Great God! can
these things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be
that I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of
Christianity? How long, O, how long shall the people bow down and
worship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say
guilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the Court. Mercy, Sir, is
kindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for
no mercy. No, Sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is
what I ask of my God. Justice in the Courts of my adopted country is
all I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me.
My feelings are at my home. My wife and my children are dear to my
heart. But, Sir, I have counted the cost. I am ready to die, if need
be, for the oppressed of my race. But slavery must die; and when my
country shall have passed through the terrible conflict which the
destruction of slavery must cost, and when the history of the great
struggle shall be candidly written, the rescuers of Jim Gray will be
considered as having done honor to God, to humanity, and to
themselves.
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