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214 TRIAL. OF JOHN W. ZVEBSTER.
issue as you are trying, of the most inconsiderable if not trivial import-
ance. And I cannot entertain a doubt, that the only conclusion that you
can arrive at in relation to these anonymous letters will be, that it is
your duty to lay them aside, and put them wholly out of the case.
Next, there is the evidence in relation to the tin box and the fish-
hooks, which were procured by Dr. Webster. It appears, that he called
on the morning of Friday the 30th of November, at the shop of Mr. Water-
man, in Boston, and ordered a. certain tin box to be made for him, and
gave particular directions as to its size. But how does that connect
him with the homicide of Dr. Parkman? Will it be argued, that it was
procured as a vessel in which to conceal or convey away the remains,
which were found in the laboratory? There is no evidence to warrant
any such conclusion; but quite the reverse. The remains were at the Col-
lege in Boston, but the box was to go to the residence of Dr. Webster in
Cambridge; at least, such was his direction to the workman who was to
make it. Before you can attribute to him the supposed appropriation,
you must have ample evidence that such was his purpose. Suppose that
the whole proofs were so balanced by opposite consideration, that you
could say your reasonable doubts would be satisfied, if you were sure that
this box was procured by the prisoner for the purpose of bestowing in it
those remains. The Government claim that they can prove that purpose:
and, to do so, they call Mr. Waterman and his workman, who testify that
Dr. Webster said, when he ordered it, that it was to be made to put smell
things in, and to be sent out of the city to be filled. It is plain, that
the
attempt to show that purpose of appropriation had any relation to the
remains at the College has completely failed.
The evidence in reference to the fish-hooks is equally unimportant
and futile. Dr. Webster, on Tuesday of the week of big arrest, openly
procured at a store in Dock Square those half-dozen fish-hooks, which
were found in the laboratory,-a part of them tied with twine in the
fashion of a grapple. And the Government intimate that you may pre-
sume, that the grapple was prepared to draw up the limbs from the vault
of the privy when Dr. Webster should get ready to make other disposition
of them. But, here again I ask, where is the evidence to evince any such
purpose or design on his part? It does not exist; and you cannot rasbl•.-
bring things together, which have no proved relation or connection.
For the box and the fish-hooks, he had a purpose of his own, which
he could easily explain, if the Government would receive his explanation
and accept it as true. But neither his declarations here, nor what he
said to his wife or children at home, can be offered as competent evi-
dence. The Government will not take big statements; take you none,
then, from them, unless they are fully borne out by evidence. Require
them to prove all things, that you may hold fast that which is good. The
most that they can pretend to have shown you is the possibility of the
application of those articles to the supposed objects; but, until the design
and purpose of such application are shown, it would be the grossest
injustice to permit them to have any effect against the prisoner.
At one time, another matter seemed likely to occasion us at least
some perplexity, if it did not tend also to endanger the safety of the
prisoner: the bag of tan carried by Sawin to the College, on Monday
the 26th of November. The thorax and thigh of a human body were
found imbedded in tan in a tea-chest in his laboratory, during the day
following his arrest; and here was the tan brought by the teamster from
the Doctor's own house in Cambridge on the preceding Monday. But all
the unfavorable conclusions which could be drawn from the circumstance.
that a supply of this article was provided on Monday, were readily dis-
posed of by the testimony of Officers Eaton and Fuller. They found not
only the tan in the tea-chest in which the thorax was imbedded, but saw
more of it also in barrels in the- same room, while the bag of tan carried
over by Sawin remained there, unopened and untouched after the pris-
oner had been committed. There was nothing peculiar about it: a chem-
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