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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 7
can need anything like admonition to impress us with a sense, of our
responsibility, or anything like exhortation to a conscientious fidelity in
discharging ourselves of that responsibility. Least of all, do I deem it
necessary to urge that common topic of caution to a jury, to keep them-
selves free from all excitement, which may exist out of doors, upon the
subject of their investigations; an excitement which, in this case, has
undoubtedly affected the whole community, and which has arisen out
of an event that must have excited any community in which human life
had any value.
Here, Gentlemen, in the clear, calm light of Justice,-in this Temple
of Justice,-we are to endeavor, with all the aids which in the ordinary
course of legal procedure, we cam, command, to ascertain the simple truth
of the accusation brought by the grand jury against the prisoner at the
bar. You are to try this cause; as you would any other which you had
solemnly sworn to try, "according to the. evidence given you." I am to
conduct it, so far as the conduct of it devolves upon me, fairly, I trust,
and frankly, with a just regard to my official obligations, and not going
beyond their requirements.
We are all engaged in a service, not of our own seeking, but one im-
posed upon us by our various duties to the Commonwealth, to the com-
munity, and to the prisoner at the bar.-They are painful duties; labori-
ous and responsible; but they are duties; and that single word carries
with it all that need be addressed to right feeling, right thinking, and
conscientious men. They cannot be evaded or slighted; and all that we
can hope for, is, by faithfully and patiently addressing ourselves to them
in our respective spheres, that we may bring the issue before us, to a
righteous and just result.
The grand jury of this county, after a careful and patient investiga-
tion, have upon their oaths, charged the prisoner at the bar with the
crime of wilful and deliberate murder. You have been selected, from
the mass of your fellow-citizens, to hear the evidence on which this
charge is founded, to listen to all that the prisoner may offer, to receive
from this, the highest judicial tribunal of the Commonwealth, such
instructions and directions as will enable you to apply intelligently the
rules of law to the evidence submitted to you, and then to pronounce
whether this charge is true. This, Gentlemen, is your high and respon-
sible duty; the highest, the most responsible, that, under our system of
government, is ever confided to the citizen. Mine is of a different char-
acter, though tending, I trust, to the same result; and the view that I
take of it will furnish an explanation of the mode in which it is my pur-
pose to open this cause, and introduce to you the evidence, which, with
the aid of my associate, I shall have occasion to lay before you.
I desire, Gentlemen, here, in the very opening of these proceedings,
distinctly, and under a sense of the responsibility which rests upon me,
to say, that I regard my aMcial duty in the trial of a cause like this, as
being, in its essential character, a judicial one. I am here to aid and
assist you, as well as I am able, in arriving at the truth. The too preva-
lent idea, that the functions of a prosecuting officer require him 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 exigencies of my office,
I would not hold that office 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 vindicated, while, at the same time, the rights of every
person charged with its violation are protected. I shall endeavor, there-
fore, to perform that duty, as well with fairness to the prisoner, as with
fidelity to the community and the Commonwealth, which you and I alike
represent.
In this view of our respective duties, I shall confine myself in the
opening of this cause, to as plain, simple, and concise a statement of the.
evidence which we expect to lay before you, as is practicable. I shall
scrupulously endeavor not to pre-occupy your minds, or to forestall your
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