deserves your careful
consideration. He is a member of the family. He has the lives of two
brothers depending, as he may think, on the effect of his evidence;
depending on every word he speaks. I hope he has not another
responsibility resting upon him. By the advice of a friend, and that
friend Mr. Colman, J. Knapp made a full and free confession, and
obtained a promise of pardon. He has since, as you know, probably by the
advice of other friends, retracted that confession, and rejected the
offered pardon. Events will show who of these friends and advisers
advised him best, and befriended him most. In the mean time, if this
brother, the witness, be one of these advisers, and advised the
retraction, he has, most emphatically, the lives of his brothers resting
upon his evidence and upon his conduct. Compare the situation of these
two witnesses. Do you not see mighty motive enough on the one side, and
want of all motive on the other? I would gladly find an apology for that
witness, in his agonized feelings, in his distressed situation; in the
agitation of that hour, or of this. I would gladly impute it to error,
or to want of recollection, to confusion of mind, or disturbance of
feeling. I would gladly impute to any pardonable source that which
cannot be reconciled to facts and to truth; but, even in a case calling
for so much sympathy, justice must yet prevail, and we must come to the
conclusion, however reluctantly, which that demands from us.

It is said, Phippen Knapp was probably correct, because he knew he
should probably be called as a witness. Witness to what? When he says
there was no confession, what could he expect to bear witness of? But I
do not put it on the ground that he did not hear; I am compelled to put
it on the other ground, that he did hear, and does not now truly tell
what he heard.

If Mr. Colman were out of the case, there are other reasons why the
story of Phippen Knapp should not be believed. It has in it inherent
improbabilities. It is unnatural, and inconsistent with the accompanying
circumstances. He tells you that they went "to the cell of Frank, to see
if he had any objection to taking a trial, and suffering his brother to
accept the offer of pardon"; in other words, to obtain Frank's consent
to Joseph's making a confession; and in case this consent was not
obtained, that the pardon would be offered to Frank. Did they bandy
about the chance of life, between these two, in this way? Did Mr.