The first trial of A. Morhouse, for forgery. Written by himself.

The first trial of A. Morhouse, for forgery. Written by himself.

Table of contents

Title page

An accurate Description of the Trial between the People of the State of New York and Abraham Morhouse, at the Supreme Court, holden at the Exchange, in the City of New-York, on Tuesday the 20th January, 1789, and continued by Adjournments until Saturday the 3•st of said Month and Year. The Honorable Judge MORRIS on the Bench.

VERSES ON ABRAHAM MORHOUSE,

[Page]

An accurate Description of the Trial between the People of the State of New York and Abraham Morhouse, at the Supreme Court, holden at the Exchange, in the City of New-York, on Tuesday the 20th January, 1789, and continued by Adjournments until Saturday the 3 [...]st of said Month and Year. The Honorable Judge MORRIS on the Bench.

ON Monday the 26th of January, 1789, the said Morhouse was called down and arraigned before the Court, and there charged by indictment with forging a bond in the name of Richard Mulherrain, and purporting to be given by the said Mulherrain to Zebulon Ross, jun. on the second of December and year 1779, witnessed by Israel Young and Jacob Ott; conditioned for the payment of One Thousand Pounds New York currency. To which indictments he plead not guilty, and put himself upon the country for trial, and informed the Court he should be ready to answer to his Indictments on Wednesday the 28th of January; which day being agreed to, he was re committed to Prison. On Tuesday the 27th January, the said Morhouse was again called down, and charged by two indictments: The one with having been concerned in the forgery of the aforesaid bond, and the other for uttering the bond knowing it to be forged. To both which indictments he plead not guilty; and after putting himself upon his country for trial, he prayed the Honorable Court to inform him upon which indictment he should first be tried, so that he may prepare himself to answer it, as he made use of no Counsel; but the Court refused to inform him. He was then ordered back to prison, and the next day he was brought down again, also the said Israel Young, one of the subscribing witnesses aforesaid to the [...] bond, also Samuel Walters, who were both arrainged and charged by indictments with being concerned [...] the forgery of the aforesaid bond. The said [...] was then brought to trial, for being concerned [...] the forgery of the said bond; and the Jurymen [...] [Page] then called, to several of which the said Morhouse objected, and appeared to judge by the phisognomy of their countenances whom he chose and who not, as he was a perfect stranger to them all. After the Jury were sworn, they then proceeded to examine the witnesses for the People. The first of which was Peter R. Livingston, Attorney, who being sworn, declared, "Tthat some time in the fore part of August last he received a card from one John Wilson, desiring him to call up to the prison, and in consequence of which he called up, and there for the first time saw Mr. Wilson, the prisoner now upon his trial at the bar: That he appeared to be a person of address, and informed him, the deponant, that he was consined upon suspicion of counterfeiting money, and he thought very unjustly, and desired me to endeavour to extricate him from his imprisonment, which I engaged to do, but was not able to effect it. About two or three weeks thereafter, I was at the goal, and there saw Mr. Wilson again, who informed me, that he had received a bond in judgment from a gentleman in the country against a Richard Mulherrain, merchant, in this city, with orders to prosecute it, and he wanted my advice upon the subject, which I gave him. He then took me into a room, and shewed me his letters of attorney from Zebulon Ross, who was the man, he said, that sent him the bond, and to whom the bond was given. He then disclosed to me that his name was Abraham Morhouse, which, for particular reasons, he had concealed under the name of Wilson. He then desired me to take the bond, and put it into prosecution, to which I agreed, and receipted him for the bond in the name of Abraham Morhouse; but as I did not then take the letters of attorney, which authorized him to prosecute. I called up the next day and got them. I then called upon Jacob Ott, one of the witnesses to the bond, and questioned him about [...] and he declared he saw the bond legally executed. I desired him to call the next day, to go before the [...] which he promised he would: But in the [Page] mean time Mr. Mulherrain came to me, and convinced me that the bond was forged; with that I went and delivered it to Judge Morris, together with the letter of attorney, and was determined he should be prosecuted for them (the said bond and letters were produced) which he swore were the same he had received of the said Morhouse"

