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.

Wescott alleged on his examination that Dr. Rankin was himself indicted for perjury
in preferring the complaint,and that he committed suicide to escape conviction. It was
proved by the clerk of Mackinaw that Dr.Rankin was never indicted,and that he died a
natural death. 3. Wescott is discredited by his personal and groundless malice against
the deceased defendant Fitch. Mr. Toll and Mrs. Toll proved that Wescott said last
summer, that "Fitch was a notorious scoundrel; that he would appear as a friend to
your face, and the moment you turned your back he would run a dagger to your
heart, and that he would yet see Fitch peeping through the grates of the State prison." Mr. Tyler declares that Wescott told him that a web was being woven around
Fitcil that would draw him into State prison." Such is the charct(ter, and such is the
temper of the witness. Hle is rendered still more unworthy of belief by his denial
of having uttered the maliciousremarks against Fitch which have been proved. He
shows himself equally timid and false. He would have us be ieve that his life has
been in continual peril while he has been prosecuting his private services in a public
cause. But all these perils are proved to have been fabricated and false.'Ilus hie has
entertained us with a pretended plot,by several of the defendants,in which it was con.
trived that hlie should take a seat at the card table near the window, in Fiiley's house,
and that the defendants should then assassinate him, by a simultaneous assault with
stones through the window. The very heap of stones which was to be used was
pointed out by him to a witness, and they probably were deposited there with his
own hands. However that may have been, you have seen the spot. You have seen
that a piazza some three feet wide intervenes between the window and the high closelatticed verandah. No mortal arm could hurl a stone from the verandah through the
window with force enough to commit an injury. No mortal eye could see through
the verandah, nor mortal force throw a stone that would reach through the verandah
and the window. But, Gentlemen, you will recollect that Wescott obtained his
knowledge of this plot by drawing himself through a hole in the wall and listening
to the conspirators through the floor of the barroom. Unfortunately for Wescott's
veracity, Mr. L. A. Hildreth, who opened that hole in the wall for tbe purpose of driving the joints of a water pipe, testifies that it was not large enough for a man to
enter. Darius Clark comes to the relief of Westcott and testifies that in November
last Wescott pointed out the place to him and that it was then as large as now; but
Ammi Filly, Jr., a lad of 14, proves that Clark must have erred in date, because on
Christmas day, when a piece of coin had dropped through the floor in the bar-room,
he found it impossible to pass through the aperture to find it. And this child is
corroborated by the witness who fist opened the aperture at a day later than that fixed
by Clark. Wescott described a second peril-that, pursued by an infuriated
man with a ferocious dog through the deer park, he plunged to his armpits into the
mud and mire of Wolf Creek, and he gives us, for confirmation of that peril and es.
cape his assertion, that his wife removed the mud from his clothes. I admit that
some unknown person lurking on the watch was chased by a dog into Wolf Creek,
but I still must withold my belief that Wescott was the fugitive. I can scarcely believe
that a man who would be thus engaged could have a wife, much less that any woman
who is a woman would have lent her hand to take a stain from his garments thus con.
tracted. Wescott gives a touching narrative of a third peril through which he passed. A
quarrel arose in the ballalley between one of the defendants and C. Palmer. Weseott
represents, or causes it to be proved, that Fitch and himself were standing at the doors,
looking on upon the strife, and that Fitch afterwards remarked, that, if he had known
Wescott at that time to have been a spy,he would have thrown him in among the cornm
batants that they might have beaten him to death. Unfortunately for the effect of this
fearful narrative it is disproved by Almon Cozier, who says that neither Wescott nor
Fitch was at nor near the door of the ball alley,from the time when the controversy be gan until the combatants had retired to adjust it, as I presume, over a bottle in Filly's
bar room. The testimony throws but a dim and shadowy light over the fourth and last
critical escape of the ci-devant leader of the band of spies. The Tribune in this city pub.
lished on some authority, "A leaf in the history of the conspiracy," andit was repub.
lished generally by the papers throughout the United States. This leaf revealed
the dreadful factthat one of the informers was actually present, in disguise, at a reg
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