Report of the Great Conspiracy Case: The People of the State of Michigan, Versus Abel F. Fitch and Others, Commonly Called the Rail Road Conspirators: Tried Before His Honor Warner Wing, Presiding Judge of the Circuit Court for the County of Wayne, at the May Term, 1851, in the City of Detroit. Containing the Evidence, Arguments of Counsel, Charge of the Court and the Verdict of the JuryAdvertiser and Free Press, 1851 - 865 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
acquainted April Arman arrests asked ball alley bar-room boys buggy burning the depot camphene cars cattle Champlin charged Clark conspiracy conversation Corwin counsel court crime Cross-examined cupola defendants Detroit door Dyke evidence fence Filley Filley's fire Freeland Frink Gay's gentlemen Grass Lake heard Fitch horse impeach indictment Jackson Jackson county jury knew know his reputation Know Phelps Laycock Leoni lived match Metcalf Michigan Centre miles n't believe n't know never heard night Niles Noah Phelps Oakland county oath obstructions passed perjury persons Phelps and Lake Price prison prosecution prove question rail reputation for truth resided road rods saw Fitch saw Phelps seen Seward Sharon Spaulding speak spoke stones swear sworn Sylvan talked tavern tell testimony tion told track train trial truth and veracity Van Arman wagon wanted Washtenaw county Wescott Williams witness Woliver
Popular passages
Page 316 - He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows; Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod; ' The stamp of fate and sanction of the god: High heaven with trembling the dread signal took, And all Olympus to the centre shook.
Page 198 - With respect to all verbal admissions, it may be observed, that they ought to be received with great caution. The evidence, consisting as it does in the mere repetition of oral statements, is subject to much imperfection and mistake...
Page 256 - ... amenable to justice, and in the last mentioned case may be punished in the same manner as if convicted of being an accessory before the fact.
Page 270 - ... manner, that it may not bear too hard on the person whose life and conversation are inquired into. A man who is capable of so infamous a calling as that of a spy, is not very much to be relied upon. He can have no great ties of honour, or checks of conscience, to restrain -him in those covert evidences, where the person accused has no opportunity of vindicating himself. He will be more industrious...
Page 270 - As it is absolutely necessary for rulers to make use of other people's eyes and ears, they should take particular care to do it in such a manner, that it may not bear too hard on the person whose life and conversation are inquired into. • A man who is capable of so infamous a calling as that of a spy, is not very much to be relied upon. He can have no great ties...
Page 256 - ... together, with the principal felon, or after the conviction of the principal felon, or may be indicted and convicted of a substantive felony, whether the principal felon shall or shall not have been previously convicted, or shall or shall not be amenable to justice, and may be punished in the same manner as any accessory before the fact...
Page 276 - ... view, and beneath its ample folds. It protects beauty and virtue, punishes crime and wickedness, and vindicates right. Honor and life, and liberty, and property, the wide world over, are its high objects. Stern, yet kind; pure, yet pitying; steadfast, immutable and just; it is the attribute of God on earth. It proceeds from His bosom, and encircles the world with its care and power and blessings. All honor and praise to those who administer it in purity, and who reverence its high behests.
Page 275 - I saw and felt, and sympathized with you, in the shudder which marked your feelings as that and kindred sentences fell upon your astonished ears. I forgot I was here, and was carried for a moment to some heated tribune of Paris, where some spirit of fierceness was maddening the populace and stirring up France to again " Get drunk with blood to vomit crime." Ah! gentlemen, there is a worse evil abroad through this land, than the overshadowing power of corporations. There are isms of dreadful and fearful...
Page 198 - The zeal, too, which so generally prevails to detect offenders,, especially in cases of aggravated guilt, and the strong disposition in the persons engaged in pursuit of evidence to rely on slight grounds of suspicion, which are exaggerated into sufficient proof, together with the character of persons necessarily called as witnesses in cases of secret and atrocious crime, all tend to impair the value of this kind of evidence, and sometimes lead to its rejection where in civil actions it would have...
Page 181 - ... accused has no opportunity of vindicating himself. He will be more industrious to carry that which is grateful than that which is true. There will be no occasion for him, if he...