Argument of William H. Seward, in defence of Abel F. Fitch and others, under an indictment for arson, delivered at Detroit, on the 12th, 13th and 15th days of September, 1851.: Phonographically reported by T. C. Leland.

neither the burning of depots nor assaults upon cars with stones and muskets. If
they discoursed in threats it was in individual, impulsive, passionate, but idle threats.
It was just like what often occurs in every village bar-room in the State and in the
United States. "They talked by squads and drank by platoons." To hold such
gatherings of citizens to be seditious meetings is a construction forced, false and
fraudulent. To present such meetings in a court of justice as evidence of a conspiracy is to conspire against the freedom of the citizen.
If then a c6nspiracy has existed in Leoni, the evidence of it is to be derived elsewhere than from overt acts committed or from deliberations of meetings held there.
And this brings us to the proof, 3dly, of individual declarations and admissions. In
regard to this class of testimony, I am obliged to confess that the difficulty consists
not so much in a deficiency as to quantity or perhaps even of directness, as in the
absolute unreliability of the testimony itself. The Railroad Company unable to
convince the farmers of Jackson county that half price was enough for cattle destroyed, and unable to arrest the depredations which were committed by way
of reprisal, resorted to a system of espionage. On the 10th of August.'49 they offered a reward of $500 for proof sufficient to convict any one person of any one unlawful overt act, past, present or to come. I am not complaining of this. It becomes necessary to open this system before you for the purpose of testing the value
of the evidence which has been procured by it. The Railroad company employed
a corps of spies to watch and to circumvent suspected citizens, paying themn compensation, varying from seven shillings and $2 per day or night, to $40 per month. —
How large that corps was is unknown. But it numbered one hundred at one time,
and no less than fifteen of its members have appeared here as witnesses to sustain
this prosecution. Here they are-Phelps and Lake, recently discharged from the
State prison; Van Arman, a lawyer from Marshall; Clark, a member of the legislature from the same place; Cochran and Shearman, laborers; Dixon, a sheriff froj:
Marshall, acting in the character of a wheat buyer; Holden and Gillespie, gentlemen; Taylor, an employee of the Railroad company; Wolevar, Wells and Caswell,
accomplices in the crimes they denounced; Wescott, a discharge.:a''
Faulkner, a earman. You> t, t ahe' io e: aa {us occupati'ns
of society and all the conditions O ]{f;bm the state prison and the brothel thro6-h
the classes of merchants and farmers to the sheriff's office, the bar and the Ie sla tive halls. The witness Phelps, enlisted among the last, took rank at the }ad of
the corps, displacing Wesott, all w-thhi was etied with the dispon $ e
patronage o"ihpe company as a'broker. Phelp'employs Lake. Wesci' employs
3. Well Wescott offers J. Tyler a good place " if he will come out e railroad
company;" while Michael Coy is told by Phelps that if -he will onl,
"swear for the company there shall be no lack/of money in his p 5. This sys.
tem was in operation six months. It is no wonder if oblivious strenries have be
awakened, malicious memories quickened nod feeble memo
has been activity; all was activity from tHie beginning' -
- "Some tell what they b eard or ta
croan monopoly of c r -fwit persons and propery of i
Acorporation, enjOYhi nd dm it an income f -
zens over a great Ae state, has become, in s sean of alarm, a power gbey
threefold the revruethe state itself; and nowe see bthe wisdom of a saying
hind the state atejelf a sovereign. Beyond a bt his own court was i.
of the son oQf Sraehillar s like these when he admom hed the unw ary: s Curse
stead by a nest of thought; and curse not the rich ev n in thy bedchavber for
ot the king;, noj eht;andurer norIih ig
ot thein~jn~4!rythy voice, and that which hat wings Shall tell of the
a bird of thee- a......
matter." Z-~/ as.er.spesan
matterdi. Sz3s smere spie s and informers, unconvicted of crime,
Reg ard i ~r ached, what is their moral standard in a virtuous o,mo
dun<co )ntrae. J ~disonsaid, for he was not only a morahlstbut a ereta f
wetat AI'.capable of so infamous a calling as that oDa.Spy is nqtve
15