told by the pencils of
these reporters, through the agency of
the newspapers, bearing their names
far and wide throughout the State, rs
dragged into a court of justice, charg-
cd with this criminal offence, which,
If they are guilty Of it, classes them,
so far as the law is concerned, with
other felons, with thieves, with rob
bers, and house breakers, putting them
upon the same level, to be judged of
by the same standard, to be reputcd in
the same way.


REsPECTADlLITY OF TIE DEFEND


ANTS.


And yet, strangest Inconsistency of
all, listener throughout the progress
Of the trial would have heard to fall
from the lips of the professional gem
tleman engaged in prosecuting for this
offence, that what they had done-that
with which they stand charged as cons
tituting the body and elements of this
offence-only entitled them, in his es-
timatiOn, to higher respect than he
entertained before; that nOtwithstand-
ing they stand charged with the COM
mission Of the offence in all its Gle
ments, and possessed of that part and
disposition which make up a criminal
intent, and are, therefore, by sentence
of the law, fit only to dwell, for a
period Of probation OF from one to
three years, in the cells of the State
Penitentiary, Notwithstanding all that,
not merely in spite of that, but that in
consequence of that, as the result OF
that, they are entitled to rise in the
consideration and estimation of the
gentleman engaged to prosecute.


NATURE OF THE CHARGE.


1t is true that the case is prosecuted
in a double aspect, as containing in
the charge not only the elements o.
this crime, but in case the evidence
should fall below that, they are theI
charged as ordinary trespassers, with
out those elements which change the
trespass into a misdemeanor.


But ii is to be borne in mind tina
upon the face of the papers they arr
called upon TO meet is the charge thu
nature Of which I have described tina
II is transcribed and enrolled IN per