On Monday, the twenty-fourth of November, the Trial was commenced at eleven o’clock A. M., in the United States Court room, at Philadelphia. The entire second floor of the building, known as Independence Hall, is leased by the General Government for the sittings of the Circuit and District Courts. The eastern portion, immediately over the room in which Congress held its sessions when Independence was declared, is divided into the offices of the Clerk and Marshal, Jury and Witness rooms, &c. The western portion is the Court room, and is probably one of the most elegantly furnished, for court purposes, in the country. The learned Judge of the District Court takes great pride in having everything about him conducted in the most polished style, and few Courts can boast of more urbane and polite attendants than the Circuit and District Courts of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
For all ordinary purposes, for admiralty causes, the hearing of patent cases, and other business usually transacted in these Courts, the room is sufficiently large. But on occasions attracting much of public attention, great inconvenience is felt by all whose duties compel them to be in attendance; and during the trial of Castner Hanway, as has just been seen, complaints were loud and frequent.
For this occasion the room had been refitted. Gas fixtures of the chastest designs had been erected, in anticipation of evening sessions. Ventilators of the most appropriate patterns had been placed in the ceiling, controlled by cords terminating at the bench of the Judges, so that a uniform temperature could be preserved. Nothing was wanting but space to promote the ease and comfort of those who were to figure in the solemn investigation about to take place.
Long before the appointed hour, the Court room was filled with persons anxious to witness the opening ceremonies. Officers were in attendance to see that the spectators were seated, and no more were admitted than the room would contain comfortably. In the lobbies and on the stair-way, policemen were stationed to prevent the crowd from rushing up, to allow those to pass who had been called thither by duty, and to preserve order below. For the first ten days they were retained on duty, their number being diminished by degrees until public curiosity had subsided.
At eleven o’clock, Judges Grier and Kane took their seats, and the Court was opened by the usual proclamation. The clerk called the names of one hundred and sixteen persons who had been summoned by the Marshal to attend as Jurors. Among them were some of the oldest and best known citizens of the eastern part of the State of Pennsylvania,—men whose lives were a guaranty that they were above all petty influences and vulgar prejudices,—who could safely take the oath prescribed by law for a juror.
Eighty-one answered to their names. Several of the absent had sent excuses, and nineteen of those present were released either absolutely or temporarily on account of sickness or other causes. Preliminary arrangements were made for reporting the proceedings phonographically for the use of the Court and the counsel. Some conversation was had as to the propriety of restraining the publication of the testimony, &c., of the trial in the newspapers, for fear that, upon a second trial, an unprejudiced panel of jurors could not be found. But no order was made by the Court, and during the whole trial, the papers of this and the adjoining cities contained full accounts of everything that transpired. The District Attorney then gave notice that “as at present advised, he would in the morning move for the arraignment of Castner Hanway,”—and the Court adjourned for the day.
On Tuesday morning, before ten o’clock, the Court room was again filled. After a few more excuses of jurors had been heard, the District Attorney for the United States, moved for the arraignment of the defendant, Castner Hanway. Mr. John M. Read, one of the counsel who afterwards appeared for the prisoner, made some remarks in regard to the informality in the summoning of the panel of jurors, and cited several cases to sustain the objections which he informally made to the whole array. The District Attorney in reply alleged that the return to the venire was perfectly proper, but intimated that if the counsel for defence would move to quash the array, there would be no opposition on the part of the Government. This was the first intimation given to the public that the jurymen returned were unsatisfactory to the prosecution. There had been rumors that the District Attorney himself intended making a motion to quash, but no official dissatisfaction had been previously known. To such a proposition, however, the defendant could not agree. He had been in a felon’s cell for more than two months, and his health and strength were fast giving way to the confinement. He and his friends had spared neither pains nor expense to procure the attendance of witnesses, and were as well prepared then for trial as they ever could be. Any panel of impartial men was all he asked, and this he had no reason to doubt were then summoned, as by law, he was entitled to have them. Yet to give the Government as fair an opportunity as its officers desired, another of his counsel, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, offered to make the motion to quash, on condition that the prisoner be admitted to “ample bail,” and the trial be ordered to take place in the county of Lancaster. The District Attorney refused to agree to this, and the clerk read to the defendant the Indictment.
This paper, containing five counts, charged him with wickedly and traitorously intending to levy war upon the United States. It embraced the usual amount of legal nonsense, and recited as much of the transactions at Christiana on the morning of the 11th September, as were necessary.
After the reading had concluded, the clerk asked him—
How say you, Castner Hanway, are you guilty or not guilty?