ambition-kindled national resentment drawn forth national sympathies, and threatened to disturb the tranquillity of empires. He who, although He worketh unseen, yet worketh irresistibly and unceasingly, hath suspended neither His guardian care nor His paternal discipline over ourselves. Some of you have sickened and convalesced. Others have parted with cherished ones, who, removed before they had time to contract the stain of earth, were already prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven. There have been changes, too, among the unfortunate men whom I have defended. The sound of the hammer has died away in the workshops of some; the harvests have ripened and wasted in the fields of others. Want, and fear, and sorrow have entered into all their dwellings. Their own rugged forms have drooped; their sunburnt brows have blanched; and their hands have become as soft to the pressure of friendship as yours or mine. One of them-a vagrant boy-whom I found imprisoned here for a few extravagant words, that perhaps, he never uttered, has pined away and died. Another, he who was feared, hated and loved most of all, has fallen in the vigor of life, "hacked down, His thick summer leaves all faded." When such an one falls, amid the din and smoke of the battlefield, our emotions are overpowered-suppressed-lost in the excitement of public passion. But when he perishes a victim of domestic or social strife-when we see the iron enter his soul, and see it, day by day, sink deeper and deeper, until nature gives way, and he lies lifeless at our feet-then there is nothing to check the flow of forgiveness, compassion and sympathy. If, in the moment when he is closing his eyes on earth, he declares: "I have committed no crime against my country; I die a martyr for the liberty of speech and perish of a broken heart”—then, indeed do we feel that the tongues of dying men enforce attention, like deep harmony. Who would willingly consent to decide on the guilt or innocence of one who has thus been withdrawn from our erring judgment to the tribunal of eternal justice? Yet it cannot be avoided. If Abel F. Fitch was guilty of the crime charged in this indictment, every man here may nevertheless be innocent; but if he was innocent, then there is not one of these, his associates in life, who can be guilty. Try him, then, since you mustcondemn him, if you must-and with him condemn them. But remember that you are mortal, and he is now immortal; and that before the tribunal where he stands, you must stand and confront him, and vindicate your judgment. Remember, too, that he is now free. He has not only left behind him the dungeon, the cell and the chain; but he exults in a freedom, compared with which, the liberty we enjoy is slavery and bondage. You stand, then, between the dead and the living. There is no need to bespeak the exercise of your caution-of your candor-and of your impartiality. You will, I am sure, be just to the living, and true to your country; because, under circumstances so solemn-so full of awe -you cannot be unjust to the dead, nor false to your country, nor your God. M. Franklin, Benj., and Kossuth.. 196 Of the Public Lands, Speech.... 156 In the Territories, Speech.......51, 94 Madison, Jay, and Hamilton.... Universal.. 71 Many vs. Treadwell, Argument. 92 Mathew, Father, Speech for..... 90 516 284 18 (See also Emancipation and Slavery.) Maynard, Hon. W. H.. 479 MEMOIR, For Index to, see page. N. Navy, Discipline in the.. 186 xiii хеі 1 328 213 . 285 370 New Bedford and the Whale Fisheries 252 119 130 .99, 125 Higher Law, The.........66, 74, 108, 130 Oceans, Arctic and Pacific, Survey of. 236 Hamburgh Steamers, Debate... Hospitality not a Crime. Hungary and Intervention. 65 Ocean Steamers,.. 196 O'Connell and O'Brien. .222, 352, 353 Scott, Winfield, Maj. Gen., Debate.... 42 49 Contested.Seat of Mr. Dixon... 322 Steamers, The Collins, Speech.. 79 102 156 T. 156 158 Territories, Freedom in the, Speech. .51, 94 69 97 .99, 125 26 516 162 Texas, Bounty to, Considered. Texas and New Mexico..... Tracy, Hon. Albert H.. 14 Treadwell, Many vs., Argument. 287 TREATY, THE NICARAGUA, Speech..... 376 345 252 U. Union, The Remarks on.. Senatorial Term, Rantoul's, Debate... 332 Upham, Senator, Eulogium on. 37 Six Million Loan Bill, Speech... ... V. .16, 81, 89 .17, 30 92 387 71 Van Buren, John, and the Freeman 311 .410, 415, 472 476 Slaves, Number of in Dis. of Columbia 115 Van Zandt, Jones vs., Argument... Sectional, Freedom National..... Fugitive Law of 1793.. Of 1850.. (See also Fugitive Slaves.) SPEECHES IN THE SENATE OF NEW YORK The Militia Bill... W. Election of Mayors by the People 10 Washington and Intervention.....206, 210 The Six Million Loan. Y. |
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