n A. Bingham, of Ohio, assisting him. The attorneys for the
defense were Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland; Thomas Ewing, of Kansas;
W. E. Doster, of Pennsylvania; Frederick A. Aiken, of the District
of Columbia; Walter S. Cox, John W. Clampit, and F. Stone, of
Maryland. The fault of the Adams oration in the case of the Boston
Massacre is one of excessive severity of logic. Aiken errs in the
direction of excessive ornament, but, considering the importance of
the occasion and the great stress on all engaged in the trial as
well as on the public, the florid style may have served better than
the force of severe logic could have done.

DEFENSE OF MRS. MARY E. SURRATT

For the lawyer as well as the soldier, there is an equally pleasant
duty--an equally imperative command. That duty is to shelter the
innocent from injustice and wrong, to protect the weak from
oppression, and to rally at all times and all occasions, when
necessity demands it, to the special defense of those whom nature,
custom, or circumstance may have placed in dependence upon our
strength, honor, and cherishing regard. That command emanates and
reaches each class from the same authoritative and omnipotent
source. It comes from a superior whose right to command none dare
question, and none dare disobey. In this command there is nothing of
that _lex_ _talionis_ which nearly two thousand years ago nailed to the
cross its Divine Author.

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets."

God has not only given us life, but he has filled the world with
everything to make life desirable; and when we sit down to determine
the taking away of that which we did not give, and which, when
taken away, we cannot restore, we consider a subject the most solemn
and momentous within the range of human thought and human action.

Profoundly impressed with the innocence of our client, we enter upon
the last duty in her case with the heartfelt prayer that her
honorable judges may enjoy the satisfaction of not having a single
doubt left on their minds in granting her an acquittal, either as to
the testimony affecting her, or by the surrounding circumstances of
the case.

The first point that naturally arises in the presentation of the
defense of our client is that which concerns the plea that has been
made to the jurisdiction of the commission to try her--a plea
which by no means implie