After Mr. Read had concluded, according to the arrangements agreed upon, Mr. Stevens was to speak. Many persons had assembled to hear his remarks, and public expectation had been excited to an unusual degree. The disappointment was general, when he announced that he thought the case had been so fully and ably argued, on the part of the defence, that his duty to the defendant did not require him to add anything to what had already been said.
Mr. Cooper closed the case for the Government.[D] In the portion of it reported, he reviews the testimony of both sides, and presented his interpretation of the contested points to the jury, answering some of the arguments made by gentlemen for the defence. The time at which his remarks were made compelled him to go over much ground a second time. He concluded by giving his views of the law of treason.
The abstract of the remarks of the different gentlemen engaged in the cause, is necessarily very crude and imperfect. No attempt has been made to give anything more than a hasty analysis of those parts of each speech that pertained to the case.
His Honor Judge Grier charged the jury, at length, upon the law which should govern them in coming to a verdict.
The consideration of the case, he said, had occupied much time, but not more than the importance of the issue, both as respects the interests of the public, and duty to the prisoner necessarily required. The Court had given ample time and opportunity for the investigation of the law and the facts bearing on the case,—not only because it is the first of a numerous list of cases, of the same description, which involve the issue of life and death to the parties immediately concerned, but because we know the public eye is fixed upon us, and demands the unprejudiced and impartial performance of the solemn duties we are called upon to execute. The public and the prisoner have a right to demand of you a firm, a fearless, and an unflinching performance of your duty, and that the verdict you shall render shall be a true verdict, according to the evidence which you have heard, and the law as explained to you by the Court.
After some general remarks, not material to the point at issue, he read the important parts of the indictment, the truth of whose allegations the jury had been sworn to try.
The learned Judge then called attention to the facts in the case that were undisputed. After these he added, “Two questions present themselves for your inquiry:
“1. Was the defendant, Castner Hanway, a participant in the offences proved to have been committed? Did he aid, abet, or assist the negroes in this transaction, without regard to the grade or description of the offence committed?
“2. And secondly, if he did, was the offence treason against the United States, as alleged in the bill of indictment?
“The first of these questions is one wholly of fact, and for your decision alone. The last is a mixed question of law and fact. On the law you have a right to look to the Court for a correct definition of what constitutes treason, but whether the defendant has committed an offence which comes within that category, is, of course, a matter of fact for your decision.”