Crowninshield, Jr. He answered, that he
could not tell. He did not understand Mr. Shillaber as questioning him
as to the person whom he saw sitting on the steps of the rope-walk.
Southwick, on this trial, having heard Mr. Shillaber, has been recalled
to the stand, and states that Mr. Shillaber entirely misunderstood him.
This is certainly most probable, because the controlling fact in the
case is not controverted; that is, that Southwick did tell his wife, at
the very moment he entered his house, that he had seen a person on the
rope-walk steps, whom he believed to be Frank Knapp. Nothing can prove
with more certainty than this, that Southwick, at the time, _thought_
the person whom he thus saw to be the prisoner at the bar.

Mr. Bray is an acknowledged accurate and intelligent witness. He was
highly complimented by my brother on the former trial, although he now
charges him with varying his testimony. What could be his motive? You
will be slow in imputing to him any design of this kind. I deny
altogether that there is any contradiction. There may be differences,
but not contradiction. These arise from the difference in the questions
put; the difference between believing and knowing. On the first trial,
he said he did not know the person, and now says the same. Then, we did
not do all we had a right to do. We did not ask him who he thought it
was. Now, when so asked, he says he believes it was the prisoner at the
bar. If he had then been asked this question, he would have given the
same answer. That he has expressed himself more strongly, I admit; but
he has not contradicted himself. He is more confident now; and that is
all. A man may not assert a thing, and still may have no doubt upon it.
Cannot every man see this distinction to be consistent? I leave him in
that attitude; that only is the difference. On questions of identity,
opinion is evidence. We may ask the witness, either if he knew who the
person seen was, or who he thinks he was. And he may well answer, as
Captain Bray has answered, that he does not know who it was, but that he
thinks it was the prisoner.

We have offered to produce witnesses to prove, that, as soon as Bray saw
the prisoner, he pronounced him the same person. We are not at liberty
to call them to corroborate our own witness. How, then, could this fact
of the prisoner's being in Brown Street be better proved? If ten
witnesses had testified to it, it would be no better. Two men, who knew
him