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18 TRIAL OF JOHN \\'. WEBSTER.
of this paper, I will not now remark upon, as it will be laid before you
for your judgment.
On the Monday following his arrest, he was arraigned before the
Police Court of this city; and there, either with or without, the advice
of counsel,-perhaps it is quite immaterial which, with reference to
the effect of the fact,-he declined an examination; thus admitting
that there was a case involving materials for the grand jury to pass
upon, although the consequences of that proceeding were to be a com-
mitment to close confinement, until the Government should put him
upon his trial.
After his commitment by the Police Court, he, wrote a note to a
member of his family, which, according to the usage at the jail, could
not be sent to its destination without inspection by the proper officers;
and which, upon examination, was found to contain an injunction to
another member of his family, not to open a certain bundle which he
had deposited with her, but to keep it just as she received it. This sug-
gested to the police a suspicion, that what he sought to conceal, might
be important; and a messenger was immediately despatched to his resi-
dence at Cambridge, who obtained the package. It was found to con-
tain the two notes given by Dr. Webster to Dr. Parkman in 1842, and
1847, and the paper which I have already referred to, showing the
amount of Dr. Webster's indebtment to Dr. Parkman in April, 1849, with
a statement of interest upon that amount in pencil, in Dr. Webster's
own hand-writing, which made the aggregate amount of his indebt-
ment, the, sum of $483 64. An explanation of this, consistent with his
innocence, you will call upon him to give. I cannot explain it. I hope
it may be satisfactorily done by his counsel.
The Government will also put into this case, testimony tending to
show that certain letters were written by the prisoner after the dis-
appearance of Dr. Parkman, calculated to draw the police off from the
Medical College to other places, and to divert public opinion into other
directions. I make no other statement of this matter, than is involved
in saying, that these letters have been submitted to experts, who have
given the opinion, that they are in the hand-writing of the prisoner.
Of the value and weight of this opinion, you will judge.
But, Gentlemen, one thing is true:-that of all this mass of circum-
stances, the prisoner has vouchsafed no explanation whatever, to _ the
Government or to the public. He has done, what, if he or his counsel
thought it wise or expedient, he had a perfect right to do. He has
remained in close custody, without so much as asking the Government
to disclose the grounds of the charge it has made against him. He was
content to be committed to prison, entirely in the dark as to the Gov-
ernment's evidence, and to await and give, whenever the Government
called upon him for his trial, his first and final explanation of that
evidence. I can say this, Gentlemen, with the utmost sincerity; that
I trust be may be able to give such an explanation as will carry con-
viction to your minds, and to the minds of the entire civilized world,
that however these circumstances may press upon him, he can lift them
off, and stand out, purged from suspicion, in the bright light of day.
If he succeeds in doing this, no one will have more gratification than
myself, in the result; and I am sure that you will share that gratiflcar
tion with me.
But, I think upon the evidence which the Government will lay before
you, that you will call upon this prisoner to do something more than
to 'say that the testimony is questionable upon immaterial points.
You will call upon him for a clear and satisfactory explanation of
one class of facts, at least; namely,-his possession of the notes, and
the payment of the money, which he has so repeatedly declared that he
made to the deceased; and which, unexplained', must carry conviction
to every mind that he is not guiltless of an agency in that sad and
calamitous catastrophe,-the death of one who had been his benefactor,
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