unsophisticated humanity in their
hearts. Hence the great value of the jury in criminal trials.

Gentlemen, you are the jurors in this case, to decide between me and
the government. Between the government and ME! no, Gentlemen, between
the Fugitive Slave Bill and Humanity. You know the Function of the
court--the manner of the Judges' appointment--the services they are
expected to render in cases like this, the services they have already
rendered.

Let me speak of the Function of the Jury. To do that, I must say a few
words of its Historical Development. I must make it very brief and
sketchy. Here I shall point out six several steps in the successive
development of popular Law-making and Law-applying.

* * * * *

1. In the barbarous periods of the Teutonic Family,[112] it seems the
"whole People" came together at certain regular seasons to transact
the business of the nation. There was also a meeting of the
inhabitants of each district or neighborhood at stated times,--a
"regular meeting;" and sometimes a special meeting to provide for some
emergency--a "called meeting." If one man had wronged another the
matter was inquired into at those popular meetings. One man
presided--chosen for the occasion. In the early age it appears he was
a priest, afterwards a noble, or some distinguished man, selected on
the spot. The whole people investigated the matter, made the
law--often an _ex post facto_ law,--applied it to the special case,
and on the spot administered the punishment--if corporeal, or decreed
the recompense--if pecuniary. The majority carried the day. Thus at
first the Body of People present on the occasion were the law-makers,
the law-appliers, and law-executors. Each law was special--designed
for the particular case in hand, retrospective for vengeance more than
prospective for future welfare.

[Footnote 112: By this term I mean all the nations with language akin
to the German.]

2. Then in process of time, there came to be a body of laws--fixed and
understood by the People. Partly, these came from the customs of the
People, and represented past life already lived; but partly, also,
from the decrees of the recognized authorities--theocratic, monarchic,
aristocratic, democratic--representing the desire for a better life, a
rule of conduct for the future. Then at their meetings, to punish an
offender the people did not always make a new law, they simply used
what they found alre