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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Heman Like was convicted of aiding a thief in his escape from prison, and
suffered the full penalty of the law. Counsel deny that the crime of which he was
thus convicted has rendered him infamous. The distinction is a technical one, not
worthy of an argument. Larceny is an infamous crime. He who assists a thief to
escape from punishment was probably himself an accomplice in the crime of the
thief, at least he must be moved by sympathies as immoral and criminal as the act
of larceny itself. Thus these two witnesses stand before you as men convicted of
infamous crimes, men "the credit of whose oaths, although it should be without any
contradiction or impeachment, is overbalanced by the stain of their iniquity."
It is certainly a work of supererogation to prove that a person convicted of an in famous crime is esteemed in the community in which he lives unworthy of credit,
for that is only to prove in an individual case the soundness of the legal maxim,
"that infamous crimes indicate a mind insensible to the obligations of an oath." I
think this is the first case in which the prejudiced state of the public mind has re quired, that a witness who had been thus convicted, should be impeached by his
general bad reputation in regard to truth and veracity. That proceeding has been
adopted in this case in regard to Phelps. But who is Henry Phelps? He is the
prosecutor on whose naked oath fifty citizens were arrested, and upon whose oath
chiefly if not altogether, the indictment in this case was found. Upon his oath,
sustained by his confederate Lake, this prosecution is suspended. He was born in
Bloomfield, Ontario County, N.Y., in 1814, a son of respectable parents who lived
in easy circumstances. He removed with them to Wheatland, Monroe County du, ring his childhood. He received an education, which, although not a liberal one,
surpassed what was ordinarily obtained in country schools and academies,and which
qualified a vigorous and shrewd mind sufficiently for any kind of business, in any,
department of private or of public life. He came to Michigan with his parents, and
settled in Highland, Oakland County, in 1835. He pursued no regular occupation
there, but was forward and active. He conducted litigation in justice's courts, and
was at that time called (according to the testimony of one of his friends) "a fine fel low." He was elected Town Clerk, and commissioned as Captain in the Dragoons
of the Militia. But nothing that he began was ever finished, nothing that he plant ed ever ripened. Political preferment ceased, when rumors of falsehoods and frauds
gained circulation. The Dragoons who enlisted under his command never equip ed, and they were ultimately disbanded. After five years thus spent, he went to
Michigan Cenitre, where Abel F. Fitch resided, and there Phelps bought a distil lery and its stock, with drafts on a person in New York, who could never be found.
After six months the distillery reverted, with losses, (never yet reimbursed,) to its
former owner, and Phelps immediately thereafter became a merchant at Millford,near Highland, his former residence. A month or six weeks passed away, and the
stock of goods was suddenly and mysteriously surrendered to the merchants at Butffalo, from whom it had been purchased, and Phelps resumed his business as an advocate in justices courts. He married about this time, and the counsel who defead
bim here say he has children. His affidavits were questioned, his arts in conduct.
ing trials suspected, his reputation waiied, and after three or four years he was convicted of the infamous crime which has been mentioned. He was subject to oe
casional epileptic convulsions. He feigned them during his trial, and affected sickness to avoid judgment, but without success. He feigned illness to excuse him
self from labor in the prison. Suspected and closely watched there, he failed to pro
pitiate the police until the sixth month in the fifth year of his term had elapsed, alnd
then he was pardoned. On coming out of prison he gathered his family in his ancient home; but habits of regular industry and domestic occupation disgusted him.
He invited his associate Lake, who had just been discharged from prison, to join him
but at first without succes. After the lapse of about a year he hired himself to thes
District Attorney of the United States, in the occupation of what is call[ a stool
pigeon, that is, one who for hire joins and leads villains in crime to betra them to
justice; or, as it was described by the Counsel for the Prosecntion, the business of
a Rogue "set to catchRogues." While in that capacity, he renewed the acquaintance