|
263
who paid him in that brief interval, they have had the resources of
this Government to bring here upon that stand and enlighten you;
and, believe me, nothing which they could do has been left undone.
If hedid not payDr. Parkman,-and that he did not, is apparent from
all these facts, and perhaps as strongly from this fact as all others, that
Dr. Parkman never would have given up that note or cancelled that mort-
gage, which involved the interest of other parties-never in the
world! - if he did not pay the money - if he did not have the monev to
to pay with-then how did he get those notes ? You will find a little
memorandum on one of them, that it was paid Nov. 22, 1849. Was that
th%first thought, corrected afterwards by an after-thought, that Dr.
Parkman might have shown these notes to Mr. Kingsley, or Mr.
Shaw, or somebody, on Friday morning ; and therefore that it would be
fatal to him to have it understood that he paid him then ? Was
it prompted, in the first instance, by the fact that at nine o'clock he
had told Mr. Pettee °° he load settled with him "? Dr. Webster did
write, in his own hand-writing, °1 $483.64 balance paid Nov. 22, 1849."
Then, Gentlemen, the whole thing is changed. The story was pre-
pared, as I have already told you- evidenced by the documents found
in his possession-evidenced by the documents which he attempted
to conceal. You remember he impressed upon his wife, to keep the
bundle, and not to open it. I ask again, if he did not pay those notes,
how came those notes in his possession ? What becomes of all these
contradictory and inconsistent theories, that Dr. Parkman was mur-
dered by somebody else, or elsewhere ? I put it to your intelligence;
- answer that.
Now, Gentlemen, I shall briefly consider the evidence which goes
to confirm all this.
[Mr. Bemis consults with the Attorney General.]
Mr. Clifford. I am reminded, Gentlemen - and it is a fact that I
should not forget, for it is pregnant with importance-that on that
Friday-morning Dr. Webster did receive from Mr. Pettee a check for
$90 of the proceeds of the tickets -the source from which he said
he would pay Dr. Parkman, and from which he afterwards said he
had paid Dr. Parkman. And yet we find, from the books of the
bank, that this identical check for $90 was deposited by him, on the
next day, in the Charles River Bank. I leave here all this matter of
finance, with this exposition of the significant truth thus developed by
their financial relations.
What was the condition of things in that laboratory when those
remains were found ? I shall go less fully into this than if I had not
consumed so much time, so much more than I expected, upon the
earlier topics of the case. There are some things which I should do
great injustice to this case to overlook. In the privy vault, with the
remains, there were found certain towels, which were produced here.
I especially call your attention to the fact, that some of these smaller
towels were marked °, W." One of them, it is here clearly in proof
before you, was in that laboratory, and in his upper room on the very
morning of that Friday when this fatal interview with Dr. Parkman
took place.
Then, Gentlemen, that knife, found in the tea-chest! Why, the
Counsel for the defence overlooked, in their comments upon this, the im-
portant fact, which they themselves had put into this case, by the cross-
|
