To be sure—
But how—if we have no witnesses—
Very fair—very fair, brother B.
What if you were a stranger?—what if you had no character?—or a bad one?
It would go hard with me, I dare say—and—and (raising his voice and appealing to the bar with a triumphant look) and it should go hard with me.
Why then Sir—it would go hard with every stranger in a strange country, for he has no character; and it would go hard with every man who might be unable to produce proof, though he had a good character; and with every man who might be regarded as a profligate or a suspicious character—as a cheat, or a jew, or a misbeliever.
And what have such men to complain of?
Judges—Fathers—I appeal to you. I have not much more to say, and what I have to say shall be said with a view to the case before you. I have always understood that if a man be charged with a crime here, he is to be tried for that particular crime with which he is charged, and for no other till that be disposed of. I have always understood moreover, not only in your courts of law and by your books of law, but by the courts and by the books of which you are but a copy, that character is not to be put in issue as a crime before you; and that nobody is to be put to death or punished merely because he may happen to have no character at all—nor because he may have a bad one—
You have understood no more than is true, said a judge.
If so ... allow me to ask why you and other judges are in the habit of punishing people of a bad character ... nay of putting such people to death ... for doing that which, if it were done by people of good character, you would overlook or forgive?