zed the
previous proceedings. A colored man, known to have had dishonest
possession of a portion of the lost money, was admitted to testify, on
two successive trials, against Barney Corse, who had always sustained a
fair character. The District Attorney talked to the jury of "the
necessity of appeasing the South." As if convicting an honest and
kind-hearted Quaker of being accomplice in a felony could do anything
toward settling the questions that divided North and South on the
subject of slavery! One of the jury declared that he never would acquit
an abolitionist. Mr. Darg testified of himself during the trial, that he
never intended to manumit Thomas, and had made the promise merely as a
means of obtaining his money. The newspapers spoke as if the guilt of
the accused was not to be doubted, and informed the jury that the
public expected them to convict these men.

In fact, the storm lowered so darkly, that some friends of the
persecuted individuals began to feel uneasy. But Friend Hopper's mind
was perfectly undisturbed. Highly respectable lawyers offered to conduct
the cause for him; but he gratefully declined, saying he preferred to
manage it for himself. He informed the court that he presumed they
understood the law, and he was quite sure that he understood the facts;
therefore, he saw no need of a lawyer between them. The Court of
Sessions was held every month, and he appeared before it at almost every
term, to demand a trial. At last, in January 1840, when the hearing had
been delayed fifteen months, he gave notice that unless he was tried
during that term, he should appear on the last day of it, and request
that a _nolle prosequi_ should be ordered. The trial not coming on, he
appeared accordingly, and made a very animated speech, in which he dwelt
with deserved severity on the evils of the police system, and on the
efforts of a corrupt press to pervert the public mind. He said he did
not make these remarks to excite sympathy. He was not there to ask for
mercy, but to demand justice. "And I would have you all to understand
distinctly," continued the brave old man, "that I have no wish to evade
the charge against me for being an abolitionist. I _am_ an
abolitionist. In that, I am charged truly. I have been an abolitionist
from my early years, and I always expect to remain so. For this, I am
prosecuted and persecuted. I most sincerely believe that slavery is the
greatest sin the Lord Almighty ever suffered to exis