“He, poor fellow, had no friends; he had been brought up in vice and misery; he had no gentle sister to lead him in the paths of virtue, a kind word was never spoken to him; a crust of bread was denied him when he was starving; and above all, he had no wealthy friend to pay an enormous counsel fee, and my learned opponent standing where he did just now, called loudly on the jury and said, ’away with such a fellow from the earth!’”

“Do not think me blood-thirsty or unfeeling.  The innocent sufferer in this case, the sister of this unfortunate young man, has my deepest sympathy and commiseration, as she has that of this audience and the jury.  But could those here present have gone with me”—­(here the speaker paused, too agitated to proceed)—­“to yonder desolated home; had they seen a mother, lately widowed, and four young sisters, around the bier where lay the remains of the murdered son and brother—­their only hope next to God—­he for whom they were all toiling early and late, that, when his education was completed, he in turn might work for them,—­had they heard that mother’s cry for strength, now that her last earthly prop was thus rudely snatched away, they would have found food for pity there.  I tell you, my friends, I pray that I may never be called upon to witness such a scene again!”

Wiping his cheeks repeatedly, Mr. G——­resumed: 

“These tears surprise me; for I am not used to the ‘melting mood,’ and I cannot afford to weep as readily as my learned opponent, who will count his pile of bank notes for every tear he sheds, and think those tears well expended.  I speak for an outraged community; my sympathies are with the poor—­with the widow and the fatherless—­with those whose only son and brother has been cut off in his hope and promise, and consigned to an early grave.”

“Shall these things take place unnoticed and unpunished?—­and for a light and hasty word, shall our young men of promise be cut down in the midst of their days, and the act go unrebuked of justice?  I look not so much at this individual case as to the general good.  Were I to look only on the prisoner, I too might yield to feeling, and forget justice.  But feeling must not rule here:  in the court room, justice alone should have sway; and I call upon the jury to decide as impartially in this case as if the poorest and most neglected wretch, brought up in vice and wretchedness, sat there, instead of the handsome and interesting prisoner; and I call upon the jury to show that, though in private life they may be ‘lovers of mercy,’ yet, where the general good is so deeply involved, they are determined to ‘deal justly’ with the prisoner.”

The judge then gave his charge to the jury, which was thought to lean rather to the side of the prisoner, though he agreed with Mr. G——­, that some sharp rebuke should be given to the practice, so common among the young men in some of our colleges, of carrying about with them offensive weapons.