s
though they had been officiously intermeddling with the administration
of justice. They are said to have been "laboring for months" against the
prisoner. Gentlemen, what must we do in such a case? Are people to be
dumb and still, through fear of overdoing? Is it come to this, that an
effort cannot be made, a hand cannot be lifted, to discover the guilty,
without its being said there is a combination to overwhelm innocence?
Has the community lost all moral sense? Certainly, a community that
would not be roused to action upon an occasion such as this was, a
community which should not deny sleep to their eyes, and slumber to
their eyelids, till they had exhausted all the means of discovery and
detection, must indeed be lost to all moral sense, and would scarcely
deserve protection from the laws. The learned counsel have endeavored to
persuade you, that there exists a prejudice against the persons accused
of this murder. They would have you understand that it is not confined
to this vicinity alone; but that even the legislature have caught this
spirit. That through the procurement of the gentleman here styled
private prosecutor, who is a member of the Senate, a special session of
this court was appointed for the trial of these offenders. That the
ordinary movements of the wheels of justice were too slow for the
purposes devised. But does not everybody see and know, that it was
matter of absolute necessity to have a special session of the court?
When or how could the prisoners have been tried without a special
session? In the ordinary arrangement of the courts, but one week in a
year is allotted for the whole court to sit in this county. In the trial
of all capital offences a majority of the court, at least, is required
to be present. In the trial of the present case alone, three weeks have
already been taken up. Without such special session, then, three years
would not have been sufficient for the purpose. It is answer sufficient
to all complaints on this subject to say, that the law was drawn by the
late Chief Justice himself,[1] to enable the court to accomplish its
duties, and to afford the persons accused an opportunity for trial
without delay.

Again, it is said that it was not thought of making Francis Knapp, the
prisoner at the bar, a PRINCIPAL till after the death of Richard
Crowninshield, Jr.; that the present indictment is an after-thought;
that "testimony was got up" for the occasion. It is not so. There is no