Excerpt from Argument in the Railroad Conspiracy Case Entitled the People of Michigan Vs; Abel F. Fitch and Others: Tried Before His Honor, Warner Wing, Presiding Judge, of the Circuit Court for the Country of Wayne, at the May Term, 1851 in the City of Detroit All things teach the dread truth that "life is fleeting," and that we should move through its mazy paths of cares and pleasures, with hope and vision fixed on the eternity which lies beyond. In this case, gentlemen, we have each a solemn duty to perform - let us discharge it with a high sense of the responsibility which rests upon us. In the views which I am about submit to you, I will earnestly endeavor to treat this cause with the seriousness its importance demands, and with the candor and fairness due to you and to the Court. While I feel pleased in beholding the laurels which this trial has en twined around other brows, I will seek to gather none for my own, will neither wander into the paths of fancy, nor address myself to those who sit without the jury box. I will remember, however dull it may render me, that my duty confines me to this cause, I will speak only of it, and address myself only to you. I will pass over the case gentleman, as nearly as possible in the same order which has been pursued by the distinguished counsel who last addressed you for the defence. I shall not see or hope to leave the impress of oratorical power upon your imagination, but trust, ere I conclude, to convince your reason, that every point urged by the defence is fallacious, and without foundation in the facts and evidence before you. An objection of a technical character has been interposed by the counsel for the prisoners, which I propose briefly to allude to before his Honor, the Judge. The Court is aware, that at common law, an accessory could only be indicted and tried by one of two ways, viz: with the principal - the jury first passing on the principal's guilt: or secondly, after the conviction or outlawry of the principal - the record of his conviction affording prima facie evidence of his guilt. It being found that this rule of the common Jaw did not operate to the furtherance of justice, but rather to the shielding of guilt, the Act of 7 Geo. 4, C. 64, was passed to remedy the evil. This Act retained the two common law modes of trial of accessories before the fact, and provided a third, viz: as, and for a substantive felony; and this act is substantially and, indeed, almost literally re-enacted in and by our own Rev. Stat. 1846, P. 688, Chap. 161, Sec. 2, which is as follows: "Every person who shall counsel, hire, or otherwise procure any felony to be committed, may be indicted and convicted as an accessory before the fact, either with the principal felon, or after the conviction of the principal felon, or he may be indicted or convicted of a substantive felony, whether the principal felon shall or shall not be amenable to justice, and in the last mentioned case, may be punished in the same manner as if convicted of being accessory before the fact." The present indictment counts as follows, viz: 1st. Against alias principals in the arson of the Depot. 2nd. Against George W. Gay as principal in the arson. 3d. Against the other defendants as accessories before the fact. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com