Jacob Ott, as one of the subscribing witnesses beforementioned, was then called and brought forward to be sworn; but the said Morhouse objected against him as being an evidence, as he had killed a man in Nova Scolia, for which he was convicted and burnt in the hand, upon which he was turned aside, and Richard Mulherrain was called and sworn, and declared ‘That he never gave the bond now in question, and that he had never any dealings with Zebulon Ross, jun. except to the amount of twenty-seven pounds which he had supplied his family with, and for which the said Ross owed him; and that some time in the month of September, the aforesaid Jacob Ott came to him and informed him that there were some men in gaol who were about forging a bond against him to a large amount, and wanted to engage him the said Ott, to be a witness to the said bond, but that he would not do it without letting him know of it; and further the said Mulherrain declared that he did not at first credit the said Ott; but after several informations of the same kind, he was induced to believe him, and for fear that the bond might be withdrawn from Mr. R. Livingston's hands, and so the rogues escape punishment, he at length agreed to have Ott go and witness the bond.’ (Upon which one of the Jurymen, a very observing young man, arose and desired to know, how Ott could go and witness the bond after it was in the Attorney's hands? At which question the said Mulherrain appeared very much disconcerted, and made no immediate reply—whereupon the Honorable Judge [...] got up and informed the gentlemen of the Ju [...]; that the said Mulherrain was only mistaken [...] [Page] point of time, and put the story to rights himself, after the said Mulherrain had recollected himself. He the said Mulherrain again declared, "That according to his advice he believed that Ott went and became a witness to the said bond, and that he had applied to Mr. R. Livingston the Attorney, and influenced him to give up the said bond to the Honorable Judge Morris, which he did" Then the said Mulherrain produced a letter, said to be wrote from the said Zebulon Ross, jun. to him, Mulherrain, desiring him not to put him to trouble for the small sum of money he owed him, for that it should be settled as soon as possible.

Mulherrain's clerk was then brought forward, and affirmed (being a Quaker) "That some time ago he had filed the aforementioned letter among Mulherrain's papers" The said Mulherrain declared, "That he had seen the prisoner at the bar before, but never knew him by any other name but that of Wilson."

Jacob Ott was again called▪ and the said Morhouse making the same objection as before▪ the Court overruled it, and declared that Ott should be sworn, unless the records of his conviction could be produced. The said Morhouse observed that they could not be produced, but offered to prove his conviction by very responsible witnesses but the Judge would not admit him to prove it, as he said it tended to particulars. Accordingly Ott being sworn, and declared, "That in the fore part of September last he was at the goal, when Mr. Wilson, the prisoner at the bar, asked him to be a witness to a bond, against a Richard Mulherrain, and offered him the sum of fifty pounds to do it, upon which he agreed to it at the same time telling Mr. Wilson he would do any thing for money; but he did not do it then but first went and informed the said Mulherrain of what he was asked to do; and that after some conversation the said Mulherrain agreed for him to do it. He then went up to the goal and told Mr. Wilson he was [...] to witness the bond. Upon [...] Mr. Wilson, Capt. [...], and Mr. Walters, [Page] the three persons now at the bar, and himself, went all up stairs together, where he witnessed the said bond, and Mr Wilson gave him a note for fifty pounds, payable in a few days for the same; where upon the note was produced, and the bond, both of which he swore to be the same."

Some evidences were then called who gave Mr. Mulherrain a very good character.

