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

Here is the translated text as follows:

686 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

Reparation to Mrs. Hirsch can be made this side of the grave. Be kind, be charitable. Charity is the greatest word in the English language. We don’t ask for mercy. We ask for justice, everlasting and eternal justice. Do unto her as you would have it done unto you under like circumstances.

You can’t be merciful. The judge is the only man who can lawfully extend mercy in a court. We are asking for a verdict of not guilty. Let us flash that verdict to the waiting world through these resourceful newspaper people. Save her character, save her from the chain gang, and save her from humiliation. The judge will charge you correctly as to the points of law. He is a "wise man from the east." I ask you to save the woman; money will save Asa G. Candler.

MR. RUSSELL, FOR THE PRISONER

Mr. Russell: Gentlemen of the jury, I know Mayor Candler and his record and all he has done for Atlanta and this section. I do not intend to appeal to you on any sentimental grounds. I do not envy the Mayor his money; I honor him for his sagacity in making it. I honor him for his record as a philanthropist and for all he has done. But I cannot condone his act when he brings a charge of blackmail on no just grounds against a lone woman who has confessedly broken the sweetest tie that binds man to woman and that Christ Himself makes the strongest of all earthly ties. There is no nobler and higher authority than the words of the Bible, that book which our mothers read and by which they held their sacred faith. Yet surely, Asa G. Candler cannot contend that he is a better man than He who was "a man after God’s own heart." Yet David fell. He saw a beautiful woman bathing on the banks of the river. He sent for her and not only accomplished his purpose but also murdered her husband. Life is a strange thing. None of us do more than look down the vista of years to the horizon of the grave, and nothing matters aside from the record we shall meet there.

The law as to blackmail, under which the defendant is in-

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