Nay, anti-slavery men--in lectures--and in speeches in the Music Hall, which was built by pious people--and in Faneuil Hall, which was the old Cradle of Liberty, had actually spoken against man-stealing,--and even against some of the family of kidnappers in Boston! Still further, he adds, with great solemnity, a woman--a negro woman,--the actual wife of the criminal Nason--had brought intelligence--to her husband--that Mr. George T. Curtis,--the brother of the judge,--had issued his warrant--and Mr. Butman--"with a monstrous watch"--was coming to execute it--she told her husband,--and--incited him to his dreadful crime! If you find these facts you must convict the prisoners. So thirty or forty more are hanged for treason. Gentlemen of the Jury, these fictitious cases doubtless seem extravagant to you. I am glad they do. In peaceful times, in the majority of cases there is no disagreement between the law, the judge, and the jurors; the law is just, or at least is an attempt at justice, the judge wishes to do justice by means thereof, and the jurors aim at the same thing. In such cases there is no motive for doing wrong to any person: so the judge fairly interprets the righteous and wholesome law, the jurors willingly receive the interpretation and apply it to the special case, and substantial justice is done. This happens not only in civil suits between party and party, but also in most of the criminal cases between the Public and the Defendant. But in times of great political excitement, in a period of crisis and transition, when one party seeks to establish a despotism and deprive some other class of men of their natural rights, cases like those I have imagined actually happen. Then there is a disagreement between the judge and the jury; nay, often between the jury and the special statute wherewith the government seeks to work its iniquity. It is on such occasions that the great value of this institution appears,--then the jury hold a shield over the head of their brother and defend him from the malignity of the government and the Goliath of injustice, appointed its champion to defy the Law of the living God, is smote in the forehead by the smooth stone taken from a country brook, and lies there slain by a simple rustic hand; for in such cases the jury fall back on their original rights, judge of the Fact, the Law, and the Application of the Law to the Fact, and do justice in spite of the court, at least prevent injustice. * * * * * Now, Gentlemen of the Jury, I will mention some examples of this kind, partly to show the process by which attempts have been made to establish despotism, that by the English past you may be warned for the American present and future; and partly that your function in this and all cases may become clear to you and the Nation. The facts of history will show that my fancies are not extravagant.