The witnesses for the people being got through with, the evidences for the prisoner were then called, Peter Learman being first called and sworn, declared 'That some time in the year 1779, he sold to Zebulon Ross jun. a gold watch, a silver watch, and locket, upon credit; that some time towards Christmas, in the same year, he was at John Romers' house by the Fly Market and there saw Ross, who informed him he was making a settlement in the next room with Richard Mulherrain, and that if he could get any money of Mulherrain, he would then pay him, and accordingly asked him into the other room, with that he went into the other room, and there saw Mulherrain and several others; that Ross then asked Mulherrain if he could let him have any money to pay Mr. Learman, Mulherrain answered ha had none with him, and beside, as the same was equal, and as the bond was drawn, it would not be worth while to alter it; with that the deponent made answer that he was not then in want of money, and that Mr. Ross might pay him some other time. Mr. Mulherrain then sat down and signed a bond in judgment, which was read, and mentioned one thousand pounds in the condition payable in one year from that date. Mr Ross asked Capt. Young to witness the bond, which he did capt. Ross then asked me to be the other witness, but Mr. Mulherrain answered that they need not trouble him for this man would do pointing to Jacob Ott, who accordingly sat down and was the other witness The said deponent again saw Capt. Ross at Woodbury on the fall of 1787. and Capt. Ross then paid him honorably what he owed him, and then asked Mr. Ross about Mr. [Page] Mulherrains' circumstance, and told the deponant that he had not paid him the bond yet. Capt Ross then took out the bond and shewed it to the deponant, and said he believed he should send it down by some friend to put in prosecution, as he was in want of the money.

The bond was then produced, which Mr. Learman declared to the best of his knowledge to be the same which he had seen executed by Mr. Mulherrain, and the same which Capt. Ross had shewn him in 1787.'

Thomas Barrett was then sworn and declared. 'That in 1783 he was acquainted with Capt. Ross at Charleston, No. 4; that Capt. Ross then shewed a bond signed Richard Mulherrain, and one of the witnesses he remembered to be Israel Young, but the other witness's name he could not remember; that he took particular notice of the bond, as it was a bond in judgment, and he had never seen any of that kind before that Capt. Ross talked of exchanging the bond for lands. The bond was produced and Mr. Barrett swore to the best of his knowledge it was the same bond he saw at Charleston. The letters of attorney from Zebulon Ross, jun. which authorized the said Morhouse to put the said bond in prosecution, were then produced, and Mr. Barrett declared them, according to the best of his knowledge, to be the hand-writing of the aforesaid Zebulon Ross.'

Christopher Tobias being sworn and declared 'That in the month of May last, he received a ten shilling bill in the Fly Market of a man who was a stranger to him; that offering to pass the bill again the next day, it was declared a counterfeit, and he was taken before Alderman Wool, who was going to commit him; but he prevailed upon him to take bail for his appearance the next day, as he could then prove how he received the bill; upon this says the deponent and went to Jacob Ott, remembering he was by when I took the bill, and Mr Ott went with the deponant to the Alderman's and declared he saw the deponant receive a ten shilling bill, and described it by a corner being [...] off, but as he did not know the number of the [Page] [...], the Alderman said [...] would be insufficient, and accordingly wrote my mittimus and sent me to gaol, where I was close shut up. That after I was a prisoner Mr. Ott used to come and see me often, and appeared to pity my situation, as he said he knew I did not deserve it; and one day he told me if I would give him a coat I had, and which he was much in want of, he would bring in tools for me to break prison, which I agreed to, and gave him my coat; but same days afterwards he came and told me that as the tools would cost considerable, and the risk was very great, he would not do it for the coat, but that if I with the others in the room, would make up fifty pounds for him, he would bring in tools sufficient to break the prison, and likewise a set of keys that would unlock all the doors of the gaol, so that if we were detected in breaking out, the keys would then answer to let us out by the doors. I told him it was impossible for us to raise so much money then. He then told me that if I could get Mr. Wilson to give his note for the money, he would take it. I told him I would try. Accordingly the next day happening to get the liberty of the Hall, I told Mr. Wilson, if he would give his note to Mr. Ott, for Fifty Pounds that he would get me out, and as soon as I was out I would settle the matter with him, which he by my persuasion consented to do, and Mr. Ott, coming there that day, we then, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Ott, and myself, went up stairs together, and Mr. Wilson gave Mr. Ott a note for Fifty Pounds, payable in a few days, but how many I do not remember; Mr. Ott the next day brought me a rope, a chisel and three gimblets, but never brought any keys. We broke the room with the tools, and myself and five more went out, Mr. Wilson was then confined in the room, with us but would not go out. The note was then produced, and Mr. Tobias declared it to the best of his knowledge, to be the same that Mr. Wilson the prisoner at the bar, and called now by the name of Abraham Morhouse, gave Jacob Ott for him.'

