at cannot be quashed!

On the day before Thanksgiving Thomas Nason is arraigned; and is
brought to trial for this new Boston Massacre on the anniversary of
the old one--on the Fifth of March. The judge constructs a Trial-Jury
as before. Mr. Hallett, assisted by Mr. Thomas, Mr. George T. Curtis,
and Commissioner Loring, manage the case for the government, bringing
out the whole strength of the kidnapping party, and directing this
Macedonian phalanx of Humanity and Law and Piety against a poor
friendless negro. Mr. Hale, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Dana defend him.
Officer Butman and his coadjutors--members of the "Marshal's
guard"--testify that Mr. Nason attacked them with the felonious weapon
above named, putting them in mortal bodily fear greater than that
which in Mexico once overthrew the (future) President of all this
land! Mr. Herrman, the dealer in toys, testifies that he sold the
murderous weapon for twenty-five cents to Mr. Nason who declared that
he "could frighten Butman with it;" that it is of German manufacture,
and is called a Knallbuechse!

Judge Curtis sums up the matter. He tells the jury, (1.) That they are
not to judge of the Law punishing treason, but to take it from the
Court. (2.) Not to judge what Act constitutes the Crime of Treason,
but take that also from the Court, and if the Court decides that
offering a pop-gun at a rowdy's breast constitutes the crime of
treason, they are to accept the decision as constitutional law. (3.)
They are not to ask if it be just to hang a man for thus resisting a
body of men who sought to kidnap his mother, for even if it be unjust
and cruel it is none of their concern, for they must execute a cruel
and unjust law with even more promptitude than a just and humane one,
and in the language of the "Defender of the Constitution," "conquer
their prejudices," and "do a disagreeable duty." (4.) If they think
the Law commands one thing and the Will of God exactly the opposite,
in the well-known words of Judge Sprague, they must "obey both" by
keeping the law of man when it contradicts the law of God, for they
can never be good Christians so long as they scruple to hang a Quaker
for driving off a kidnapper; and obedience to the law is a moral duty,
no matter how immoral the law may be, and "to obey the law of the land
is to obey the will of God." (5.) But they have a simple question of
fact to determine; namely, Did the Defendant resist officer Butman in
the manner set forth? If s