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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 254
crime, as there was concealment, connected with these remains. These
suppositions were not pressed by the other side; they were thrown out
as suggestions,-consistent, or inconsistent, as they might be with other
propositions; and the inconsistencies of some of these I shall advert to
presently. But they were not dwelt upon, and counsel could not have
attached any serious importance to them. No, Gentlemen. The circum-
stances under which those remains were found, bring us conclusively
to the conviction, that crime was committed with the destruction of Dr.
Parkman's life, by whomsoever it was done.
I come now, Gentlemen of the Jury, to examine the hypotheses which
have been set up on behalf of this defendant. I shall first ask you to
consider whether any one of them, taken alone, independent of the rest,
is a reasonable hypothesis, such as the law contemplates, to negative the
hypothesis which the Government asserts and undertakes to maintain
upon circumstantial evidence. I shall then briefly ask you to consider
how consistent with each other these hypotheses are:
I think I cannot be mistaken, in supposing that the consumption of
your time upon this latter subject will be superfluous. For, although
the argument which embraced those theories and propositions was
addressed to you in the most impressive language and manner, and
although each independent and distinctive proposition came from my
learned friend with a force and fervency which I could not hope to rival,
if I had the ambition to do so, still, I think, as fair-minded men, men of
fair intelligence, you could not but have been struck with the manifest
contradictions and inconsistencies into which his case had betrayed him.
And yet there was no help for it. He did all that mortal man could do.
He had the truth of the case against him. And I do not know that an
argument could have been framed that would have been more satisfac-
tory-certainly none more able and impressive-than he addressed to
you out of the materials at his command.
But what were the propositions? First, that Dr. Webster admitted,-
what we had proved,-that Dr. Parkman went to that College, at or
about half-past one o'clock; that he paid Dr Parkman the money, which
we say the proof denies; and that Dr. Parkman then departed, and he
saw him no more. Upon these the counsel undertake to construct their
hypotheses. And what are they?
In the first and most important place, they disclaim, now that our
proof is .in and uncontrollable, all imputation upon Mr. Littlefield as hav-
ing been the author of Dr. Parkman's death. If this had not been done
in express words, you, as a jury, would have been bound to put your
impress upon that hypothetical statement of what Mr. Littlefield did,
or might have done. That statement was made, as the counsel told you,
in the fearless discharge of his duty. It may be that it was in the dis-
charge of a duty that he put Mr. Littlefield, an honest man, upon his
trial here; yet he did not dare to make the accusation against him which
his client had had the hardihood to make before he came here.
The counsel knew, that, where we had corroborated Mr. Littlefield,
he would stand unshaken, and that we had furnished them with the
means of contradicting him if his statements were untrue; and they did
not contradict him in a single syllable. I mean to present Mr. Littlefield
just as he is. I mean that justice shall be done to him, if justice is not
done to him who libelled him. But I now speak of this as a part of the
counsel's allegations, that he disclaimed all imputation upon Mr. Little-
field as having been the perpetrator of this crime.
The counsel then argues,-Supposing this to be the body of Dr. Park-
man, it is not proved he died by violence; he might have died a. natural
death, and been stripped and robbed, and his body carried into the labora-
tory of Dr. Webster without his knowledge.
I have already had occasion to say to you, we are not here to discuss
possibilities. It is no part of your duty, though it may be a part of the
duty of the counsel. He could suggest nothing else. Why, Gentlemen
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