A long discussion ensued over the admission of Charles Smith’s evidence, but he was finally permitted to testify that Samuel Williams—the colored man from Philadelphia who had trailed Kline—had brought and circulated news of the intended raid for the arrest of the Gorsuch runaways. It was disclosed by Dr. Cain’s testimony that Washington and Clark, colored witnesses who had escaped from Moyamensing, had been circulating a paper on September 10th, which had the character of a warning to the Maryland refugees. Shortly after the affray Dr. Cain, at his own tenant house, treated two colored men, Henry C. Hopkins and John Long, who had been shot, one in the arm and one in the thigh. Hopkins was the doctor’s tenant. John Roberts, a colored witness, who had been detained as such, for more than ten weeks, in Moyamensing, proved that Joseph Scarlet told him “about sun up” that kidnappers were at Parker’s, and witness got a loaded gun from Jacob Townsend and went to the scene. Other witnesses of the same kind, and detained the same way, elicited little material matter, as they arrived on the scene after the battle. In support of the Government’s theory of a treasonable conspiracy, some evidence was introduced of meetings at West Chester in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law, but the participation of the accused was not shown.
The scenes attending the trial are described by the newspapers of the day as highly interesting and sometimes sensational. Popular interest grew as it progressed, and it centered upon the prisoner who was a stranger in Philadelphia. One newspaper account describes Hanway as displaying the greatest self-possession during the selection of jurors. “He is apparently about 35 years of age, tall but spare in form, and inclined to stoop a little. There is a becoming seriousness in his countenance, but nothing like alarm or trepidation is visible. When called upon to look at the juror summoned to try him, he does so with a firm and inquiring look, but never determines upon his admission or rejection until he has consulted his counsel, Thaddeus Stevens, who sits immediately by his side.”
Before the defense was formally opened its course and character had been anticipated by the cross-examination of Mr. Stevens; in this quality of a trial lawyer he was an acknowledged master. The opening speech of Mr. Cuyler referred to the division among the counsel for the prosecution; it praised the fairness of Mr. Ashmead, who, it declared, had been remanded to the background, because Maryland distrusted the justice of Pennsylvania. This was an effective appeal to the State pride of the jury. He vigorously assailed Kline, who had been the Government’s most zealous witness. He traced the course of Pennsylvania’s legislation on slavery and insisted that this Commonwealth was “ever true to her plighted constitutional good faith”; he extolled Hanway’s civic virtues, and dwelt with emphasis upon the local agitation over the “lawless and diabolical outrages” of the kidnappers; and finally ridiculed the idea of treason in the allegation that “three harmless, non-resisting Quakers, and eight-and-thirty wretched, miserable, penniless negroes, armed with corn-cutters, clubs, and a few muskets, and headed by a miller, in a felt hat, without a coat, without arms, and mounted on a sorrel nag, levied war against the United States.”
When Mr. Stevens began the production of testimony for the defense with offers to prove the recent kidnapping outrages in the neighborhood of Gap, the legal storm center of the trial was at hand. The prosecution saw and feared the influence of this line of evidence as keenly as the defense recognized its force and value. Judges Grier and Kane both discerned the vital issue at once and long before the argument concluded, pointed out that as the accusation was treason—a position founded upon some previous conspiracy—the defense must be allowed the same latitude to disprove intent as had been allowed to the prosecution to establish it. This opened the way for Thomas Pennington to tell the story of what had occurred at the home of his son-in-law, William Marsh Chamberlain, the preceding January—it was the same night, by the way, that “James Ray fell dead as he entered the door of his own house.” As has been heretofore related, in the absence at Ray’s of the head of the Chamberlain household, the black man in employ was beaten and dragged out and carried off by intruders without legal process and led by local abettors of the capture.
The fact that it was not shown the man taken was a free man, or that he may have been reclaimed by the authority of his owner, made little difference in the popular feeling about the affair or in the effectiveness of the incident for trial purposes. If such ruthlessness might be technically legal it made the slave law none the less odious!
Henry Ray went further than Pennington and identified both Perry Marsh and William Bear as associates of the band who carried off Chamberlain’s man; and Mrs. Chamberlain—who saw the incident through a pipe hole from upstairs, where the affrighted family had retreated—and her brother, Miller Pennington, described it in a manner that heightened its effect. With this recital the defense made a distinct advance.
When the next witness, Elijah Lewis, was called, a question was raised as to his competency. Although not himself on trial, he was under indictment for the same offense as the prisoner. Mr. Brent cited “5th Espinasse,” but the Government’s objection was not urged with much confidence and was not sustained by the Court. Interest centered in the witness as he was probably the most conspicuous of all the defendants and a recognized leader of local sentiment. He supported the case of the defendants as their counsel had outlined it; and his intelligence, direct manner and forceful expression gave added weight to his testimony. Isaiah Clarkson had summoned him to the scene by the report that Parker’s house was surrounded and had been broken into by kidnappers; he started on foot and called Hanway, who was not very well and got his horse; Kline showed them a paper which he assumed was a warrant; the negroes were excited and Hanway begged them not to shoot; witness had turned south toward the wood, Kline following and Hanway to the north when the shooting began. He contradicted Kline’s story of him or Hanway expressing defiance of the law and declared Kline was “in the woods” when the firing began; he and Hanway were not arrested; they gave themselves up. Cross-examination strengthened his statement.
Other witnesses testified to Kline’s declarations after the event to the effect that he had wanted to withdraw, but was overruled; that Dr. Pearce admitted the Gorsuches were rash and Kline timid, and that he himself owed his life to Hanway’s protection.
The defense then opened its batteries against Kline’s reputation. Hon. William D. Kelly—later a Common Pleas Judge and long time a leading member of Congress from Philadelphia—headed a long list of witnesses who testified that Kline’s reputation was bad and that he was unworthy of belief. There were nearly a score in all and many of them were most emphatic; it was also shown that in some accounts of the affray Kline had denounced “the damned Quaker abolitionists.”
To open the way for the recanting witness, Harvey Scott, to recall his former stories and repudiate their statements, witnesses were called to testify that he was not at the riot at all, but was “buttoned up” in John Carr’s garret until daylight and from that time on was at the place, blowing and striking in his employer’s blacksmith shop; that when he heard of the affair he congratulated himself with the remark, “I’m a nigger out of that scrape.”