unless his testimony be true. This
letter was not an after-thought; it is a genuine narrative. In fact, it
says, "I know the business your brother Frank was transacting on the 2d
of April." How could he have possibly known this, unless he had been
there? The "one thousand dollars that was to be paid,"--where could he
have obtained this knowledge? The testimony of Endicott, of Palmer, and
these facts, are to be taken together; and they most clearly show that
the death of Captain White was caused by somebody interested in putting
an end to his life.

As to the testimony of Leighton, as far as manner of testifying goes, he
is a bad witness; but it does not follow from this that he is not to be
believed. There are some strange things about him. It is strange, that
he should make up a story against Captain Knapp, the person with whom he
lived; that he never voluntarily told any thing: all that he has said
was screwed out of him. But the story could not have been invented by
him; his character for truth is unimpeached; and he intimated to another
witness, soon after the murder happened, that he knew something he
should not tell. There is not the least contradiction in his testimony,
though he gives a poor account of withholding it. He says that he was
extremely _bothered_ by those who questioned him. In the main story that
he relates, he is entirely consistent with himself. Some things are for
him, and some against him. Examine the intrinsic probability of what he
says. See if some allowance is not to be made for him, on account of
his ignorance of things of this kind. It is said to be extraordinary,
that he should have heard just so much of the conversation, and no more;
that he should have heard just what was necessary to be proved, and
nothing else. Admit that this is extraordinary; still, this does not
prove it untrue. It is extraordinary that you twelve gentlemen should be
called upon, out of all the men in the county, to decide this case; no
one could have foretold this three weeks since. It is extraordinary that
the first clew to this conspiracy should have been derived from
information given by the father of the prisoner at the bar. And in every
case that comes to trial there are many things extraordinary. The murder
itself is a most extraordinary one; but still we do not doubt its
reality.

It is argued, that this conversation between Joseph and Frank could not
have been as Leighton has testified, because they had b