Report of the Great Conspiracy Case: The People of the State of Michigan, Versus Abel F. Fitch and Others, Commonly Called the Rail Road Conspirators: Tried Before His Honor Warner Wing, Presiding Judge of the Circuit Court for the County of Wayne, at the May Term, 1851, in the City of Detroit. Containing the Evidence, Arguments of Counsel, Charge of the Court and the Verdict of the Jury |
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Common terms and phrases
acquainted Arman arrests asked ball alley bar-room boys buggy burning the depot camphene cars cattle Champlin charged Clark conspiracy conversation Corwin counsel court crime Cross-examined cupola defendants Detroit door engine evidence fence Filley Filley's fire Freeland Frink Gay's gentlemen Grass Lake heard Fitch horse impeach indictment Jackson Jackson county jury knew know his reputation Know Phelps Laycock Leoni lived match Metcalf Michigan Centre miles n't believe n't know never heard night Niles Noah Phelps Oakland county oath obstructions passed persons Phelps and Lake Price prison prosecution prove question rail recollect reputation for truth resided road rods saw Fitch saw Phelps seen Seward Sharon Spaulding speak spoke stones swear sworn Sylvan talked tavern tell testimony tion told track train trial truth and veracity Van Arman wagon wanted Washtenaw county Wescott Williams witness Woliver
Popular passages
Page 169 - Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
Page 104 - Touched lightly; for no falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper, but returns Of force to its own likeness: up he starts, Discovered and surprised.
Page 186 - With respect to all verbal admissions, it may be observed, that they ought to be received with great caution. The evidence, consisting as it does in the mere repetition of oral statements, is subject to much imperfection and mistake...
Page 104 - Him there they found Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve, Assaying by his devilish art to reach The organs of her fancy', and with them forge Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams...
Page 186 - The evidence, consisting as it does in the mere repetition of oral -statements, is subject to much imperfection and mistake ; the party himself either being misinformed or not having clearly expressed his own meaning, or the witness having misunderstood him. It frequently happens, also, that the witness, by unintentionally altering a few of the expressions really used, gives an effect to the statement completely at variance with what the party actually did say.
Page 169 - He will be more industrious to carry that which is grateful than that which is true. There will be no occasion for him, if he does not hear and see things worth discovery; so that he naturally inflames every word and circumstance, aggravates what is faulty, perverts what is good, and misrepresents what is indifferent. Nor is it to be doubted but that such ignominious wretches let their private passions into these their clandestine informations, and often wreak their particular spite and malice against...
Page 169 - ... into. A man who is capable of so infamous a calling as that of a spy, is not very much to be relied upon. He can have no great ties of honour, or checks of conscience, to restrain him in those covert evidences, where the person accused has no opportunity of vindicating himself.
Page 264 - ... view and beneath its ample folds. It protects beauty and virtue, punishes crime and wickedness, and vindicates right. Honor and life, and liberty and property, the wide world over, are its high objects. Stern, yet kind; pure, yet pitying; steadfast, immutable and just — it is the attribute of God on earth. It proceeds from His bosom and encircles the world with its care and power and blessings. All honor and praise to those who administer it in purity and who reverence its high behests.
Page 393 - State, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of said State, entitled "An act for running out and marking the jurisdiction line between this State and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania...
Page 263 - I saw and felt, and sympathized with you, in the shudder which marked your feelings as that and kindred sentences fell upon your astonished ears. I forgot I was here, and was carried for a moment to some heated tribune of Paris, where some spirit of fierceness was maddening the populace and stirring up France to again " Get drunk with blood to vomit crime." Ah! gentlemen, there is a worse evil abroad through this land, than the overshadowing power of corporations. There are isms of dreadful and fearful...