Mr Clays Speech At The Dinner At Nobles Inn Near Lexington Ky July 12 1827

Author : Henry Clay
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781333491055
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (91 download)

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Download or read book Mr. Clay's Speech, at the Dinner at Noble's Inn, Near Lexington, July 12, 1827 (Classic Reprint) written by Henry Clay and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-09-07 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Mr. Clay's Speech, at the Dinner at Noble's Inn, Near Lexington, July 12, 1827 The extraordinary ground has been taken, that the accusers were not bound to establish by proof the guilt of their designated victim. In a civilized, christian and free community, the monstrous princi ple has been assumed, that accusation and conviction are synony mous and that the persons who deliberately bring forward an atro cions charge, are exempted from all obligations to substantiate it! And the pretext is, that the crime, being of a political nature, is shrouded in darkness, and incapable of being substantiated. But is there any real difference, in this respect, between political and other offences? Do not all perpetrators of crime endeavour to conceal their guilt, and to elude detection? If the accuser of a political offence is absolved from the duty of supporting his accusation, every other accuser of offence stands equally absolved. Such a principle. Practically carried into society, would subvert all harmony, peace and tranquillity. None - no age, nor sex, nor profession, nor call. Ing, would be safe against its baleful and overwhelming in uence. It would amount to an universal license to universal calumny! No one has ever contended, that the proof should be exclusive ly that of eye-witnesses, testifying from their senses positively and directly to the fact. Political, like all other offences, may be es tablished by circumstantial as well as positive evidence. But I do Contend, that some evidence, be it what it may, ought to be exhibit ed. If there be none, how do the accusers know that an offence has been perpetrated? If they do know it, let us have the facts on which their conviction is based. Will not even assert that, in public affairs, a citizen has not a right, freely to express his Opin ions of public men, and to speculate upon the motives of their con duct - But if he chooses to promulgate opinions, let them be given as opinions. The public will correctly judge of their value and their grounds. No one has a right to put forth the positive asser tion, that a political offence has been committed, unless he stands prepared to sustain, by satisfactory proof of some kind, its actual existence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."