ic man
who sees before him the clear star of duty and trims his bark only
that he may follow it through darkness and through light. I will ask
my friend from Missouri if he will do me the favor to read the
extract to which I have alluded.

Mr. Cockrell read as follows:--

But here, let me pause.

It is fit to take some notice of the various terrors hung out; the
numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the
hall, out of all reach of hearing what passes in court, and the
tumults which, in other places, have shamefully insulted all order
and government. Audacious addresses in print dictate to us from
those they call the people, the judgment to be given now and
afterward upon the conviction. Reasons of policy are urged from
danger to the kingdom by commotion and general confusion.

Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and respectable
audience to let the whole world know all such attempts are vain.

I pass over many anonymous letters I have received. Those in print
are public; and some of them have been brought judicially before the
court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do
my duty, unawed. What am I to fear? That _mendax_ _infamia_ from
the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The
lies of calumny carry no terror to me. I trust that my temper of
mind, and the color and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of
armor against these arrows. If, during this king's reign, I have
ever supported his government, and assisted his measures, I have
done it without any other reward than the consciousness of doing
what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon
the points themselves, without mixing in party or faction, and
without any collateral views. I honor the king, and respect the
people; bat many things acquired by force of either, are, in my
account, objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is
that popularity which follows, not that which is run after. It is
that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to
the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will not do that which
my conscience tells me is wrong upon this occasion to gain the
huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which
come from the press; I will not avoid doing what I think is right,
though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libel, all that
falsehood and malice can invent or the credulit