[Page] John Ketcham was then sworn, and declared, "That a few evenings ago he was in a public house, and that Jacob Ott and several others were there, and that he heard Ott say that he was waiting for Mr. Mulherrain to come home, that he wanted to get some money from him; and that Ott further said, that he could get money of Mulherrain when he wanted it, and he could get 50 or 60l. of him, if he wanted." The State's Attorney then asked Ott if he had ever said so, and he said no. Mr. Ketcham, the deponant, was then asked what kind of character Ott had in general. Mr. Ketcham said, if he must speak plain, that he bore a very bad character: That none of the butchers would trust him; and that he heard several times of his stealing, and was generally accounted a thief"

After all the evidences were got through with, Mr. Morhouse desired leave of the Court to speak for himself, as he intended to make no use of an Attorney; which privilege being granted, he addressed the Jury as follows.—

§

Gentlemen,

"I find myself here arraigned before this Honorable Court, and you. Gentlemen are to be the Judges whether I shall live or die: and having obtained leave of the HONORABLE COURT. I shall therefore speak for myself, tho very incapable of the important Task for you must know Gentlemen I am neither Orator, Lawyer, or Scholar; but can speak the truth as well as any man and being conscious of my own innocence of the present charge I believe there is nothing but the truth necessary to be told, therefore I undertake the task myself Your first enqury. Gentlemen, will be what reason I had for altering my name from Morhouse to Wilson, to which I answer: Gentlemen, at a very early period of my life I quitted my father with his consent, and commenced business on my own bottom, bought a store near Clavarick, and drove on a large trade between that and this city, my credit being firmly established which enabled me to trade largely, and at the same time with a considerable profit to myself; [Page] but being young and unexperienced in the world, I did not take that precaution and care as might be expected from one further advanced in years, and ripened by experience: being naturally of an easy and benevolent temper, I was induced by solicitations to give large credits, and when the day of payment came, by their pleading up scarcity of money and their inability to pay, my easy nature would never permit me to distress them or their families, and by that means payments were put off from time to time, and many of them remain unpaid to this day In less than a year after I commenced business, by a calculation of my affairs, I imagined I had made as much money as I should ever want, and at that time having a great inclination to travel I equipped myself with a considerable degree of splendor, and set out to explore the southern states, having first put my affairs which I was obliged to leave behind into the hands of a friend, with express orders for him to collect as much money as would pay my debts and to obtain as speedy as possible a discharge from all my creditors. I then commenced my journey, which continued through various parts of the world for four years successively during which I experienced as many vicissitudes of fortune as perhaps any man ever did in that length of time. But returning last spring, and finding myself heartily tired of rambling. I then seriously came to a resolution of settling myself, and to quit a roving life; with these sentiments I applied to my friend (whom I at my departure had left my business with) and desired to know what progress he had made in my affairs. But to my surprise I soon discovered that he had paid so much attention to his own business, that he had entirely neglected mine, and I therefore saw very little difference in my affairs, but found they remained nearly in the same situation as I left them, which caused me to draw my property immediately out of his hands and resolved to trust no one, but settle my own business myself As soon as I came to take a view of my affairs, they afforded a very disagreeable prospect, and I found [Page] myself reduced in a labyrinth of perplexities and troubles; for although I had much more owing me than I owed, yet the scarcity of money and the situation of many of my debtors, I soon saw would make it very difficult to collect money enough to pay my debts; and being at the same time jealous that were my creditors acquainted with my return, they would immediately fall upon me unprepared for their money, and so