THE CONSPIRACY CASE AT DETROIT.

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CHAPTER XVI.

THE TRIAL OF ABEL F. FITCH AND OTHERS FOR CONSPIRACY, AT DETROIT, IN 1851- -MR. SEWARD'S DEFENCE.

IN May, 1851, an announcement was made by the press of Detroit, that an atrocious conspiracy (embracing fifty citizens of Jackson county, in the state of Michigan), for the destruction of the property of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, and an indiscriminate war against the lives of passengers travelling on the road, had been discovered, through the activity of agents of that company, and of the police, and that the guilty parties had been suddenly surprised, arrested, and conveyed to jail in Detroit.

The accusation took the form of an indictment for arson, in burning the depôt of that company in Detroit, and the proof that of a conspiracy for the commission of that and other great crimes. The prisoners alleged their entire innocence, and declared that the prosecution was itself a conspiracy, to convict them, by fabricated testimony, of a crime that had not even been committed.

The accused parties denied combination with each other, and even all knowledge of the principal, who was alleged to have committed the crime, and who, as they supposed, had been fraudulently induced to confess it and charge them as accomplices. In applying to be admitted to bail, the sums were fixed so high as to practically deny them that privilege.

Public opinion was vehemently and intensely excited against them, by reason of aggressions that had been committed in their neighborhood for a long time, seriously endangering the lives of passengers. Among the accused

were persons in every walk of life; and, while the guilt of some seemed too probable, that of all appeared to be quite impossible. The ten most distinguished lawyers of Michigan were retained, before the arrest, by the railroad company, to conduct the prosecution; and it was said that every other counsellor in the city and state qualified to defend them, except one, had been induced to decline to appear in their behalf.

They applied to Mr. Seward, at Auburn, by telegraph, after the trial had begun, stating these facts. He did not hesitate to appear for men whom the public had prejudged and condemned, and whom the legal profession, except for his going to their aid, would have been deemed to have abandoned.

The issues were perplexed. The evidence was of a most extraordinary character. Even now, it is impossible, on reading it, to decide which was most improbable, the existence of the crime, or the truth of the defence. The trial lasted four months, and so was the longest, in a jury-case, that was ever held. The alleged principal died before the trial began. One of the chief defendants, and another more obscure, died during its progress. Twelve of the fifty defendants were convicted, and all the others acquitted. All these circumstances, together with the ability and learning displayed, mark the case as one of the great state trials of this country. Mr. Seward's argument was published at the time. It reviewed, collated, and condensed the testimony of four hundred witnesses, presenting a very complicated series of transactions, private and public.

This speech fills more than one hundred pages in the report of the trial. To that report we refer the reader, regretting that our limits allow us to present only the introduction and the close of so elaborate and interesting a speech:

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MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT-GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY: This is Detroit, the commercial metropolis of Michigan. It is a

MR. SEWARD'S DEFENCE-EXTRACT.

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prosperous and beautiful city, and is worthy of your pride. I have enjoyed its hospitalities liberal and long. May it stand, and grow, and flourish, for ever! Seventy miles westward, toward the centre of the peninsula, in the county of Jackson, is Leoni, a rural district, containing two new and obscure villages, Leoni and Michigan Centre. Here, in this dock, are the chief

members of that community. Either they have committed a great crime against this capital, or there is here a conspiracy of infamous persons seeking to effect their ruin, by the machinery of the law. A state that allows great criminals to go unpunished, or great conspiracies to prevail, can enjoy neither peace, security, nor respect. This trial occurs in the spring-time of the state. It involves so many private and public interests, develops transactions so singular, and is attended by incidents so touching, that it will probably be regarded, not only as an important judicial event in the history of Michigan, but also as entitled to a place among the extraordinary state trials of our country and of our times.

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'Forty and more citizens of this state were accused of a felony, and demanded, what its constitution assured them, a trial by jury. An advocate was indispensable in such a trial. They required me to assume that office, on the ground of necessity. I was an advocate by profession. For me the law had postponed the question of their guilt or innocence. Can any one furnish me with what would have been a sufficient excuse for refusing their demand? Hoc maxime officii est, ut quisquam maxime opus indigeat, ita ei potissimum opitulari,* was the instruction given by Cicero. Can the American lawyer find a better rule of conduct, or one derived from higher authority?

.....

"Gentlemen, in the middle of the fourth month we draw near to the end of what has seemed to be an endless labor. While we have been here, events have transpired which have roused national 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

"The clear point of duty is, to assist most readily those who most need assistance."

have sickened and convalesced. Others have parted with cher. ished 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 a 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 life-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 declaresI 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 can not 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 must condemn 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. Remem

ber, 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 can not be unjust to the dead, nor false to your country, nor your God."

Of the character of Governor Seward's professional labors and conduct in the department of arguments at the bar, further illustrations will be found in his pleas for the liberty of the press, and against the fugitive-slave law, and for the rights of inventors, contained in the collection of his works.

A single passage from the first-named plea is given here as embodying Mr. Seward's views of resorts to courts of justice in vindication of personal character when assailed:

"Actions of libel are now at least comparatively unnecessary. A virtuous and humble life carries with it its own vindication. And if this be not enough, the press has the antidote to its own poisons. If it sometimes wounds, it can effectually heal. An eminent citizen who once presided in this court commenced pubIlic life with actions in defence of his character. Assailed as he thought in the evening of his life, he appealed to the press, and his vindication was complete and successful. The licentiousness of the press has impaired its power to defame-and the worst libel ever published would be effectually counteracted by a publication in the simple words, 'I am not guilty,' if it bore the signature of James Milnor, or of one who like him walked among his countrymen in the ways of a pure and blameless life."