Mr. Coxe, without defending the Abolition Societies, here undertook to prove,from various documentary evidence, that there was, after all, but very little difference between the sentiments and objects of the colonizationists and the abolitionists.
In conclusion, Mr. Coxe remarked, that if any the smallest injury had resulted from the traverser's sojourn in this District, it was not his fault. He was innocently occupied in professional pursuits, and was quietly pursuing the even tenor of his way. Whatever excitement and injury had grown out of his visit here was solely attributable to the illegal course taken by the prosecutor in procuring his arrest and the seizure of his papers, which were harmlessly reposing in his trunk.
With these remarks, and his thanks for the patient hearing afforded him by the jury, Mr. Coxe submitted the case, with entire confidence, to their hands.
Mr. F. S. Key.I consider this one of the most important cases ever tried here; I wish the prisoner every advantage of a fair trial. It is a case to try the question, whether our institutions have any means of legal defence against a set of men of most horrid principles, whose means of attack upon us are insurrection, tumult, and violence. The traverser defends himself by justifying the libels. We are told that they are harmless—that they have no tendency to produce the horrid results which we deprecate. We have been told thatthiscommunity has not been endangered. The Emancipator has been read, the extracts from it justified, this prosecution scouted. If such publications are justifiable, then are we, indeed, at the tender mercy of the Abolitionist, and the sooner we make terms of capitulation with him the better. What does he propose for the slave? Immediate emancipation. In one instant the chains of the slave must snap asunder. Without delay, and without preparation, he becomes a citizen, a legislator, goes to the polls, and appointsourrulers. If this be the plan, then am I ready, as the opposite counsel expresses it, to seek refuge in other parts of the United State. Are you willing, gentlemen, to abandon your country; to permit it to be taken from you, and occupied by the Abolitionist, according to whose taste it is to associate and amalgamate with the negro? Or, gentlemen, on the other hand, are there laws in this community to defend you from the immediate Abolitionist, who would open upon you the floodgates of such extensive wickedness and mischief? There are such laws, gentlemen; they are as essential to your prosperity and peace as is the sacred law of self-defence to every individual.
But you have heard it denied that there are such laws; that these pamphlets are incendiary; and this prosecution is likened to those under the sedition law—a law reprobated and repealed—and hence we may infer that a man may publish what he pleases, however seditious and insurrectionary it may be. Not so. The repeal of the sedition law left the common law, by which these offences always were punishable, in full force; and, gentlemen, it is well known that the principal argument against the sedition law was, that the offences which it punished were sufficiently provided for already by the common law as it stood. But the traverser is not content with acting merely on the defensive. It appears that he is apersecuted innocent man; upon an illegal warrant, without proper evidence, attacked,robbed, put in jail; all for having a few harmless publications about him. Why does not thispersecutedman bring his action for false imprisonment? Why do not his counsel advise it? The warrant was issued upon probable cause on oath. Themagistrate was bound to issue it, but it made the constable the judge of what were incendiary papers! Yes! and had the constable have taken any other course he would have been responsible to the traverser for so doing. But carry out the law as expounded on the other side. Here's a counterfeiter caught, with his tools, plates, &c., all found upon a search for stolen goods. The gentleman would bring him before a magistrate, have the warrant quashed, hisgoodsreturned to him, and should the articles, thus found, be used in evidence against him, it would be horrid, tyrannical, oppressive, shocking, and enough to make a man runaway from a country where there are such laws, and find refuge in some other. Gentlemen, if in searching for stolen goods you find evidence of counterfeiting, you may use it for the purpose of convicting the culprit of either offence.
But the papers were safe in Dr. Crandall's trunk. Yes, all were there and safe, but those taken out and circulated, exactly as the case would have been had they been counterfeit bank notes, and not incendiary pamphlets. Gentlemen, did he not give Mr. King one, because he thought that hewould notmention it? And, gentlemen, would he not as likely give to those whocould nottell? At every step in our community, he meets such men; he is enjoined in the language of these papers, to give them currency "in highways and by-ways." This man should be glad of the opportunity, by public trial, to exonerate himself from the charges against him. They are distinctly made—the testimony clearly laid down—testimony, in my opinion, ample for his conviction. There are two questions in this case: are the libels charged criminal?—are they proved to have been published by the traverser? I call your attention to the libels and to their tendency. The Colonization Society published them only to denounce them. The Colonization Society only contemplates free negroes, and has nothing to do with slavery.
Mr. Key here explained the difference between the papers read by the traverser's counsel and those charged in the indictment, and showed that the Kentucky synod, the grand jury of our District, &c. were for gradual emancipation by the whites, and not violence by the blacks, &c. He thought having a number of these printed libels stronger proof against the traverser than having only one written; commented upon these papers coming through the post office with only one cent postage, as strong evidence that they were sent in here; upon the fact that none of his witnesses testified to his character or pursuits within the last two years; upon the improbability of such a man as Crandall was represented to be, of high character as a man and a physician, leaving Peekskill to go botanizing merely. Mr. K. here commented upon the inflammatory character of the libel alluding to thecolonial, and, as he contended, thegeneralsystem of slavery. Mr. K. here read again from the pamphlet, and then added: I am accused of being emphatic; I confess my blood boils when I read the closing sentence of this libel—this taunting us with the torch of the negro at our threshold, and his knife at our throats—this fiendish allusion to thebeautyand chivalry of the South; it displays cool and demoniac malignity! Mr. K. then alluded to the pictures, saying that they could be meant only for the illiterate, and tended only to insurrection and violence. Mr. K. animadverted upon the speeches and opinions of eminent Southern men, quoted by the traverser's counsel,to show that their objects were different from those of the abolitionists. Mr. Key remarked, with great severity, on the abstract proposition of the sinfulness of slavery, and the declaration in the libels of the "South being awakened from their snoring by the thunder of the Southampton massacre." He contended that Crandall admitted, in his examinations at the jail, that all the papers he had were sent from New York, and came in a box; and said nothing about having received two parcels; and that he also admitted, that he had all the papers sent, but twelve or thirteen, and argued that those twelve or thirteen were circulated here, amongst improper persons: that if otherwise, the traverser might and could prove to him, to whom they were delivered.
