Now, we say, that this felonious intent as charged against these defendants, must be proved. But what say my learned friends opposed? Why (in effect), that it need not be proved to a Jury by any evidence, but must be _inferred_, as a matter of law, or by the Jury first, from the presumption that every man knows the law; and these men, in this view, are pirates--though they _honestly believed that there was a valid Government called the Confederate States_, and that they _had a right to act under it_--because they _ought_ to have known the law; _ought_ to have known that, although the Confederate States had associated for the purpose of forming, yet they had not _completed_ a Government; _ought_ to have known that, though Baker had a commission signed by Jefferson Davis, the so-called President of the Confederate States, under which he was authorized to act as a privateer, yet the law did not recognize the commission. There is, indeed, a rule of law, said to be essential to the existence of society, that all men must be taken to know the law, except, I might add, lawyers and judges, who seldom agree upon any proposition until they must. The whole judicial system is founded upon the theory that judges will err about the law, and thus we have the Courts of review to correct judicial mistakes and to establish permanent principles. Yet it is true that every man is presumed to know the law; and the native of Manilla (one of the parties here charged), _Loo Foo_, or whatever his name may be, who does not, probably, understand what he is here for, is presumed to know the law as well as one of us. If he did not know it better, considering the differences between us, he might not be entitled to rate high as a jurist. One of my brethren read to you an extract from a recent German work, which presents a different view of this subject as relates to foreign subjects in particular cases. I was happy to hear MR. MAYER on the law of this case, more particularly as he declared himself to be a foreign-born citizen; for it is one of the characteristics of this Government--a characteristic of our free institutions--that no distinction of birth or creed is permitted to stand in the way of merit, come from what clime it may.