or accident, nor have we committed a right or wrong action, that has not been treasured up in the memory of a mother. Juror! roll up the sleeve from your manly arm and you will find a scar there of which you know nothing. Your mother will give you the detail of every day's progress of the preventive disease.-SALLY FREEMAN has the mingled blood of the African and Indian races. She is nevertheless a woman, and a mother, and nature bears witness in every climate and in every country, to the singleness and uniformity of those characters. I have known and proved them in the hovel of the slave, and in the wigwam of the Chippewa. But Sally Freeman has been intemperate. The white man enslaved her ancestors of the one race, exiled and destroyed those of the other, and debased them all by corrupting their natural and healthful appetites. She comes honestly by her only vice. Yet when she comes here to testify for a life that is dearer to her than her own, to say she knows her own son, the white man says she is a drunkard! May Heaven forgive the white man for adding this last, this cruel injury to the wrongs of such a mother! Fortunately, gentlemen, her character and conduct are before you. No woman ever appeared with more sobriety, decency, modesty, and propriety, than she has exhibited here. No witness has dared to say or think that SALLY FREEMAN is not a woman of truth. Dr. CLARY, a witness for the prosecution, who knows her well, says, that with all her infirmities of temper and of habit, Sally "was always a truthful woman." The Roman Cornelia could not have claimed more. Let then the stricken mother testify for her son.

"I ask not, I care not, if guilt's in that heart,
I know that I love thee, whatever thou art."

The learned gentlemen who conduct this prosecution have attempted to show that the prisoner attended the trial of Henry Wyatt, whom I defended against an indictment for murder, in this Court, in February last; that he listened to me on that occasion, in regard to the impunity of crime, and that he went out a ripe and complete scholar. So far as these reflections affect me alone, they are unworthy of an answer. I pleaded for Wyatt then, as it was my right and my duty to do. Let the Counsel for the people prove the words I spake, before they charge me with Freeman's crimes. I am not unwilling those words should be recalled. I am not unwilling that any words I ever spoke in any responsible relation should be remembered. Since they will not recall those

words, I will do so for them. They were words like those I speak now, demanding cautious and impartial justice; words appealing to the reason, to the consciences, to the humanity of my fellow men; words calculated to make mankind know and love each other better, and adopt the benign principles of Christianity, instead of the long cherished maxim of retaliation and revenge. The creed of Mahomet was promulgated at a time when paper was of inestimable value, and the Koran teaches that every scrap of paper which the believer has saved during his life, will gather itself under his feet, to protect them from the burning iron which he must pass over, while entering into Paradise. Regardless as I have been of the unkind construction of my words and actions by my cotemporaries, I can say in all humility of spirit, that they are freely left to the ultimate, impartial consideration of mankind. But, gentlemen, how gross is the credulity implied by this charge! This stupid idiot, who cannot take into his ears, deaf as death, the words which I am speaking to you, though I stand within three feet of him, and who even now is exchanging smiles with his and my accusers, regardless of the deep anxiety depicted in your countenances, was standing at yonder post, sixty feet distant from me, when he was here, if he was here at all, on the trial of Henry Wyatt. The voice of the District Attorney reverberates through this dome, while mine is lost almost within the circle of the bar. It does not appear that it was not that voice that beguiled the maniac, instead of mine; and certain it is that, since the prisoner does not comprehend the object of his attendance here now, he could not have understood anything that occurred on the trial of Wyatt.

Gentlemen, my responsibilities in this cause are discharged. In the earnestness and seriousness with which I have pleaded, you will find the reason for the firmness with which I have resisted the popular passions around me. I am in some degree responsible, like every other citizen, for the conduct of the community in which I live. They may not inflict on a maniac the punishment of a malefactor without involving me in blame, if I do not remonstrate. I cannot afford to be in error, abroad, and in future times. If I were capable of a sentiment so cruel and so base, I ought to hope for the conviction of the accused; for then the vindictive passions, now so highly excited, would subside, the consciences of the wise and the humane would be awakened, and in a few months the

invectives which have so long pursued me would be hurled against

the jury and the court.

You have now the fate of this lunatic in your hands. To him as to me, so far as we can judge, it is comparatively indifferent what be the issue. The wisest of modern men has left us a saying, that "the hour of death is more fortunate than the hour of birth,” a saying which he signalized by bestowing a gratuity twice as great upon the place where he died as upon the hamlet where he was born. For aught that we can judge, the prisoner is unconscious of danger and would be insensible to suffering, let it come when and in whatever forms it might. A verdict can only hasten, by a few months or years, the time when his bruised, diseased, wandering and benighted spirit shall return to Him who sent it forth on its sad and dreary pilgrimage.

The circumstances under which this trial closes are peculiar. I have seen capital cases where the parents, brothers, sisters, friends of the accused surrounded him, eagerly hanging upon the lips of his advocate, and watching, in the countenances of the court and jury, every smile and frown which might seem to indicate his fate. But there is no such scene here. The prisoner, though in the greenness of youth, is withered, decayed, senseless, almost lifeless. He has no father here. The descendant of slaves, that father died a victim to the vices of a superior race. There is no mother here, for her child is stained and polluted with the blood of mothers and of a sleeping infant; and he "looks and laughs so that she cannot bear to look upon him." There is no brother, nor sister, nor friend here. Popular rage against the accused has driven them hence, and scattered his kindred and people. On the other side, I notice the aged and venerable parents of Van Nest and his surviving children, and all around are mourning and sympathizing friends. I know not at whose instance they have come. I dare not say they ought not to be here. But I must say to you that we live in a christian and not in a savage state, and that the affliction which has fallen upon these mourners and us, was sent to teach them and us mercy and not retaliation; that, although we may send this maniac to the scaffold, it will not recall to life the manly form of Van Nest, nor re-animate the exhausted frame of that aged matron, nor restore to life and grace, and beauty, the murdered mother, nor call back the infant boy from the arms of his Savior. Such a verdict can do no good to the living, and carry no joy to the

dead. If your judgment shall be swayed at all by sympathies so wrong, although so natural, you will find the saddest hour of your life to be that in which you will look down upon the grave of your victim, and "mourn with compunctious sorrow" that you should have done so great injustice to the "poor handful of earth that will lie mouldering before you."

