I see many things imprudent and ill-judged; many
things that I could wish had been otherwise; but corruption and crime I
do not see.
Sir, the prejudices of the day will soon be forgotten; the passions, if
any there be, which have excited or favored this prosecution will
subside; but the consequence of the judgment you are about to render
will outlive both them and you. The respondent is now brought, a single,
unprotected individual, to this formidable bar of judgment, to stand
against the power and authority of the State. I know you can crush him,
as he stands before you, and clothed as you are with the sovereignty of
the State. You have the power "to change his countenance and to send him
away." Nor do I remind you, that your judgment is to be rejudged by the
community; and, as you have summoned him for trial to this high
tribunal, that you are soon to descend yourselves from these seats of
justice, and stand before the higher tribunal of the world. I would not
fail so much in respect to this honorable court as to hint that it could
pronounce a sentence which the community will reverse. No, Sir, it is
not the world's revision which I would call on you to regard; but that
of your own consciences, when years have gone by and you shall look back
on the sentence you are about to render. If you send away the
respondent, condemned and sentenced, from your bar, you are yet to meet
him in the world on which you cast him out. You will be called to behold
him a disgrace to his family, a sorrow and a shame to his children, a
living fountain of grief and agony to himself.
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