cast me into prison, which you are all sensible, Gentlemen, is a very poor place for a man to settle his business in. This idea, Gentlemen, brought me to a resolution of embracing my free moments, to bring my creditors to a favorable composition. But not knowing who to trust, I thought no one would be so proper to transact the business as myself; and well knowing that from my long absence and the great alteration made in my person, my most intimate friends would not know me by sight. I therefore called my name John M. Wilson, and as it were under this invisible disguise, I could with ease and pleasure settle the business for Abraham Morhouse, and my acquaintance with all the circumstances, and disguised as a friend, would enable me to do justice on all sides, both to myself and my creditors, and I make no doubt, Gentlemen, but you will consider the stratagem as a very innocent one, as you plainly discover that it was laid to injure no man, but to contribute to the general good. With these intentions, Gentlemen, I came to this city and put up at a genteel house, avoided company or connexion, and confined myself wholly to the prosecution of my favorite plan, and had already visited several of my creditors, and under my disguise conversed with them freely upon affairs between them and Abraham Morhouse, without their having the least mistrust that they were then conversing with him, and should have brought on a compromise in a few days that would have proved highly beneficial to both parties. But fortune, not yet tired of persecuting an innocent victim, thought proper to cut of my favorite hopes, and plunged me again into a sea of troubles, [Page] for this purpose they seemed to infuse suspicion into the heads of some constables who were in search of persons they first suspected of counterfeiting money, that I was one likewise, that it would be proper for them to take up, they in consequence took me before Alderman Wool, who seemed to have catched the disorder, and that so strongly, that he immediately without ceremony, sent me to gaol, but for what I never could learn from that time until this. I indeed heard a flying report that I was committed for passing counterfeit money, but this I knew to be a mistake, as I had not passed a paper bill for eight months before, but being in gaol I was to make the best of it, and being in want of money, I wrote to Capt. Ross who owed me a considerable sum, that he wrote me back, which my letters of attorney here plainly shew, that he had no money, but sent me a bond in judgment against Richard Mulherrain for £.1000 and desired me to collect said bond, pay myself out of the money, and return him the overplus. This bond when I received it I gave it to Peter R Livingston to collect. Now, Gentlemen, please to mark how candidly I transacted the business, for although I was then known by no other name but Wilson but the moment that I found myself obliged to do business, I despised doing it under a borrowed name, but immediately disclosed my true name, as this receipt will demonstrate where he acknowledges to have received of Abraham Morhouse the above mentioned bond to put in suit, which plainly shews that all I did and meant was honest and square, and that I never changed my name to defraud any man. Gentlemen, I made this observation to convince you of the candor of my story, and I make no doubt but your good sense will discover that every sentence I have spoken, is founded on absolute facts and without the least evasion from the truth Now, Gentlemen, the bond that Mr. Ross sent me to collect, and the bond which I put into Livingston's hands, and which he receipted me for in the name of Abraham Morhouse; this is the same bond, Gentlemen, that I [Page] am now to be tried for being concerned in the forgery of, and as you are informed by Ott's evidence in the gaol too; Now Gentlemen, as the matter may appear something strange to you how I could receive a bond from Ross who at the time he sent it me was at 100 miles distance and within a few days after forge that bond in prison? the two declarations are diametrically opposite to each other, and therefore one must be false and the other true, I make no doubt but you will without hesitation, from the examination of the witnesses, declare me innocent of the charge; but to shew you how conscious I am of my own integrity, and at the sametime shew you the opinion I have of the conduct of my adversaries, I shall make a few observations on the subject, to which Gentlemen I beg your attention.

