If I were at
this moment going to my grave, I could say that I never saw
that man Gallagher till I saw him in Kilmainham prison. These
men, although they have been, day after day, studying lessons
under able masters, contradicted each other on the trial, and
have been perjuring themselves. Gallagher, in his evidence,
swore that his first and second informations were false, and
that he knew them to be false. It is contrary to all precedent
to convict a man on the evidence of a witness who admits
that he swore what was false. In America I have seen judges,
hundreds of times, sentencing men who were taken off the
table, put into the dock, and sent to prison. In this case,
this poor, ignorant man was brought into Kilmainham gaol on
the 1st of July. He knew my name, heard it called several
times, knew of the act of which I was suspected, and, on the
2nd of August he was taken away. On the 12th of October he
is brought back, and out of a party of forty or fifty he
identifies only three. If that man came on board the vessel,
he did so in his ordinary capacity as a pilot. He did his
duty, got his pay, and left. His subsequent evidence was
additions. With respect to the vessel, I submit that there was
not a shadow of evidence to prove that there was any intention
of a hostile landing, and that the evidence as to the identity
of the vessel would not stand for a moment where either law
or justice would be regarded.
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