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

Here is the translated text as follows:

786 X¥. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS

If my motives were to publish a foul and infamous libel on the character of the President, to incite hatred and contempt against him among the people of this country through gross and malicious falsehoods, then indeed it would be my duty to be brought before this tribunal. It would be yours to convict, and the duty of the court to punish me.

However, I hope that during the course of this trial, I will be able to prove to your satisfaction that I have published nothing that truth will not justify. The assertions for which I am indicted are free from malicious imputation, and my motives have been honest and fair.

Gentlemen of the jury, you will observe that the law requires it to be proven as a necessary part of the charge that the passages for which I am indicted should be false and scandalous, and published with malicious motives. Before you can, consistently with your oaths, convict me on this indictment, you must be thoroughly satisfied that both these parts of the charge are well-founded.

It does not appear that the expression of the act, to bring the President into contempt, can be fulfilled if the accusation, as in the present instance, relates to an examination of his public conduct and no improper motives are imputed to him. I have carefully avoided imputing any impropriety of intention to the President, even in the very paper complained of. The uniform tenor of my conduct and language has been to attribute honesty of motive, even where I have strongly disapproved of the tendency of his measures, which I can abundantly show.

You, and all who hear me, well know that this country is divided, and almost equally divided, into two grand parties, usually termed, whether properly or improperly, Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The governing powers of the country are ranked in public opinion under the former denomination. Of these divisions, one wishes to increase, and the other to diminish, the powers of the executive. One thinks that the people, the democracy of the country, have too much power.

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