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1ją TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
a right to be judged by his fellow-citizens, by the character which
he has earned and established by along life.
Now, in introducing character, a man is only at liberty to introduce
it so far as his traits of character have a direct bearing upon the offence
charged. For instance, suppose a man should be indicted for larceny.
It would be perfectly ridiculous, to show that his character for human-
ity was good. His character for honesty would be in issue. Suppose
a man were indicted for perjury. His character for truth and veracity
would be at stake, not his reputation as a man of peace.
Professor Webster is charged with having committed a violent, a
malicious, a cruel act. We will lay before you proof of his character in
these respects:-that he is a man of peace, the least qualified of all men
to do a deed of violence; that he is kind and affectionate, with a dis-
position far removed from malice; that he is humane; eminently so:
no one can reproach him with a cruel act. These are the traits of his
character which we are permitted to prove, under the present issue; and
we shall make use of that permission.
Second,-we shall introduce proof, Gentlemen, in regard to the ques-
tion, whether Dr. Parkman was ever out of the College, after that
Friday noon. For, we are mistaken, if there is not positive proof to
show that he did come out of it. This may not be decisive, as to
whether the body found, is his, or not; but it will be decisive as to
whether he was destroyed by Professor Webster, as is alleged by the
Government.
Third.-we shall present to you, so far as proof is accessible to us,
the entire history of Professor Webster's conduct, from Friday, the 23d
of November, up to the night of his arrest; from which it will appear.
that his demeanor, his words, and his deeds, were all those of an inno-
cent man; and from which, also, if I mistake not, you will be satisfied,
that very little if any reliance, is to be placed on the .testimony of
Littlefield.
It is not necessary that I should go into the details of the facts which
are to be proved under these several heads. It is sufficient for me to
say, that, under the first, it will appear that Professor Webster is a
person of a mild and amiable disposition; remarkable, even, for kind-
ness to all about him: his temperament is nervous; and, like all nervous
men, though occasionally petulant, he has never been known to be vio-
lent, but is, in truth, a man of constitutional timidity. He has always
been ardently attached to his profession as a chemist; and to it, lie has
devoted his days and his nights. Whatever advancement he may have
made in that profession, whatever accumulated knowledge he may have
gained in it as a man of science, still, with reference to his dealings with
the world, he has always remained anything but a man of shrewdness.
On the contrary, he may be considered quite the reverse. That, at least.
is his character, so far as we know it.
In the pursuit of his favorite science, we shall show, that it is no
new thing for him, to be locked up in his laboratory; that it is no new
thing for him, to exclude the janitor, or anybody else from his rooms,
when conducting experiments. Such has been his constant practice;
and it is a safe and necessary practice in all laboratories. True it is,
that, for a short time after the introduction of the Cochituate water into
the College, he permitted Littlefield's family to take water from the
pipes in his laboratory, for the purpose of keeping them free from cor-
rosion; but for very good reasons,-(finding that his laboratory had
been used for improper purposes,)-he stopped that use, locked his doors,
and permitted the water to waste through the sink-spout. This is really
the head and front of his offending: from the fact that his doors were
locked: from the fact, that the janitor, and some others, could not read-
ily gain admission; and from the fact, that the water was heard running
in his apartments during his absence, it has been attempted to fasten
upon him a train of suspicions which jeopardize his character and his
life.
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