I have been long and tedious. I remember that it is the harvest moon, and that every hour is precious while you are detained from your yellow fields. But if you shall have bestowed patient attention throughout this deeply interesting investigation, and shall in the end have discharged your duties in the fear of God and in the love of truth justly and independently, you will have laid up a store of blessed recollections for all your future days, imperishable

and inexhaustible.

NOTE. As has been already stated, a verdict of guilty was rendered, and the prisoner was sentenced to be hanged. But Mr. Seward's efforts to prevent the execution of a demented maniac did not end here. He appealed to the governor for a pardon, with what success the following correspondence will show:

AUBURN, August 17th, 1846. DEAR SIR-William Freeman, a negro, lies in the jail of this county under sentence of death for the crime of murder. I acted as his counsel on the solicitation of humane persons who believed him insane. I believe him absolutely and hopelessly insane, sinking from monomania into dementia. I believe he was a lunatic, and committed his crimes under the influence of an insane delusion. Thus believing, it seems to be a duty to appeal to you for pardon to the convict. The grounds of my opinion are the same which were submitted to the jury and overlooked by them. I beg leave, therefore, to transmit herewith a copy of my argument on the trial. You will, of course, know what allowance should be made for my prejudices and my zeal as counsel, and will know how much confidence ought to be reposed in the verdict of the jury. My own duty is finished when I express to you my sincere conviction of the truth of the plea which I unsuccessfully maintained. Fully believing that the subject will engage your most dispassionate consideration, I have the honor to be Your Excellency's most obedient servant,

His Excellency SILAS WRIGHT, Governor, &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER. Albany, 7th September, 1846.

}

DEAR SIR,-On my return to the city on the 22d ult., I found your letter of the 17th, relating to the case of William Freeman, and the copy of your printed argument which accompanied the letter. A large share of my time, since my return, has been devoted to the examination of the reports from the judge, and the other papers connected with the case, and I have come to the conclusion, that there is nothing in the testimony to warrant me in overruling the verdicts of the two juries, finding the fact of sanity. The case is a painful one in every aspect of it, and yet it would have been pleasant to my feelings to have found it in my power, consistently with my sense of duty, to have saved this man from the awful fate impending over him. I read your argument with attention and deep interest, but I did not find in it matter to obviate the force of the testimony upon the other side and the verdicts of the two juries. I am very respectfully, &c.,

His Excellency WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c. &c.

SILAS WRIGHT.

Mr. Seward's next appeal was to the Supreme Court for a new trial, which was granted. The death of Freeman, however, relieved him of further labor in the case.-ED.

FUGITIVE SLAVES.*

MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT,

The defendant moved in the Circuit Court for a new trial on the ground of ERRONEOUS INSTRUCTIONS given by the court to the jury.

The defendant moved also an arrest of judgment on the ground of the INSUFFICIENCY OF THE DECLARATION.

On hearing these motions, the judges of the Circuit Court required instructions from this august tribunal, upon eight questions which arose on the former motion, to wit:

First. Whether under the fourth section of the act of February 12, 1793, the notice must be in writing, given by the claimant or his agent; must contain a statement that the person harbored or concealed is a fugitive from labor, within the meaning of the third section of the statute, and must be served on the person who harbors or conceals the alleged fugitive.

Second. Whether such notice, if it be not in writing, and it be not served in the manner before mentioned, must be given verbally, by the claimant or his agent, to the person who harbors or conceals the alleged fugitive, or whether a general notice in a newspaper to the public is necessary.

Third. Whether clear proof, by the confessions of the defendant or otherwise, that he knew the colored person harbored or concealed was a slave, and was a fugitive from labor, is not sufficient to charge the defendant with notice; although he may have obtained such knowledge from the slave, or in any other manner.

Fourth. Whether the facts that the defendant received, from another person, the fugi tive from labor at three o'clock in the morning, in the State of Ohio, twelve miles from the place in Kentucky where he was held to labor, and transported him in a closely covered wagon, twelve or fourteen miles, so that he escaped from pursuit and his services were thereby lost to his master, do not constitute an act of "harboring," or of "concealing" the fugitive within the meaning of the statute.

*This action was brought in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of Ohio, by Wharton Jones, of Kentucky, against John Van Zandt, of Ohio, to recover a penalty of five hundred dollars, for harboring, and concealing, Andrew, the plaintiff's slave, in violation of the act of Congress, 1793. The jury, under the charge of the court, rendered a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant moved for a new trial, and an arrest of judgment. The cause came into the Supreme Court of the United States in December. 1847, on a certificate that the judges of the Circuit Court were divided in their opinions upon the questions stated in the argument. Counsel for the plaintiff, JAMES T. MOREHEAD, of Kentucky. Counsel for the defendant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD, of New York, and S. P. CHASE, of Ohio.