507 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

WILLIAM WEMMS AND SEVEN OTHERS

We have an inherent affection for ourselves, implanted by nature, and we can annihilate ourselves as easily as we can root out this affection. It is the first and strongest principle in our nature; Blackstone calls it "the primary canon in the law of nature." The precept of our holy religion, which commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, does not command us to love our neighbor better than ourselves, or even as well. No Christian divine has given this interpretation. The precept enjoins that our benevolence to our fellow men should be as real and sincere as our affections to ourselves, not that it should be as great in degree. A man is authorized, therefore, by common sense, and the laws of England, as well as those of nature, to love himself better than his fellow subject. If two persons are cast away at sea and get on a plank (a case put by Sir Francis Bacon), and the plank is insufficient to hold them both, the one has a right to push the other off to save himself. The rules of the common law, therefore, which authorize a man to preserve his own life at the expense of another's, are not contradicted by any divine or moral law. We talk of liberty and property, but if we cut up the law of self-defense, we cut up the foundation of both, and if we give up this, the rest is of very little value. Therefore, this principle must be strictly attended to, for whatsoever the law pronounces in the case of these eight soldiers will be the law to other persons and after ages. It would have been better if all the persons that have slain mankind in this country, from the beginning to this day, had been acquitted, than that a wrong rule and precedent should be established.

I shall now read to you a few authorities on this subject of self-defense. Foster, in his Crown Law, says, in the case of justifiable self-defense, the injured party may repel force with force, in defense of his person, habitation, or property, against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, with violence or surprise, to commit a known felony upon either. In these cases, he is not obliged to retreat, but may pursue his adversary until he finds himself out of danger, and if in a conflict between them he happens to kill, such killing is justifiable.

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