"You here behold, Gentlemen, a bond signed by Richard Mulherrain, witnessed by Israel Young and Jacob Ott. Two witnesses to an obligation of this nature is as much as the law requires, and therefore this bond is not deficient in that point, but you may say the witnesses do not agree; for here is Ott, one of the witnesses declares that the bond is forged, and that he was to receive Fifty Pounds to become a witness, and has here the note for the money to produce, and likewise Mr. Mulherrain swears he never gave such a bond. It is true. Gentlemen, they have sworn so, and by that means the grand jury was induced to indict Mr. Young, which has deprived me of the privilege of his evidence, but with what justice I will leave it to you to judge. You see, Gentlemen, Mr. Mulherrain is called upon in this case to be an evidence, in which he has two alternatives, by taking the one he absolutely swears about Sixteen Hundred Pounds out of his pocket, and by taking the other, swears as much in, and I think, Gentlemen you will readily judge which his choice is: the Honorable Court says, that the law makes him a good witness, but pray Gentlemen, does any law human or divine, (except in a Court of Concience) oblige a man to bear testimony against himself? [Page] I believe not, if so, then why should a man be permitted to be an evidence in his own favor, it appears to be unconnected with reason and reason is held as the foundation of law. I acknowledge, Gentlemen, that in some cases it corroborates with reason and justice, that a man should be an evidence on his own behalf, for instance, where a man has property stolen from him, and no other evidence but his own can be procured to prove the property his, in such and the like cases, it is reasonable that his evidence should be admitted on his own behalf, but then he should be examined with the utmost caution, and no more weight should be laid upon his testimony than could be justified by circumstances, the situation of the case considered. It is true, Mulherrain produces a letter as a circumstance to prove the truth of his evidence, but as there is no proof its ever being wrote by Ross, I don't see, Gentlemen, that you can take any notice of it, especially as there are several weighty circumstances against him, which greatly overbalances the introduction of this pretended letter and which only serves to make Mulherrain's fraud appear more conspicuous, as will shortly be explained. Secondly, Gentlemen here is Ott swears that I engaged him to be a witness to this bond some time in the fore part of Septemper last, and gave him a note for Fifty Pounds to do it, do you believe this, Gentlemen, to be a fact? If you do, you must discredit several very substantial witnesses, who are not only witnesses of good reputation, but witnesses that every circumstance serves to prove the validity of their testimonies; therefore you cannot nor will not believe any thing that Ott informs you. Now, admitting Ott's evidence to be false, which is most positively the case, we shall naturally draw this plain and equitable inference, that is, Mulherrain being informed (as easily he might) that Ross had sent me the bond to collect, and knowing it to be for a large sum of money, and finding in himself an inability or disinclination to pay it, he immediately falls upon a scheme to quit himself of the demand, and as the most expeditious [Page] way he applies to Ott, whom we find as long ago as when the bond was given, to be his favorite witness, as he then refused having any other but him to be a second witness to the bond and from this we must naturally suppose, that Mulherrain knew his man, and and at that moment intended to cheat Ross out of his property and laid his plans accordingly: in consequence of which determination he goes to Ott as soon as he found the bond coming against him, and agrees to give him a certain sum of money to swear that the bond was a forgery this Gentlemen, you must positively believe as you find by Mr. Ketcham's testimony, that Ott declared that he was only waiting for Mr. Mulherrain to come home and he could get money enough, that he got money of Mulherrain whenever he wanted it, and to the amount of Fifty or Sixty Pounds, which money. Gentlemen, Mulherrain could never give Ott for any other thing, but for him to swear the bond was not a forgery, as we find in both of their testimonies; they deny ever having any dealings or connexions together In this manner he secured Ott, and engaged him to declare the bond a forgery; but being assured that Ott's evidence would be no more than Mr. Young's, and conscious that Mr. Young's integrity could not be corrupted by a golden fee, he formed another project, the execution of which he supposed, and that with some reason, would be a strong circumstance in his favor, and serve to prejudice the minds of the people on his behalf, he therefore orders Ott who had become his emissary to go to the prison, and under the pretence of assisting the prisoners to break gaol, to procure some kind of property or obligation from me, with which he proposed working miracles. Ott, according to his orders, came up, but finding I had no inclination to quit my consinement in that manner, secretly applies to some of the [...], and with fair promises and hopes of a speedy enjoyment of precious and much coveted liberty, [...] them in his plan, but then the difficulty was started how they should pay him, for he had taken [Page] care to ask such a price as he was sure they could not immediately comply with without assistance, he therefore immediately offers to take my note, and help them to what they so eagerly