were slaves?  He chartered the vessel to carry off negroes; and, if they were free negroes, or he supposed them to be, how was he to realize an independent fortune?  He was afraid of the excitement at Washington.  Why so, if the negroes were not slaves?  There was the fact of their being under the hatches, concealed in the hold of the vessel,—­did not that prove he meant to steal them?  Add to that the other fact of his leaving at night.  He comes here with a miserable load of wood; gives it away; sells it for a note; did not care about the wood, wanted only to get it out; had a longing for a cargo of negroes.  The wood was a blind; besides he lied about it;—­would he have ever come back to collect his note?  But the prisoner’s counsel says the slaves might have heard Mr. Foote’s torch-light oration, and so have been persuaded to go.  A likely story!  They all started off, I suppose, ran straight down to the vessel and got into the hold!  Seventy-four negroes all together!  But was not the vessel chartered in Philadelphia to carry off negroes?  This shows the excessive weakness of the defence.  And how did the slaves behave after they were captured?  If they had been running away, would they not have been downcast and disheartened?  Would not they have said, Now we are taken?  On the other hand, according to the testimony of Major Williams, on their way back they were laughing, shouting and eating molasses in large quantities.  Nero fiddled when Rome was burning, but did not eat molasses.  What a transition, from liberty to molasses!

“Then it is proved that the bulkhead between the cabin and the hold was knocked down, and that the slaves went to Drayton and asked if they should fight.  Did not that show his authority over them,—­that the slaves were under his control, and that he was the master-spirit?  It speaks volumes. [Here followed a long eulogy on the gallantry and humanity of the thirty-five captors.  One man did threaten a little, but he was drunk.]

“The substance of the law, as laid down by the judge, is this:  If Drayton came here to carry off these people, and, by machinations, prevailed on them to go with him, and knew they were slaves, it makes no difference whether he took them to liberate, or took them to sell.  If he was to be paid for carrying them away, that was gain enough.  Suppose a man were to take it into his head that the northern factories were very bad things for the health of the factory-girls, and were to go with a schooner for the purpose of liberating those poor devils by stealing the spindles, would not he be served as this prisoner is served here?  Would they not exhaust the law-books to find the severest punishment?  There may be those carried so far by a miserable mistaken philanthropy as even to steal slaves for the sake of setting them at liberty.  But this prisoner says he did it for gain.  We might look upon him with some respect if, in a manly style, he insisted on his