of crime,
your Honor," suddenly turning around and addressing the Court, "of
which these men are simply the outworks! There is no dark nest of
criminals behind these to be uncovered, and uncovered only in the
face of dire results of the awful crime that they have committed!

"And committed for what? What was the motive? Judge Wing appealed
to you, and Mr. Donahoe talked to you as if a prejudice of race or
religion had any place in this trial. Did it ever occur to any man
connected with the prosecution or the defense that any question of
that kind could enter into the breasts of this jury? Do you think
that Judge Wing or Mr. Donahoe has any apprehensions of that
kind--that these men should be punished because they are Irishmen,
or because he says they are Catholics? They may be Catholic in
name. I do not know whether they are Irishmen. Burke, it appears,
was born in Ireland, and Donahoe made a point when an inquiry was
made of Colleran, as to what county he was born in, and it appears
he was born in the County of Mayo. Why was that inquiry made?
Because Colleran was from Mayo, and it was simply to show that they
were neighbors and came from places within a few miles of each
other. Simply to show to the jury that we had to go to his friend
to get whatever information we could, and to show the earnestness
of that friendship. In that Mr. Donahoe discovers an attempt to
appeal to the prejudices of this jury against the County Mayo man.

"Gentlemen, Judge Wing solemnly submitted to you a proposition that
he did not know how you might feel as to the right or duty of an
Irishman, separated from the land of his birth, taking an interest
in the affairs of that land after he has become a citizen of the
United States. I am not here to criticise an Irishman's right to do
that; so far as I have anything to say on that subject it would be
for me to defend it, because our country, first, last, and all the
time, is for the right of humanity the world over, and where
humanity is suffering, and where liberty is trampled in the dust,
there I think is to be found the cause of the true devotee of
freedom. It is a natural thing that an Irishman, born in Ireland,
or even the son of a man born in Ireland, should take an interest
in that land and in its struggle for nation