desired. Mr. Tobias with whom I was some acquainted, thought the offer advantageous, and readily agreed to solicit me to become his sponsor for the Fifty Pounds, he succeeded; I gave my note as you see fully demonstrated by Mr. Tobias's testimony, as soon as he had got the note, with eager transport he hastens to Mulherrain, informs him of his progress, who exults with him at the success of their stratagem. Being now secure in their own minds, no sooner did Mulherrain find the bond in Peter R. Livingston, the attorney's hands, but he applies to him, and with the benign influence of his purse, engages him to go and deliver the bond to the Honorable Judge Morris, who by appearances was induced to believe the bond was a forgery, and that I was at the bottom of it, and immediately orders me to be treated accordingly, which orders I have very severely experienced. Gentlemen, as to what the State's. Attorney has offered to your consideration concerning the bonds mentioning State of New-York, which he says he thinks the custom was at that time to mention province of New-York, and urges the difference as a proof that the bond is forged, but that nice observation of his can have no weight with you Gentlemen, when you consider, that New-York was then an independent State, and the British being possessed of this small corner could not affect its title, beside Mr. Ross was from the country where it was universally called a State, and he without doubt, chose to make use of a term which was not only more legal than any other but one that he had been familiarly conversant with. The State's Attorney likewise informs you, Gentlemen, that there is a letter difference between Mulherrain's name as spelt in signing the bond, and the manner he now writes it; this also he produces as the bond's being forged: but you will immediately perceive, Gentlemen, that he could not [Page] produce a stronger circumstance of the bond's being a good one; for you [...], Gentlemen, he produces no proof that Mulherrain did not write his name in 1777, as it is here signed to the bond, but produces a paper which Mulherrain has wrote on purpose, and no other proof of its being his common method of writing, but his own oath, which how far ought to be credited. I shall leave it to you to judge; but supposing it to be really the case, that Mulherrain's name to the bond is misspelt, you must and will suppose, Gentlemen, that Mulherrain made the mistake himself, and that wilfully; for you can't surely imagine, that any man would be so great an idiot, as to undertake to counterfeit another man's name (and especially in a matter of this consequence) unless he had the man's name and hand writing, so intended to be forged present, and to view with great care and circumspection, so that both of these circumstances are weighty additional proofs to what has already been clearly demonstrated; which is this, that Mulherrain, at the time he gave this obligation, laid his plans to defraud Ross of his property, and evade the payment of the bond, and has proceeded accordingly. For Gentlemen, I make no doubt but you are fully convinced, that Ott swore false, and that Mulherrain hired him to do so, and if his ambition would carry him so far as to subborn a witness to deprive a man of his just due, and take the lives of three innocent men, and plunge them into eternity, for no other reason but that they want obstacles to his avarice. To crown the scene of baneful fraud, he would swallow an oath himself, especially as it was likely to contribute so largely to his own interest. Gentlemen, you will be obliging enough to consider every circumstance seriously. In me you behold a man oppressed with the heavy hand of tyranny, and loaded with affliction, more than six long months have passed since I was confined and close shut up from all conversation of friends and acquaintance, and effectually deprived of doing any business or even transmitting what might procure persons who were some [Page] way acquainted with the circumstances of this affair to come forth and declare the truth in support of my innocence, while my adversary. an opulent merchant, roamed at large, and spared neither time or money to secure his advantage and obtain my conviction, by which method only he could secure his ill covered wealth: but conscious of my own innocence, and the reward due to virtue, I am regardless of his machinations; I have chosen you, Gentlemen, to be my guardians, and placed my life in your hands fully believing that you will consider the important trust; for not only the lives of three individuals depends upon your verdict, but you, Gentlemen, are to decide the most important affair that perhaps ever was left to the judgment of twelve men; you now command the attention of your country, and the eyes of every person are upon you, eagerly awaiting the award of your judgment; you, Gentlemen, are to determine whether all public faith is to be broken, and all private contracts made void; whether all deeds, conveyances, bonds, notes, and receipts, &c. &c. are from this hour to cease, and no covenants or agreements to be made, but by the word of mouth from man to man; or whether they may with reason, justice and safety be continued in their usual and antient form; for if you find me guilty, no person that ever hears of the circumstance of my condemnation, will ever be so fool hardy as to receive an obligation from any man, as it puts it [...] of his debtor [...] him out of both his [...] property he [...] certainly prefer taking the man's word, and so only run the risque of losing his money, than to take his bond and leave his life in jeopardy. