Certainly, Mr. Commissioner, we are assembled here, this morning, under extraordinary circumstances. I am not aware that since the foundations of our institutions were laid, since we became an independent people, since the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had an independent existence,--I am not aware that a case similar to this has once arisen. I do not know that ever before in our history, a judicial tribunal has sat, even for a preliminary hearing, upon a gentleman of education, a counsellor of the law, sworn doubly, as a Justice of the Peace, and as a Counsellor in all the Courts, to sustain the Constitution of the United States and the laws made in pursuance thereof,--a gentleman of property, family, friends, reputation, who has more at stake in the preservation of these institutions than nine in ten of those who charge him with this crime;--who stands charged with an offence (in the construction now attempted to be put upon the statute) of a treasonable character, a treasonable misdemeanor, an attempt to rescue a person from the law by force, an attempt to set up violence against the law of the land. Therefore it is that this trial attracts this unusual interest. It is not that, so far as this defendant is concerned, the question whether he be bound over here, or whether the District Attorney takes his case directly to the Grand Jury, can make the slightest difference in the world; but because the decision of this tribunal, though only preliminary, will have great effect upon the community, and will be carried throughout the United States. It is because of the political weight attached to it, that such anxiety is felt for the result. For the simple rescue of a prisoner out of the hands of an officer, is a thing that occurs in our streets not very unfrequently, and often in other cities. It might have occurred up stairs, and not have attracted a moment's attention. Who, Mr. Commissioner, is the defendant, at the bar? I have said that he is a Justice of the Peace, sworn to sustain the laws, a counsellor of this court and of all the courts of the United States in this State, sworn doubly to sustain the laws. He is a gentleman of property and education, whose professional reputation and emolument depend upon sustaining law against force; a man whose ancestors, of the ancient Pilgrim stock of Plymouth, are among those who laid the foundations of the institutions that we enjoy. He has at this moment so much interest in the way of personal pride, historical recollections, property, in family, reputation, honor and emolument in these courts--so much at stake as to render it impossible to believe, except on the strongest confirmation, that he should be guilty of the offence charged against him at this moment.