NOTE.

BY THE PUBLISHERS.

We intended to have published the Arguments of Counsel and the Charge of His Honor Judge Putnam to the Jury, but it having become necessary to issue the Trial sooner than we had anticipated, we are compelled to omit them ;-and if the next trial should be published, we shall then insert the charge and arguments at large.

We intended also to have published, in an Appendix, a Brief Sketch of the Proceedings of the Committee of Vigilance, and certain Documents connected with the developement of the facts relating to this Murder--but their nature is such, that a publication of them, at this time, is deemed inexpedient.

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Ar the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, holden at Salem, on the second Tuesday in July, A.D. 1830, pursuant to an Act of the Legislature, passed June 5, 1830,

PRESENT,

Hon. ISAAC PARKER, LL.D., Chief Justice.
Hon. SAMUEL PUTNAM, LL.D.,

Hon. SAMUEL S. WILDE, LL.D., Justices.
Hon. MARCUS MORTON, LL.D.,

The Grand Jury being empanneled and sworn, the following very lu cid and impressive charge was delivered to them by his Honor Chief Justice Parker.

Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,

THIS Court is convened out of its ordinary season in virtue of a special appointment of the Legislature made at its last session, and you have been summoned here by the same authority, and having had the oath administered to you,which is prescribed by law to qualify you to act in the capacity of Grand Jurors, you now have become the Grand Inquest of the Commonwealth for the body of this County of Essex, with all the power and duties which pertain to that body when attending the ordinary sessions of this Court in relation to such cases as come within the purview of the statute above referred to.

The jurisdiction given to the Court by this Act of the Legislature, extends to all crimes and misdemeanors which may have been committed within the body of this County before the passing of this Act; such as may have occurred since that time are to be left to the usual administra tion of justice at the succeeding regular term of the Court.

Notwithstanding the general terms in which the jurisdiction is given, comprehending all crimes and misdemeanors, there is reason to believe that the chief purpose of the Legislature in establishing this term, was that judicial inquiry should be made into a transaction of a most afflic tive nature which took place in this town some months since.

This transaction was of a nature to excite alarm and agitation, not only in the vicinity where it happened, but throughout the Commonwealth and even beyond it.

An aged and respectable citizen, living in the centre of this populous town, so long remarkable for its tranquillity, peace and order, he being surrounded by all those circumstances which usually give security to the property and person, has been assassinated in his bed, probably in the depth of sleep-his skull fractured by a blow from some heavy weaponhis body pierced with many wounds-and this was done with such secrecy that not a trace for a long time appeared to be left, by which the perpetrators of so horrid a deed could be discovered. No wonder that the shock felt here was so great; it has vibrated through the whole community.

Murder is under all circumstances an appalling crime, it exhibits in the

perpetrator the deepest stain of depravity of which human nature is capable. But when in the stillness of night, during the hours of repose, the assassin invades the quiet mansion-steals into the chamber of sleepand converts that sleep into death by one fell blow, and as if insatiate of blood seeks the heart of the victim, which had already ceased to beatthere is no stoicism, no philosophy, hardly any religion which can repress those feelings of terror, those expressions of horror, which such a tragedy is calculated to produce.

I speak thus of the crime because it is notorious. We all feel alike about it, nor is there any occasion to suppress the feeling, but it must be regulated and kept within just bounds.

You are convened here not so much to inquire if a crime has been committed, though even that must be proved to you by legal evidence, as to seek out the perpetrators and present them, if discovered, to the bar of this Court for trial. It is the duty of the Court to warn you against suffering your indignation for the crime to affect your inquiries for the offenders. The popular voice justly cries out for vengeance, but it is only upon the guilty it ought to fall.

There is danger in all great excitements that the mind may be thrown off its balance, that the process of inquiry may be too rapid to be sure, that the suspected may readily be believed to be guilty, that prepossession may supersede proof. How apt are we all upon hearing of the commission of some great crime to listen greedily to every circumstance which has a tendency to fix the guilt upon some individual, to shut our ears against exculpatory facts, and to pass sentence of condemnation before any hearing and without any trial.

This is a state of mind which disables us from acting impartially in the office of judge or juror. We are to stand indifferent between the Commonwealth and the accused; ever to presume that he is innocent until we have proof that he is not. We are to sift and weigh all the facts produced in proof with a hope that they may all be consistent with his innocence. A Grand Jury especially, who by the very nature of their duty are prevented from hearing the accused, or any evidence in his favor except what may be drawn from the witnesses produced against him, should be cautious not to act hastily, or upon slight evidence.

They ought to be satisfied before they agree upon an indictment, that the evidence as it appears before them, is sufficient to convict him of the imputed crime, for if it should not be sufficient under those circumstances, what probability is there of a conviction when the party shall be put upon his full defence, with the privilege of adducing counter evidence in his favour, and of counsel to enforce it? And no citizen ought to be exposed to the anxiety and ignominy of accusation for a capital offence if there be no probable proof of his guilt.

It is a most happy characteristic of our system of criminal justice that it requires deliberate and patient investigation. Let those who complain of the slowness of its pace, consider, that it is framed for the protection of innocence as well as for the punishment of guilt, and that more rapid movements might involve in ruin those who might afterwards be found not to have deserved it. Occasions like the present sometimes arise when a just indignation at some enormous crime pervades the whole community, and the officers of justice are loudly called upon by the public voice to hasten the exercise of their functions, and to purify the land of the blood with which it has been stained, by an early condemnation of the supposed perpetrator; but the law moves not from its course, it gives time for deliberation, for the return of sober thought which has been suspended by agitation and excitement,-it calls for proofs-it gives reasonable opportunity for defence-it proceeds warily and cautiously-and deoides only when it may be presumed there is little room to doubt the rectitude of its decision, and this is all which can be attained by human tribunals, for fallibility is stamped upon every thing human.