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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

It was with great regret that it was observed that anyone with a moderate ability to write believed they had the right to attack and undermine the authorities and officers appointed by the people of this country. It was intolerable that vile and infamous falsehoods could be uttered and published with impunity against the President of the United States, whom the people themselves had placed in that high office, and in which he has acted with much credit to himself and benefit to them.

Thomas Cooper stands charged in the indictment as follows—(here Mr. R. read the indictment). It was a sense of public duty that called for this prosecution. It was necessary to set an example to deter others from misleading the people with such false and defamatory publications.

There was a peculiarity in the manner of this publication: generally, those who take such liberties attempt to avoid punishment by using fictitious signatures or concealing their names. However, the defendant acted very differently. Being a member of the legal profession, a man of education and literature, he used those advantages to disseminate his dangerous productions in a remote part of the country where he had gained influence. Such conduct must have arisen from the basest motives.

It would be proven to the jury that, at the time of this publication, the defendant went to a magistrate and acknowledged it to be his production, in the same formal manner as if it had been a deed. Such grossly improper conduct had not occurred in any instance within his recollection, and the manner of it constituted no slight aggravation of the offense. Indeed, it was high time for the law to intervene and restrain the libelous spirit that had been allowed to extend itself against the highest and most deserving characters.

To abuse the men with whom the public has entrusted the management of their national concerns is to withdraw from...

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