Produced by Meredith Bach, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Transcriber's Note: A table of contents has been added for the reader's convenience. Errors listed in the Errata section have been noted with a [Transcriber's Note]; other obvious printer errors have been corrected without note.] THE TRIAL OF THEODORE PARKER, FOR THE "MISDEMEANOR" OF A Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping, BEFORE THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, AT BOSTON, APRIL 3, 1855. WITH THE DEFENCE, BY THEODORE PARKER, MINISTER OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY IN BOSTON. BOSTON: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 1855. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by THEODORE PARKER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS. CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION DEFENCE ERRATA OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR TO JOHN PARKER HALE AND CHARLES MAYO ELLIS, MAGNANIMOUS LAWYERS, FOR THEIR LABORS IN A NOBLE PROFESSION, WHICH HAVING ONCE IN ENGLAND ITS KELYNG, ITS SAUNDERS, ITS JEFFREYS, AND ITS SCROGGS, AS NOW IN AMERICA ITS SHARKEY, ITS GRIER, ITS CURTIS, AND ITS KANE, HAS YET ALSO SUCH GENEROUS ADVOCATES OF HUMANITY AS EQUAL THE GLORIES OF HOLT AND ERSKINE, OF MACKINTOSH AND ROMILLY, FOR THEIR ELOQUENT AND FEARLESS DEFENCE OF TRUTH, RIGHT, AND LOVE, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, BY THEIR CLIENT AND FRIEND, THEODORE PARKER. PREFACE. TO THE PEOPLE OF THE FREE STATES OF AMERICA. FELLOW-CITIZENS AND FRIENDS,-- If it were a merely personal matter for which I was arraigned before the United States Court, after the trial was over I should trouble the public no further with that matter; and hitherto indeed, though often attacked, nay, almost continually for the last fourteen years, I have never returned a word in defence. But now, as this case is one of such vast and far-reaching importance, involving the great Human Right to Freedom of Speech, and as the actual question before the court was never brought to trial, I cannot let the occasion pass by without making further use of it.