When the evidence in favor of the prisoners is finished, Mr. Quincy resumes his address—“I stated to you, gentlemen, your duty in opening this cause. I pointed out the dangers to which you were exposed. How much need was there that you should suspend your judgment till the witnesses were all examined!—How different is the complexion of the case? Will not all this serve to show every honest man the little truth to be attained in partial hearings? This trial ought to have another effect; it should serve to convince us all of the impropriety, nay, injustice, of giving a latitude in conversation upon topics likely to come under a judicial decision; the criminality of this comduct is certainly inhanced, when such loose sallies and discourses are so prevalent as to be likely to touch the life of a citizen. In the present case, how great was the prepossession against us! and I appeal to you, gentlemen, as to what cause there now is to alter our sentiments.” In the course of pleading, he is under a necessity of saying,—“And here, gentlemen, I must first tell you by what law the prisoners are _not_ to be tried or condemned. And they most certainly are _not_ to be tried by the _Mosaic_ law: a law we take it, especially designed for the government of a peculiar nation, who being in a great measure under a theocratical from of government, its institutions cannot, with any propriety, be adduced for our regulation in these days. It is with pain, therefore, I have observed any eadeavor to mislead our judgment on this occasion, by drawing our attention to the precepts delivered in the days of Moses: and by disconnected passages of scripture, applied in a manner foreign to their original design or import, there seems to have been an attempt to touch some peculiar sentiments which we know are thought to be prevalent; and in this way we take it, an injury is like to be done, by giving the mind a bias it ought never to have received, because it is not warranted by our laws.”