Show AN ABLE plem plea OF STULL ESQ IN BEHALF OF the following eloquent plea made by homer stull esq before judge Af Morgan morgans organs 5 court in blackfoot in behalf of mr air samuel humphreys charged with ull uil unlawful lawful cohabitation with nis hid wife is copied from the bear lake democrat mr humphreys is one of the meu mea whom judge morgan sentenced to six months imprisonment and to pay allne aline of buo W gentlemen tile the accused is here before you upon trial by a jury of his countrymen let us bee hee what is the issue the indictment charges that he did unlawfully and wilfully cohabit with more than one woman to this charge he pleads not guilty 11 ite in emter that by law he Is presumed to be innocent remember that you are bound by your oaths by the t e most sacred obligations which it Is possible lor for men to t 0 assume to accord hiim lilau this tills protection that the law kives gives to the humblest citizen what is the situation here today to dav day on the one hand la is a man living livin inan win obscure station in a enote hai hat hamlet hamiet riet Elet in n our mountains a nan a an against whom there has never up tu this hour been a breath of suspicion a man roan of unblemished reputation honored and honorable in all the relations of life a man humbly striving to rear his family and provide for its wants by the industry of his hands bands a man honestly and eagerly striving day by day andrear and aud year by llin kiln year ear eau to do his duty as god has given him to see jt it to all men to alshouse held and to the commons eaith it is upon the humble labors of suen sueh men nicu that governments are founded it is by the toll and sacrifice of such men that civilization wins its triumphs you to remember in this hour of his trial triai that but lor for the humble unwavering unceasing labors of such bands hands as ills his our jurisprudence our commerce our arts our literature our religion everything that lenda lends dignity dl guity to a nation or a character to life would be impossible he ile and antt such lucli as he be his friends and associates first til t pioneered these mountains and homes home in the waste places history will ct do them justic justie the tile time tude is coming coining when a great agrest commonwealth will exist here ili in these valleys 0 of f the mountains she will be among the best and brightest ill in tho the fair sisterhood of states in that day students of the past with reverent hands bands will brush aside the grass that grows abo above the graves of mis ois this defendant aut and his bis associates and say one lo 10 another this is sacred ground here rest the pioneers I 1 by a strange combination of circumstances this honest and honorable man inan who has dolle dolie no act which his bis conscience does toes not approve which his bis religion that is hila him than his life does not teach la is here charged with crime eor fur the tile first time in his life he finds himself arraigned in court I 1 who are his accusers humble men like himself men alen who are like him unaccustomed to the arts and wiles that wait walt on the administration of our laws oh no he Is confronted here today to day and he is surrounded by the officers and retainers of a great government ern ment by a cruel and relentless fate this honest man whose heart does not accuse him is I 1 s prosecuted here by a nations power ills his only hope gentlemen is in you and in the lav law which it is your sacred duty to administer seethaa see that this charge is proven strictly strictly y when you tou retire to your room to con sider this case remember I 1 charge you 0 1 u upon your honor lionor as men not to forget I 1 r that to him belongs under the law the benefit of every doubt let not the eloquence of counsel nor the pressure of public clamor drive from your minds this one great truth one oue ue witness appears here to sustain the indictment only one there is no document dokum ent no letters of the accused nor the of any evidence whatever to sustain him to find a verdict against the accused upon such proof roof would be to fly in the face of ruman euman human experience all history id Is against such an act the civil law arst first given to the world by the great I itoman koman empire provides that in it no case shall a prisoner be convicted of crime anthe on the testimony of one witness that rule has been in force thousands of years it has been sustained and had sanctioned by a dirse lirse experience peri ence among the most cultivated nations the leaders in the worlds arts and arms in countries and among peoples that were old and cultivated the cherished homes of law and literature when all alt america was a wilderness it prevails today to day as it has for ages in italy in spain in france ii it germany human nature is in its main mal n characteristics te always and everywhere the same history experience and reason all teach us that it is not safe to convict any man of a serious crime upon the testimony of one wit witness ness and such a witness A