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he Grand Jury against- the prisoner at the bar. - You •are to "_ this
cause as you would any other cause which you had sworn to try upon
the evidence. I .am to conduct it, Gentlemen, so far as I have the con-
ducting of it, just as I would any other cause, going to the manage-
ment of it fairy; faithfully and frankly, as I am obliged to do by my
official -position:
We are all engaged, not in a service of our own seeking, but in one
imposed upon -us by our various obligations to the Commonwealth, to the
community, and to the prisoner at the bar. These duties are painful
to us,Gentlemen, laborious and responsible; but they are duties; and
that single word carries with it all that need be addressed to right-
thinking, right-feeling and conscientious men. They cannot be
evaded or slighted, and all that we can hope for is, by faithfully and
patiently addressing _ ourselves to what has devolved upon us in our
respective spheres of duty, to bring this issue to a righteous and just
result.
The Grand Jury of this County, after a careful and patient inves-
tigation, have upon .their oaths charged upon the prisoner at the bar
the crime of wilful and deliberate murder. You have been selected
from among the mass of your fellow-citizens to hear the evidence on
which this charge is founded, to listen to all the explanations
and answers which the prisoner may offer to that evidence, to
receive from this, the highest judicial tribunal of the Commonwealth,
such instructions and directions as will enable you to apply intelli-
gently the rules of law to that evidence. and then to pronounce whether
that charge is true.
This, Gentlemen, is your high and responsible duty; the highest, the
most responsible; that, under a system of government like ours, is ever
confided to the citizen.- Mine is of a different character, Gentlemen,
though I trust tending to and leading to the same result; and the
view that I take of it will be an explanation of the mode in which it
is my purpose to open this cause, and introduce to you the evidence,
which, with the aid o#' my associate here, I shall have occasion to lay
before you.
I desire, Gentlemen, here in the very opening of these proceedings,
distinctly, and under the sense of the responsibility which rests q on me,
to apprise you of the view that I take of my duty in the case. regard
it, Gentlemen, to a great extent, .in its essential character, as a judicial
one. I am here to aid and assist you, as well as I am able, in arriving
at the truth. The too common idea of the functions of a prosecuting
officer, that he is to press a prosecution beyond what any fair-minded
seeker after truth would press it, I repudiate and disavow. I have
always done so. And if such a demand were made upon me by the
supposed exigences of my office, I certainly would not hold that office
for a single hour. I .am here to represent the Commonwealth, to
see that, as far as in me lies, the justice of the Commonwealth is vin-
dicated, and the rights of every person who is charged with violating
it no less protected. I shall endeavor, therefore, to perform that duty
with fairness to this prisoner, and fidelity to the community and the
Commonwealth, which you and I alike represent here.
In this view of our respective duties, I shall confine myself, in the
opening of this case, to as plain, simple, and concise a statement as is
practicable of the evidence which we expect to lay before you. I shall
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