That is one illustration. I will mention one other, decided in the South, relating to a subject on which the South is very strict and very jealous. A slave announced to a man his intention to escape. The man secreted the slave for the purpose of aiding his escape and effecting his freedom. He was indicted for larceny, on the ground that he exercised a control over the property of the owner against his will. The Court held that the object was not to steal, and he could not be convicted. In _Wheaton's Criminal Proceedings_, page 397, this language will be found, and it is satisfactory on the point under discussion. "There are cases where taking is no more than a trespass: Where a man takes another's goods _openly before him_, or where, having otherwise than by _apparent robbery_, possessed himself of them, he _avows the fact_ before he is questioned. This is _only a trespass_." Now all these principles are familiar and simple, and do not require lawyers to expound them, for they appeal to the practical sense of mankind. _It is certainly a most lamentable result of the wisdom of centuries, to place twelve men together and ask them, from_ FICTIONS _or_ THEORIES _to say, on oath, that a man is a thief, when every one of them_ KNOWS THAT HE IS NOT. If any man on this Jury thinks the word pirate, robber or thief can be truly applied to either of these defendants, I am very sorry, for I think neither of them at all liable to any such epithet. But, suppose that the intent is to be inferred from the act of seizing the Joseph, and the defendants must be convicted, unless justified by _the commission issued for Captain Baker_; let us then inquire as to the effect of that commission. We say that it _protects the defendants against being treated as pirates_. Whether it does, or not, depends upon the question whether the Confederate States have occupied such a relation to the United States of America that they might adopt the means of retaliation or aggression recognized in a state of war. It is our right and duty, as advocates, to maintain that the _Confederate Government was so situated_; and to support the proposition by reference to the political and judicial history and precedents of the past, stating for these men the principles and views which they and their neighbors of the revolting States insist upon; our personal opinions being in no wise called for, nor important, nor even proper, to be stated at this time and in this place. If it can be shown that the Confederate States occupy the same position towards the Government of the United States that the thirteen revolted Colonies did to Great Britain in the war of the Revolution, then these men cannot be convicted of piracy.