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degree of inflexibility and firmness which you shall have exhibited, in
upholding, paramount and supreme, the law under which human life
has claimed and enjoyed protection, in this Commonwealth of Massa-
chusetts, since its foundation by the Pilgrims !
[At this stage of the proceedings, Chief Justice Shaw addressed
the prisoner as follows : -]
Before committing this cause to the Jury, if you have anything to
say, you may address the Jury, making any statement that you think
fit, and which you think necessary for your defence. I ought to
inform you, also, that this is a privilege granted to you, which you
may use or not, at your own discretion.
ADDRESS OF PROF. JOHN WHITE WEBSTER TO THE JURY.
I feel indebted to your Honor for this kind permission. I cannot
go into an explanation of the net-work of circumstances which has
been woven around me, and which. in nine cases out of ten, would
require many hours to unravel, though, to probably nine tenths of
them, I could give a satisfactory explanation.
On all the points, testimony had been placed in the hands of the
Counsel; and my innocence would have been firmly established, if it
had been produced. But, acting entirely under their guidance, I
have sealed my lips, and, from the first moment, I have trusted
entirely to them. They have not seen fit to bring forward the evi-
dence on a great variety of subjects, which, therefore, have been
brought to bear, with consummate ingenuity, against me. I trust
they will not be considered against me by the Jury.
I will allude to one or two of the subjects which have been unex-
plained. I doubt whether the letter written by me, from the jail, to my
daughter, and which has been read, was the first, because there were
two or three long letters which I wrote about that time. The infer-
ence, from the sentence in that letter, which led to the examination of
my private papers by the police, was different, very different, from
what was intended by me. The explanation of that sentence is as
follows. I had read, in one of the daily prints, which were distributed
in the prison, some of the various fabrications which were made re-
specting me; and one of them which I saw was, that I had purchased
a quantity of oxalic acid. It immediately occurred to me that the
very parcel referred to was saved, and could be produced. For sev-
eral days, Mrs. Webster had reminded me of a want of citric acid, and
laughed at me when I returned home for forgetting to obtain it.
On the very day of my arrest, I stopped at Mr. Thayer's Apothecary
establishment, in Bowdoin-square, conversed about half an hour, on
various topics, and purchased the citric acid. I carried it home, and
placed it in my wife's hands, saying, « There is your acid." I knew
that the possession of the acid would show that it was not oxalic; and
hence the request about the bundle - not to open, but to keep it- had
no connection with the papers.
Mr. Charles Cunningham was at my house when the officers came
there to examine. They broke open a trunk, examined it, and left
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