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.

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'her one is sufficient to overthrow utterly the evidence given by Lake and Phelps.
The testimony of all these witnesses corroborates and establishes that of Beman
and his son, and the mass taken together is insurmountable.
3. It was necessary for the prosecution to rebut the evidence that Phelps was
-seen at Leoni that morning alone. This was done by after thought the fourth. Lake
and Phelps were recalled to the stand and testified that at some timfe previous to
April 11th (Lake says a fortnight, Phelps says a month) they, Lake and Phelps,
were passing from Mich. Centre by that middle road which led past Penfield's mill
that they arrived at Beman's corners, turned to the left and took the road to Leoni;
that Lake left the wagon opposite a field, and entered it to speak to Corwin, whom
Lake supposed he saw there; that Phelps passed on; that his wagon struck a hoop at
the corners, the horse took fright, ran away, was reined in by Phelps and fastened at
Cuykendall's tavern. This device, gentlemen, is quite too artificial. It could
scarcely be supposed that Phelps' horse ran away at precisely the same hour,
and at the very same place and tinder the same circumstances, on two differ eat days. And is it easy to believe that Phelp3 and Lake are accurate, and so ma ny other witnesses in error about the day when the occurrence took place?
It is hard to believe that Lake should have left the wagon on so flimsy an ex cuse, for it was at 11 o'clock in the morning, and yet he mistook the person in the
field for Corwin, whom he knew as well as you know me. Lake says, however,
that he followed the wagon on foot, and joined Phelps at the house after the horse
had been fastened. Phelps and Lake have not attended clearly to the details of our
evidence, and therefore they alledge that the horse was frightened by a hoop instead.
of the jar produced bv passing over an open sewer, and both of them describe
him as being fastened, after the accident, with his head westward instead of eastward!'
Again, the journey was utterly without object or end. They say they went to
Michigan Centre to see the defendants. They knew that Fitch was not there, but
at Lansing. Thev say that Mrs. Filley said Filley was absent, but they do not say
she told them where he was. Corwin, Myers, Barrett, Hay, Penfield and numereous others of the defendants then lived at Michigan Ceutre and in its vicinity. They
neither looked ror inquired for them. They went out of their road half a mile to
Leoni, to see the defendants who resided there. They neither found nor searched
for any of them, altho' Williams boarded in Cuykendall's house where they say they
stopped, and worked close by. Besides, they saw Charles Cuykendall, the son, instead of John Cuykendall, the father, who says that he was standing upon the stoop,
and received Phelps on the occasion when his horse ran away. Charles
,Cuykendall is not brought to sustain their subterfuge. But Phelps and Lake swear
that they did not on that occasion, see either Mr. Faulkner, Mr. Toll, or Mr. Luce
or John Cuykendall, or Mr. Kellogg; that is to say, they allege they saw a person
who was not there and deny that they saw five persons who swear they saw Phelps
'there on the only occasion when his horse ran away. Lake says that for aught he
can remember thev went home without dinner, but Phelps on urgent necessity re
members that they obtained refreshments not at Cuykendall's where dinner was on
the table, but at Haddan's grocery below. Their journey was therefore without an
object and without results. They kept a diary of theirjournies and labors in the
-service of the Company. They gave its contents ftilly on the direct examination.
This journey, when, according to their account, the horse ran away, was forgotten
altogether and was not put down in the diary, and it is only remembered now, because it becomes necessary to explain and rebut the testimony of the defendants.
Unfortunately moreover for the credit of the invention. Phelps had denied on his
previous cross-examination that his horse had ever run away with him; at all, in Leoni.
And what is still more unfortunate Wm. H. Hudson testified, before this question
Jerose and when it could not be expected to be material that on the night of April
*lth, at Filley's tavern Phelps told Fitch that his hoorse had run away that day, and
spake of it as an occurrence that has happened that very day and never before.
Permnit me to recall now, Gentlemen, wbat has, we trust, thus far been demon
filtrated.
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