He adverted to the slander contained in the libels, that a free person of color might be sold here for jail fees when apprehended as a runaway slave. He commented on the evidence of Mr. Austin, and argued that it was far from showing that the packages were not broken by Dr. Crandall, and part of them taken out and distributed. He also argued that Dr. Crandall took no pains to have the pamphlet returned to him, which he delivered to Mr. King, and did not destroy those he had after hearing that there was an excitement on the subject, and that none of these libels and picture books were used by him, as the other newspapers were, to preserve his plants, thereby proving his disposition to preserve and circulate them. Mr. Key also referred, in corroboration of what C.'s views were, to his declarations to Jeffers' favorable to the amalgamation of the blacks and whites, and also those to Colclazier and Tippet, "that slavery brought the slaveholder and slave into promiscuous sensual intercourse," "and that he was willing that the North and the South should be arrayed against each other." Mr. Key added: This is a subject to us not of indifference. It has been one of much excitement, and we are bound to act in self-defence. If in your conscience, gentlemen, you think the traverser innocent, acquit him. Judge of these libels—the words—the meaning—the tendency—read their endorsement "please read and circulate" in the traverser's handwriting—look at these pictures!—hear his admission, "I gave them to a man who I thought would not tell on me." There are twelve or thirteen of them brought here by him unaccounted for; hear his prevarications in the jail and elsewhere: and if he is an innocent man, cruelly imprisoned under an illegal warrant, and these vile, calumniatory libels, are actually thisinnocent,persecutedgentleman'sproperty—stolenfrom him—then gentlemen return him his property and let him go free. It is with you, gentlemen; I ask of you but to do your conscientious duty.
The jury retired, and, after a short deliberation, agreed upon a verdict ofnot guilty. After which they separated, and returned their verdict into Court the next morning.
Transcriber's NoteSome of the words in this text were verified by referencing the document "The trial of Reuben Crandall, M.D., charged with publishing seditious libels, by circulating the publications of the American Anti-Slavery Society, before the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, held at Washington, in April, 1836, occupying the court the period of ten days." (New-York: H. R. Piercy, 1836)The following corrections have been made to this text:Page 6:Removed stray quote marks (If a man in manners)Page 10:Changed choses to chooses (to every body who chooses)Page 14:Changed posession to possession (traverser's possession)Page 18:Added missing end punctuation (Question by Key.)Page 19:Changed Crrndall's to Crandall's (Dr. Crandall's reply)Page 23:Changed did'nt to didn't (he didn't know which)Page 28:Added missing word 'to' (I have to say to them)Page 29:Added missing quote marks ("I hope I may be excused)Page 30:Removed stray quote marks (run her hull under.)Page 31:Changed desarts to deserts (its wide-spread deserts)Page 31:Removed duplicate word 'as' (so far as he had seen him)Page 34:Changed did to didn't (didn't know of any with writing)(Verified by referencing the document mentioned above.)Page 44:Changed posssession to possession (wrested from the possession)Page 48:Changed gentlemen's to gentleman's (persecutedgentleman's)Page 48:Changed Jeffer's to Jeffers' (Jeffers' favorable)
Some of the words in this text were verified by referencing the document "The trial of Reuben Crandall, M.D., charged with publishing seditious libels, by circulating the publications of the American Anti-Slavery Society, before the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, held at Washington, in April, 1836, occupying the court the period of ten days." (New-York: H. R. Piercy, 1836)
The following corrections have been made to this text:
Page 6:Removed stray quote marks (If a man in manners)Page 10:Changed choses to chooses (to every body who chooses)Page 14:Changed posession to possession (traverser's possession)Page 18:Added missing end punctuation (Question by Key.)Page 19:Changed Crrndall's to Crandall's (Dr. Crandall's reply)Page 23:Changed did'nt to didn't (he didn't know which)Page 28:Added missing word 'to' (I have to say to them)Page 29:Added missing quote marks ("I hope I may be excused)Page 30:Removed stray quote marks (run her hull under.)Page 31:Changed desarts to deserts (its wide-spread deserts)Page 31:Removed duplicate word 'as' (so far as he had seen him)Page 34:Changed did to didn't (didn't know of any with writing)(Verified by referencing the document mentioned above.)Page 44:Changed posssession to possession (wrested from the possession)Page 48:Changed gentlemen's to gentleman's (persecutedgentleman's)Page 48:Changed Jeffer's to Jeffers' (Jeffers' favorable)