Nothing suspicious was discovered. They avoided no inquiry, nor left the town in any haste. The jury had had an opportunity of seeing the defendants. Did their general appearance indicate that hardihood which would enable them to act this cool, unconcerned part? Was it not more likely they would have fled?

From the time of the robbery to the arrest, five or six weeks, the defendants had been engaged in their usual occupations. They are not found to have passed a dollar of money to anybody. They continued their ordinary habits of labor. No man saw money about them, nor any circumstance that might lead to a suspicion that they had money. Nothing occurred tending in any degree to excite suspicion against them. When arrested, and when all this array of evidence was made against them, and when they could hope in nothing but their innocence, immunity was offered them again if they would confess. They were pressed, and urged, and allured, by every motive which could be set before them, to acknowledge their participation in the offence, and to bring out their accomplices. They steadily protested that they could confess nothing, because they knew nothing. In defiance of all the discoveries made in their house, they have trusted to their innocence. On that, and on the candor and discernment. of an enlightened jury, they still relied.

If the jury were satisfied, that there was the highest improbability that these persons could have had any previous knowledge of Goodridge, or been concerned in any previous concert to rob him; if their conduct that evening and the next day was marked by no circumstances of suspicion; if, from that moment until their arrest, nothing appeared against them; if they neither passed money, nor are found to have had money; if the manner of the search

1

of their house, and the circumstances attending it, excite strong suspicions of unfair and fraudulent practices; if, in the hour of their utmost peril, no promises of safety could draw from the defendants any confessions affecting themselves or others, it would be for the jury to say whether they could pronounce them guilty.

OBITUARY ADDRESSES.

I.

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

Tuesday, December 14, 1852.

AFTER various topics of the Message of the President had been referred to the appropriate committees, Mr. DAVIS rose, and addressed the Senate as follows:

Mr. PRESIDENT: I rise to bring to the notice of the Senate an event which has touched the sensibilities and awakened sympathies in all parts of the country, an event which has appropriately found a place in the message of the President, and ought not to be passed in silence by the Senate. Sir, we have, within a short space, mourned the death of a succession of men illustrious by their services, their talents, and worth. Not only have seats in this Chamber, in the other House, and upon the bench of the Court, been vacated, but death has entered the Executive Mansion and claimed that beloved patriot who filled the Chair of State.

The portals of the tomb had scarcely closed upon the remains of a great and gifted member of this House, before they are again opened to receive another marked man of our day-one who stood out with a singular prominence before his countrymen, challenging, by his extraordinary intellectual power, the admiration of his fellow-men.

DANIEL WEBSTER, (a name familiar in the remotest cabin upon the frontier,) after mixing actively with the councils.

441

of his country for forty years, and having reached the limits of life assigned to mortals, has descended to the mansions of the dead, and the damp earth now rests upon his manly form.

That magic voice, which was wont to fill this place with admiring listeners, is hushed in eternal silence. The mul titude will no longer bend in breathless attention from the galleries to catch his words, and to watch the speaking eloquence of his countenance, animated by the fervor of his mind; nor will the Senate again be instructed by the outpourings of his profound intellect, matured by long experience, and enriched by copious streams from the fountains of knowledge. The thread of life is cut; the immortal is separated from the mortal; and the products of a great and cultivated mind are all that remain to us of the jurist and legislator.

Few men have attracted so large a share of public attention, or maintained for so long a period an equal degree of mental distinction. In this and the other House there were rivals for fame, and he grappled in debate with the master-minds of the day, and achieved in such manly conflict the imperishable renown connected with his name.

Upon most of the questions which have been agitated in Congress during his period of service, his voice was heard. Few orators have equalled him in a masterly power of condensation, or in that clear logical arrangement of proofs and arguments which secures the attention of the hearer, and holds it with unabated interest.

These speeches have been preserved, and many of them will be read as forensic models, and will command admiration for their great display of intellectual power and extensive research. This is not a suitable occasion to discuss the merits of political productions, or to compare them with the effusions of great contemporaneous minds, or to speak of the principles advocated. All this belongs to the future, and history will assign each great name the measure of its enduring fame.

Mr. WEBSTER was conspicuous not only among the most illustrious men in the halls of legislation, but his fame shone with undiminished lustre in the judicial tribunals as an advocate, where he participated in many of the most

important discussions. On the bench were Marshall, Story, and their brethren-men of patient research and comprehensive scope of intellect-who have left behind them, in our judicial annals, proofs of greatness which will secure profound veneration and respect for their names. At the bar stood Pinckney, Wirt, Emmett, and many others who adorned and gave exalted character to the profession. Amid these luminaries of the bar he discussed many of the great questions raised in giving construction to organic law; and no one shone with more intense brightness, or brought into the conflict of mind more learning, higher proofs of severe mental discipline, or more copious illustration.

Among such men, and in such honorable combat, the foundations of that critical knowledge of constitutional law, which afterward became a prominent feature of his character, and entered largely into his opinions as a legislator, were laid.

The arguments made at this forum displayed a careful research into the history of the formation of the Federal Union, and an acute analysis of the fundamental provisions of the Constitution.

Probably no man has penetrated deeper into the principles, or taken a more comprehensive and complete view of the Union of the States, than that great man, ChiefJustice Marshall. No question was so subtle as to elude his grasp, or so complex as to defy his penetration. Even the great and the learned esteemed it no condescension to listen to the teachings of his voice; and no one profited more by his wisdom, or more venerated his character, than Mr. Webster.

To stand among such men with marked distinction, as did Mr. Webster, is an association which might satisfy any ambition, whatever might be its aspirations. But there, among those illustrious men, who have finished their labors and gone to their final homes, he made his mark strong and deep, which will be seen and traced by posterity.

But I need not dwell on that which is familiar to all readers who feel an interest in such topics; nor need I notice the details of his private life-since hundreds of pens have been employed in revealing all the facts, and in