ancholy scene of misery,
destitution, famine, and crime; and, unhappily, it presents to us the
frightful aspect of all these. The nature, however, of the conflicts
between those creeds and parties, inasmuch as it bears upon the case of
the prisoner, gentlemen, who now stands for trial and a verdict at your
hands, is such as forces me, on that account, to dwell briefly upon it.
In doing so, I will have much, for the sake of our common humanity, to
regret and to deplore. It is a fundamental principle, gentlemen, in our
great and glorious Constitution, that the paramount end and object of
our laws is to protect the person, the liberty, and the property of
the subject. But there is something, gentlemen, still dearer to us than
either liberty, person, or property; something which claims a protection
from those laws that stamps them with a nobler and a loftier character,
when it is afforded, and weaves them into the hearts and feelings of
men of all creeds, when this divine mission of the law is fulfilled. I
allude, gentlemen, to the inalienable right of every man to worship God
freely, and according to his own conscience--without restraint--without
terror--without oppression, and, gentlemen of the jury, without
persecution. A man, or a whole people, worship God, we will assume,
sincerely, according to their notions of what is right, and, I say,
gentlemen, that the individual who persecutes that man, or those people,
for piously worshipping their Creator, commits blasphemy against the
Almighty--and stains, as it were, the mercy-seat with blood.

"Gentlemen of the jury, let me ask you what has been the state and
condition of this unhappy and distracted country? I have mentioned two
opposing creeds, and consequently two opposing parties, and I have also
mentioned persecution; but let me also ask you again on which side has
the persecution existed? Look at your Roman Catholic fellow-subjects,
and ask yourselves to what terrible outburst of political and religious
vengeance have they not been subjected? But it is said they are not
faithful and loyal subjects, and that they detest the laws. Well, let
us consider this--let us take a cursory view of all that the spirit and
operation of the laws have left them to be thankful for--have brought
to bear upon them for the purpose, we must suppose, of securing their
attachment and their loyalty. Let us, gentlemen, calmly and solemnly,
and in a Christian temper, take a brief glance at the a