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192 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
testimony is none the less entitled to the greatest weight and consid-
eration, as tending to confirm and establish the fact, of which it is
plain that the belief is clear and distinct in her own mind.
These, then, Gentlemen of the Jury, are the witnesses upon whom,
and this is the particular testimony, upon which we rely, to establish the
vital fact, that the parties did separate from each other after their inter-
view in the Medical College; and that Dr. Parkman departed from it,
and was afterwards abroad in various parts of the city. He did not,
indeed, return to his family; and he has never returned there since.
His absence, and his continued absence, may be admitted to be strange,
extraordinary, and unaccountable. Certainly, the occurrences of that
day, respecting Dr. Parkman, are beyond all intelligible explanation.
All that we undertake, all that is at all necessary for us to under-
take,-is to show, that, after entering, he left the College, on the 23d
of November.
It may be, indeed, that the conjecture of his friends may suggest
a solution which will make the strange matter of his absence from his
home quite compatible with the proofs upon which I have just been
remarking. When, after their comparatively slight and fruitless search,
on Friday and Saturday, they gave notice to the public of his disappear-
ance, thQy very plainly cugg< sted the cause by which it might have been
occasioned. And it cannot now be either unjust or uncharitable or
inconsiderate to refer to the cause, which they, after the greatest delib-
eration, did not hesitate then to announce to the public as a strong
probability. In their advertisement, offering the liberal reward of three
thousand dollars for the discovery of his person, they suggested that he
might have strayed away under the influence of sudden aberration of
mind. If this calamity suddenly befell him, the singular conduct he
evinced in wandering through different parts of the city, to the neglect
of his home and family, would not be without some reasonable explana-
tion. If no one can positively affirm that it was, who has sufficient
proof to authorize him to assert that it was not so? His friends believed
the suggestion reasonable, or they would not have made it in connection
with their liberal offer of the reward of three thousand dollars for his
discovery. But whether the calamity actually intervened, we cannot
tell. The most that either we or they can assert with entire safety is,
that a painful uncertainty rests alike over the events of the 23d of
November, and the causes that produced them.
But one thing we know, and know with absolute certainty. We know
that responsible, unimpeachable men and women have testified, that
they did see Dr. Parkman abroad in this city long after the hour when
he entered the Medical College. Who can say, that their testimony is
not true? They may indeed be mistaken; but is it certain that they
are? The mere suggestion of error in time, or mistake in person, will
not do; their testimony must be overborne by abundant proof, or it is
of controlling efficacy in this defence. And where is the proof, that
renders it so reasonably certain that all, every one,- of these most
respectable witnesses are mistaken; that, in defiance and disregard
of their testimony, you will dare to pronounce a verdict, which must
touch the heart's blood of that man who is now upon his trial before
you?
Contrast this direct and decisive evidence with that which the Gov-
ernment has produced here for a similar purpose,-the purpose of per-
sonal identity. When the mangled remains of the human being, who-
ever he was, which were found in the Medical College, were as decently
arranged as they could be, they were exposed to the observation of
gentlemen of the Medical Faculty, and of the friends and acquaintances
of Dr. Parkman. And now they have been brought here to answer the
repeated inquiries of the Attorney General, whether they could discover
any dissimilarity which would distinguish them from his person, in
order that you may draw from their negative answers a conclusion of
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