494 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:

462 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

The law does not proceed upon the absurd supposition that a person can, in these circumstances, harm himself. Hence, we find that if a husband, catching his wife in the act of adultery, instantly seizes a deadly weapon and slays the adulterer, it is not considered murder. Indeed, even a fillip upon the nose or forehead, given in anger, is deemed by the law sufficient provocation to reduce a killing to manslaughter. It is, therefore, upon principles like these—principles upon which those who now bear the hardest against us at other times so much depend—that we rely for our acquittal. We base our defense on the right of self-defense and self-preservation.

It should be kept in view that whenever the party causing injury has escaped by flight, and sufficient time for the passions to cool has elapsed, as judged by law, the injured party must seek redress through legal means, regardless of the severity of the injury. Such is the wisdom of the law—a law none of us should presume to be wiser than. This law is founded on the experience of ages and, in condescension to the infirmities of flesh and blood (but to nothing else), extenuates the offense. As the learned Judge Foster states, "No man, under the protection of the law, is to be the avenger of his own wrongs. If they are of such a nature for which the laws of society will give him an adequate remedy, thither he ought to resort. But be they of whatever nature, he ought to bear his lot with patience and remember that vengeance belongeth to the Most High."

Now, gentlemen, those who committed the outrage in Cornhill, whoever they were, had absconded. The soldiers, who are supposed to have perpetrated the act, were confined to their barracks. People were repeatedly told this and assured by the military officers that the soldiers would not go unpunished. But what followed? Were all present appeased? We are constrained by the force of the evidence to affirm that they were not. To gain a clear and accurate understanding, we must consider all the commotions of the season and endeavor to come to a comprehensive view of the situation.

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