th a clear conscience, full
deference to our claim to the right of local self-government,
it is incumbent upon us to act worthily here.

"Gentlemen, our own larger interests are involved in this
matter. It is our privilege, and our duty as well, to
contribute our best heart and brain to the care of the
interests of our nation and to the guidance of the world. But
if our statesmen walk through the halls of Congress emitting
from their garments the scent of burning human flesh, when they
would put forth their souls as great magnets for mankind, the
tender, sensitive world-heart will recede from their touch, and
leave their hollow, resounding voices reverberating through
space. Thus shall we lose our share of great world leaders.

"Gentlemen, the lives of white men will be placed in jeopardy
by a miscarriage of justice here to-day. The jury that refused
first to hang a white man for killing a Negro, seared its
conscience, lowered its estimate of the value of human life,
and now, without due process of law, the white man who kills
any one is almost uniformly exempt from the death penalty. The
maltreatment of Negroes according to immutable laws precedes
but by one day the like maltreatment of whites.

"Need I to tell you of the patient dark faces that sit in their
humble cabins to-day and quietly await your verdict which will
make their lives secure, or subject to the caprice of the man
with murderous instinct.

"Gentlemen of the jury, remember that the interests of your
children are involved in this case. The capital on which they
are to begin life is necessarily that which they draw from your
social manifestations. They saw that holiday crowd that
gathered here on the day of the burning and some of those hot
human ashes fell in their innocent faces. What happened here
that day will be talked over by them in their childish sports.
Let us give to them a fitting conclusion to the recital. We
have made it possible for them to say that the deed was done.
Let us avoid contributing to their hardness of heart, by
causing them to say that the deed was spurned.

"Having at length put before you the claims of society whose
mouthpiece I am this day, I am now ready to deal more
specifically with the case before us.

"I have no hesitancy