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138 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
leaving to that family, a name, which, if they could, they would bury in
the grave with him;-a name, to be ever deemed by them, their great,
though their only disgrace. Yes, gentlemen, it devolves upon you to say,
whether the fire upon his hearth-stone shall henceforth burn brightly,
and its light be shed on happy faces, beaming kindly upon his; or
whether your breath, Mr. Foreman, when you pronounce the verdict,
shall extinguish that fire, scattering ,its ashes to the winds, and causing
its very place to be forgotten; in kindness by friends, in mercy even,
by enemies. This duty devolves upon you; and, under the responsibility
of your oaths. If you err, you see the victim. He, it is, and his, is
the family, who must be offered up as a sacrifice to that error; unless.
indeed, you err on mercy's side; on the side of that quality, wherein
it is permitted roan to approach nearer, than in any other, to the
nature of his God. There, you may err, and err in safety; and, no
prisoner's groan, no widow's sob, no orphan's tear, bear witness to
your error. Herein, and herein, only, is your lot happier than ours. If
we err, we must answer it to the prisoner and his friends, to an exacting
and scrutinizing profession, and to our consciences.
Engaged, then, as we are, in one and the same duty, to wit.; in
examining, discussing, and determining this one great question,-it
behooves us to stand in no antagonistic position; but, on the contrary,
so far as in us lies, to ofd and assist each ether. Ill, would it become
counsel, to endeavor to obtain a verdict by management and chicane;
and ill, would it become you, to permit this prisoner to suffer by any
error of oars. No; it is your duty, your privilege, to constitute your-
selves the counsel of this defendant; to this extent, at least:-to see,
that he has the benefit of every ground of defence, which may suggest
itself to your minds, whether his counsel assume those grounds, or
not:-and I pray you remember, and never, for a moment, forget, that,
in the words of your oath, "you have this prisoner in your charge,"-
nay, more, the happiness and reputation of his children, also.
And here, I must request your leave to make a few remarks upon
a subject, on which, in a less important case, or on a less momentous
occasion, I certainly would not address men like you. But, in the name
of this defendant, and of all that he holds dear, I must intreat you, to
commence the examination of this case by examining your own minds;
and that, you do so, with a stern determination to eradicate everything
which_parta,kes of prejudice, or savors ought of suspicion. I have not
forgotten,-I remember well,-that, before you took your oaths of
office, in virtue of which the law has confided to you this great trust,--
the life of the prisoner, -you did, each of you, declare, that you were
not sensible of any prejudice or bias. But can you say so, now?--
now, that you and we stand at the end of this long array of evidence,
which the Government, for one whole week, has been bringing up
against us? Are you sure, that you could ever say, with certainty,
that you were free from prejudice? What safety is there in. the mere
fact, that you were not sensible of it? Why, it is the very quality and
essence of prejudice, to lurk unseen within the mind of man; blinding
his perceptive powers, perverting his reasoning faculties, and distorting
his judgment; so that the very source to which we look for safety and
protection becomes a source of danger and error. No! Gentlemen;
there is no safety in the fact, that a man is oat sensible of prejudice;
he must search his mind diligently, in order to find and discard it.
If prejudice exists but in a single mind upon your panel, there is no
safety; for prejudice is contagious; it flies from mind to mind; it is
communicated by the glance of the eye, by the intonation of the voice
Now, speaking in all frankness, I do not hesitate to say, that I
cannot persuade myself, that every mind upon your panel was abso-
lutely free from prejudice, when you took your seats to try this
cause:-by no means! Am I to forget, or, to suppose that you have
forgotten, the excitement, which existed in this city, when it was first
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