THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM FREEMAN, FOR THE MURDER OF JOHN G. VAN NEST, INCLUDING THE EVIDENCE AND THE ARGUMENTS OF COUNSEL, WITH THE DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT GRANTING A NEW TRIAL, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF THE PRISONER, AND OF THE POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION OF HIS BODY BY AMARIAH BRIGHAM, M.D., AND OTHERS. REPORTED BY BENJAMIN F. HALL, COUNSELLOR AT LAW by Hall, Benjamin F - 1848

Auburn [NY], 1848. iv, [17]-508pp. Diagram at page 356. Contemporary half leather [rubbed] and marbled paper over boards. Gilt spine title. Front free endpaper with crease and tears. Scattered and generally light foxing. Good+. This is the voluminous record of William H. Seward's remarkable criminal trial, involving "the death sentence on a poor imbecile Negro, Freeman, in whose defense Seward made in 1846 one of the most eloquent of his speeches; this he afterwards declared he would have repeated without alteration of a word" [DAB]. The "trial, and particularly his defense by former Governor William H. Seward, aroused great excitement because of the plea of insanity" [McDade]. Freeman allegedly murdered an entire family: John Van Nest, his pregnant wife, their child, and her mother. Seward argues that insanity is a "derangement of the mind, character and conduct, resulting from bodily disease." He asks the jury to set aside racial prejudice. "The color of the prisoner's skin, and the form of his features, are not impressed upon the spiritual, immortal mind which works beneath. Hold him then to be a MAN." Hall's report canvasses the case from beginning to end: the impaneling of the jury, the testimony and evidence, medical testimony, the closing arguments, the charge to the jury, the verdict of guilty, the sentence of death by hanging, the appeals reversing the judgment, and an Appendix printing the port-mortem examination of Freeman, who had died in jail. "The case did much to insure a better hearing for the insane who, until then, received small consideration in the courts" [McDade]. FIRST EDITION. McDade 324. Cohen 12578. II Harv. Law Cat. 1079. Blockson 4616. Marke 986.