oing his
client any good; that is not in the case. Suppose it was so, what
has that got to do with the guilt or innocence of Beggs? No matter
whether I had five, six, or a dozen assistants, the question is,
What are the facts? Lawyers or no lawyers, that is what you have to
deal with.

"Mr. Foster argued for an hour about how the Presbyterians had got
away with Swing, and how the Methodists had disposed of Dr. Thomas,
and how the Episcopals had disposed of Dr. Cheney. Didn't he talk a
long time about that? What for? Why did he devote his time to
talking about that? But suppose that the hot-headed Presbyterians
had said, we do not believe that this man ought to be permitted to
live? Suppose that they had ordered a committee of investigation, a
secret committee to investigate Dr. Swing? Suppose that they had
entered into that arrangement, not intending to murder him, but
suppose they did, and suppose you can find no other people on earth
that had a feeling against Dr. Swing but these men who said he was
unworthy to live, and that men said he ought to be killed, and
these men had themselves invited him out? Why, the Presbyterians
would hang for killing him, for carrying out that conspiracy.
Sometimes these conspiracies are brought about by things that ought
not to affect the mind of any man. Now, our theory has been in this
case that there was a conspiracy, whether it originated at the time
of the appointment of the committee, or after its appointment, our
theory is that there was a conspiracy to murder Dr. Cronin because
they believed he was a spy, and that the men who followed that up
had another object in having him murdered, namely, to prevent him
from going before the honest Irishmen and showing them how they had
been robbed of their funds. That has been our theory. The proof
justifies us in making this statement. Did you ever think since
this trial--have you heard of anybody having any feeling against
Dr. Cronin? You have heard of his belonging to this organization
and that. You have heard of his singing in public; you have heard
of his being here and there, a man liked. Has there been any
evidence of any other person on earth that would be likely to kill
Dr. Cronin? None at all. Where do you go, where do you get the
starting point in this