What, then, was this conspiracy?  J.J.  Knapp, Jr., desirous of destroying the will, and of taking the life of the deceased, hired a ruffian, who, with the aid of other ruffians, was to enter the house, and murder him in his bed.

As far back as January this conspiracy began.  Endicott testifies to a conversation with J.J.  Knapp at that time, in which Knapp told him that Captain White had made a will, and given the principal part of his property to Stephen White.  When asked how he knew, he said, “Black and white don’t lie.”  When asked if the will was not locked up, he said, “There is such a thing as two keys to the same lock.”  And speaking of the then late illness of Captain White, he said, that Stephen White would not have been sent for if he had been there.

Hence it appears, that as early as January Knapp had a knowledge of the will, and that he had access to it by means of false keys.  This knowledge of the will, and an intent to destroy it, appear also from Palmer’s testimony, a fact disclosed to him by the other conspirators.  He says that he was informed of this by the Crowninshields on the 2d of April.  But then it is said, that Palmer is not to be credited; that by his own confession he is a felon; that he has been in the State prison in Maine; and, above all, that he was intimately associated with these conspirators themselves.  Let us admit these facts.  Let us admit him to be as bad as they would represent him to be; still, in law, he is a competent witness.  How else are the secret designs of the wicked to be proved, but by their wicked companions, to whom they have disclosed them?  The government does not select its witnesses.  The conspirators themselves have chosen Palmer.  He was the confidant of the prisoners.  The fact, however, does not depend on his testimony alone.  It is corroborated by other proof; and, taken in connection with the other circumstances, it has strong probability.  In regard to the testimony of Palmer, generally, it may be said that it is less contradicted, in all parts of it, either by himself or others, than that of any other material witness, and that every thing he has told is corroborated by other evidence, so far as it is susceptible of confirmation.  An attempt has been made to impair his testimony, as to his being at the Half-way House on the night of the murder; you have seen with what success.  Mr. Babb is called to contradict him.  You have seen how little he knows, and even that not certainly; for he himself is proved to have been in an error by supposing Palmer to have been at the Half-way House on the evening of the 9th of April.  At that time he is proved to have been at Dustin’s, in Danvers.  If, then, Palmer, bad as he is, has disclosed the secrets of the conspiracy, and has told the truth, there is no reason why it should not be believed.  Truth is truth, come whence it may.