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221
ELEVENTH DAY.- Saturday,1Vlarch 30th.
CLOSING ARGUMENT OF HON. JOHN H. CLIFFORD. ATTORNEY
GENERAL.
May it please your Honors, Mr. Foreman, and Gentlemen of the Jury.
In a cause, Gentlemen, of the magnitude and the interest of
the one now before us, I expected, and doubtless you expected,
that everything which human power could bring to bear upon it, in
order to exonerate this defendant from the charge which the Grand
Jury of this county have preferred against him, would be done-that
all that professional fidelity, all that professional skill and adroitness,
all that human eloquence and ingenuity, could possibly advance in
his favor, would be done.
And, Gentlemen, in that expectation I have not been disappointed.
The transcendant ability which characterized the closing argument
in his behalf yesterday, shows that whatever conclusion the evidence
in this case may compel you to come to. there has been nothing left
unsaid or undone, which, consistently with the truth, could have been
said, or could have been done, for this prisoner.
But, Gentlemen, I had, if not another expectation, at least another
hope. I expressed it to you, when I opened this case, a fort-
night, nearly, ago : that when the evidence which the Government
had to array here before you against this unhappy man should have
been all presented, I did hope that he could furnish some explanation
of the terrible circumstances which had weaved round him a web that
seemed to be then irresistibly contracting to his doom. I expressed
that hope, Gentlemen, I may say, with the sincerity of a compassionate
heart. I expressed it, as a citizen of this Commonwealth of ours,
who feels an interest in the great interests which are represented
by him. Arid, I grieve to say to you, that after all that has been
done, and all that has been said, that hope has been utterly disap-
pointed.
Why, Gentlemen, I call your minds back to the statement with
which this case was opened; a statement of what the Government
expected to prove,-made, I submit to vou, as I submit to the world,
with a degree of moderation that indicated how sincere that hope
was, in my bosom. I call your minds back to that statement of
the outline of the proof which I expected to put in here : and I nova
ask you, upon your consciences, to say whether that outline has
not been entirely filled up; whether a single statement was made
which has not been proved; whether the inferences which I then for-
bore to draw from those facts are not now pressing upon your minds,
with a force that cannot be resisted.
I ask you, then, to consider how all that evidence has been met.
We have waited long days, and weeks. and months, for an ex-
planation of these facts. This prisoner, although he has been the
inmate of q cell, has not, you know, Gentlemen, been, in the
language of his Counsel, a forlorn and forsaken man, unaided, and
unable to prepare himself to meet the testimony of the Government.
No'. far from it. He has not, as my friend, the opening Coun-
sel, asserted here, been compelled to sit by, the victim of preju-
dice in the public mind, arising out of public rumor, and waiting
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