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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

766 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

How could we support our claims to property, or claims of any other kind, but by human testimony? The only purpose for which these cases ought ever to be called before a jury is as a caution. If they were urged further than this, it would be an urging of the jury to betray their duty. He regretted seeing them introduced into an American court because our tribunals are not characterized by a thirst for blood. On the contrary, if we have anything of which we can justly boast, it is that in our code of laws, there are few capital crimes, and that the administration of that code is conducted with the severest and most punctilious caution. It has been objected to us that we are even over-merciful.

There was another topic on which he must say a few words, and that was the remarks made regarding the manner in which the prisoners had been brought here, and the circumstances of their capture. He would feel himself unworthy of the station he occupied if he did not address this topic. If he rightly understood the prisoners’ counsel, an attempt had been made to cast doubt over the motives and actions of Capt. Trotter, and even the British government itself, for having sent the case to this country. The British government, on this occasion, found persons in England in the custody of one of its own officers, accused of piracy on an American vessel. They chose to send those persons here, where the best evidence could be obtained, and where the greatest facilities and advantages for their trial were to be found. Over piracy, all nations exercise equal jurisdiction, and the British government might justly have exercised it in this case; but they preferred that the offenders be tried by the citizens of the country against whom the offense had been committed. I may say that this conduct of the British government can scarcely receive too much praise from an American citizen.

How could this case have been decided in England? None of the crew of the Mexican, nor her owner, were there. How could the evidence heard before this court, which occupied its attention during the first three days of the trial, be presented?

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