Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/230

226 was ever in a community in my life where my religious ideas differed as widely from the great mass as I have found them since I have been in Tennessee. Yet I came here a perfect stranger and I can say what I have said before that I have not found upon anybody's part—any citizen here in this town or outside, the slightest discourtesy. I have been treated better, kindlier and more hospitably than I fancied would have been the case in the north, and that is due largely to the ideas that southern people have and they are, perhaps, more hospitable than we are up north. Now I certainly meant nothing as against the state of Tennessee, whom I don't think is any way involved, as your honor knows that these things came up in court time and time again and that it is not unusual perhaps in a case where there is a feeling that grows out of proceedings like this that some lawyers will overstep the bounds. I am quite certain that I did that. I do not see how your honor could have helped taking notice of it and I have regretted it ever since on my own account and on account of the profession that I am in, where I have tried to conform to all rules and think I have done it remarkably well and I don't want this court, or any of my brethren down here in Tennessee, to think that I am not mindful of the rules of court, which I am, and mean to be, and I haven't the slightest fault to find with the court. Personally, I don't think it constitutes a contempt, but I am quite certain that the remark should not have been made and the court could not help taking notice of it and I am sorry that I made it ever since I got time to read it and I want to apologize to the court for it. (Applause.)

The Court—Anyone else have anything to say? In behalf of Col. Darrow in anyway? (No response.) If this little incident had been personal between Col. Darrow and myself, it would have been passed by as unnoticed, but when a judge speaks from the bench, or acts from the bench, his acts are not personal but are part of the machine that is part of the great state where he lives. I could not afford to pass those words by without notice, because to do so would not do justice to the great state for which I speak when I speak from the bench. I am proud of Tennessee, I think Tennessee is a great state. It has produced such men as the Jacksons, such men as James K. Polk and such men as Andy Johnson and such men as the great judge that recently went from our neighborhood to the supreme bench of the United States—Judge Sanford—so I feel that we must preserve the good name of this great state that has produced such great men—such great characters as these that I have mentioned. We have had another man who lived in Tennessee—I believe he is dead now—he was a poet and he wrote these words:

"Dost thou behold thy lost youth, all aghast, Or dost thou feel from retributions’ righteous blow Then turn from the blotted archievesarchives [sic] of the past And find the future pages white as snow. Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell; Art thou a sinner? Sin may be forgiven. Each day gives thee light to lead thy feet from hell. Each night a star to lead thy feet to heaven."

My friends, and Col. Darrow, the Man that I believe came into the world to save man from sin, the Man that died on the cross that man might be redeemed, taught that it was godly to forgive and were it not for the forgiving nature of Himself I would fear for man. The Savior died on the cross pleading with God for the men who crucified Him. I believe in that Christ. I believe in these principles. I accept Col. Darrow's apology. I am sure his remarks were not premediated.