man who comes giggling and chuckling before you when he e attempts to swear away the liberty of his tits own sisters husband what cares cards he for the awful consequences that may attend upon his acte act more too tob that the main fact testified to by him is an admission viz that the sister of the witness was the I 1 woman 11 of the defendant and where was this admission made in the social circle on a winters eveni evening ngat at his fat liers tiers house imagine a winters night in the bear lake valley I 1 the air is cold but hearts are warm the old couple at the homestead have been lonely ot of late for their children have grown up been married and departed to homes of their 0 own then came the separation with its ita mart Uart heartache ache so hard to bear but low how the fire lire is made larger the logs piled plied ohi Chi chillier glier on the old hearth for fon there Is to be a family feun reunion lon ion the children are coming home blessed time ever recurring sorro iv of the lonely days vanishes under its cheerful influence it was at such a tune so this delicate witness tells us at a family fatuity reunion at his fathers house one evenin evening when the defendant and his bif wife sister of the witness and the witness himself were all gathered home horne to the old roof with their father fattier and their mother that this remark was made what shall wo we say of of the character of a man who comes here and in an hour like this volunteers to betray the confidence of social octal intercourse by a law as old as civilization the wife is not permitted to reveal in court the tile confidential communications of her husband a medical adviser could not state here any fact learned in tit the pursuit of his profession why because the business of the physician and the life of the wife lead to the home a place that Is sacred what sort of a brother must he be who so delights in his sisters orrow sorrow that he is willin willing to babble here upon upon the tile witness seand stand the berets of his fathers home his tits sisters home and laugh in your faces gentlemen while he performs the shameless deed and while her hearts salt tears are bli bil blinding her I 1 submit in all candor he be is nov noi worthy of belief you would not condemn a culprit for chicken stealing upon testimony ony like that lord macaulay tells us that the english z people are subject to spasm spasms of virtue in one oneat ot these they by a public hue and cry drove byrom from his home he was not good enough to live in england then so they athey banished him ty the power powen of public clamor clam orto to a foreign land and a strangers grave then came the reaction re action the same people ople opie that had broken his heart had neso Yeso desolated desolated his home and made his little child an arpan could find no marb marble white enouen to form his monument no rio music sweet enough to sound his requiem we have s spra p of virtue in An america terica also that was one in massachusetts when the quakers were banished if it we did not so well know the infirmities of human nat nature tire that history would be incredible yet it is unquestionably true that the puritan leaders banished this unfortunate people go forth ahey ey said from irom these orchards that you planted vineyards that you have reared feared from your pleasant homes and the graves of your ather ft fathers her 11 why what evil had they done not any their lives were blameless peculiarly so but they were quakers ers drs that was sufficient none but students of the dreadful power of agitation when accompanied by rell reil religious lous ious feelings men meu and women com commence ryence such a discussion calmly but the interest grows whispering Is heard church influence is ar aroused sed prayer meetings are held field from ahouse house to house inual music lends its power to U fan the flame until at jast last the public mind is in a state bo bordering on frenzy this defendant is today to day the victim of an aggi tation like this arraigned fornuy ordinary crime the pro puo attorney would not attempt to convict him upon testimony like this one ony witness and such a awit wit ness nass I 1 I 1 beg of you to vindicate here and now thel honor of the american jury let it not be said that standing here in thle thie sacred temple of justice you suffered yourself to be blinked beblin ped by fre prejudice or swayed by power let us not deceive ourselves the time is cornin coining when we shall meet this defendant at ikc fhe the bar of eternal justice if we shall shail do our duty here today to day then the recollection of this trial will be a pleasure and a support I 1 pray that pone of you at that awful inocent ino moment ment may be scourged urged by the memory of duty neglected or abandoned may not be said of you that unmindful of your oaths yon you did not weigh the everence eve dence 7 that without tent cause you cast a deadly blight upon the lives of this defendant and nis his f family that you yielded when it was your duty to bofird be firm |