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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 205
disturbed by constant irritation. It may be admitted, that Dr. Park-
man did not use the profane language which was attributed to him;
but who can say, that his messages were not reported in the coarse
and vulgar terms which too often find their way into common parlance?
So early as Monday evening of the week of the fatal 23d of November,
Dr. Webster, at a. late hour, in the laboratory where he earned his daily
bread, while reading some chemical book, as Littlefield tells you, was,
I will not say intruded, but called upon by Dr. Parkman. An unsatis-
factory conversation, of which you have only a partial account, took
place between them, and the latter left with a menace upon his lips.
"Something must be done to-morrow," was his language, as he departed.
On the ensuing morning, as you learn from Littlefield and Maxwell, a
note was despatched to him by Dr. Webster. I wish the letter could
have been here, and I had hoped that we should find it among the multi-
farious papers and documents produced by the Government. But it
is not produced, and no one has testified as to its contents; yet -it can-
not be doubted, that it related to the business upon which the parties
were then so frequently meeting. According to the statement upon
the memorandum, taken from Dr. Webster at the time of his arrest,
and read here as evidence, Dr. Parkman entered the College during
the lecture on Tuesday, and, when it was over, arranged for a further
interview on the ensuing Friday. Still he was not satisfied. Other
opportunities for a meeting were diligently sought for. You see him
abroad in the highways watching with unabated assiduity the approach
of Dr. Webster, or his departure from the College, and inquiring of the
toll-keeper at the bridge respecting his passages across it.
On Thursday, the inquiry was renewed at the bridge; and, finding
that Dr. Webster had not been seen to come into Boston, he immedi-
ately procured a conveyance, and proceeded to his house in Cambridge.
Whether they there met, or, if they did, what transpired between them,
you have no means of determining. The next day came, and with it
the appointment which was made at the house of Dr. Parkman for their
meeting at the Medical College at half-after one o'clock, that 1 he money
might then be paid, and the business, which had so long perplexed
them, be brought to a close. It is not difficult to conjecture or under-
stand what must have been the feelings of both of them at the close
of a pursuit so constant and unintermitted, so pressing and urgent,
as had been that of Dr. Parkman. Is it possible that mete, bearing
such relations to each other, and meeting under such circumstances,
should be composed and deliberate in their conduct? Is it strange
or unnatural, that one who had felt himself personally injured by
what he regarded as the dishonesty of his debtor, and who had taken,
not the law, but some mode of redress supposed by him to be more
effectual, into his own hands, should now, in the very moment of the
consummation of all his efforts, give to his deep-seated convictions an
expression of too great ardor and vehemence? Is it strange, that the
feelings of a debtor, who had been so restlessly pursued, should now.
when fully prepared with funds to stop the course of that creditor,
seek some vent in language of retaliation?-that all these causes of
irritation and excitement should find words of anger, to be followed
by personal collision?-or that such personal collision should terminate
in mortal strife? I am arguing upon probabilities drawn from the nature
of .man. There is in the moral, as in the physical world, a regular
and constant succession in the course and order of events. Passion,
when uncontrolled, assumes a mastery over men, and sways them at
its will. The action of the mind, under any predominating impulse. is
governed by laws as regular as those which control the motion of the
planets in their spheres. It cannot, therefore, be unreasonable'to sup-
pose. that men, meeting under the circumstances I have described,
should fall into altercation,-that altercation should be followed by
blows,-and that blows should be followed by death, because moral,
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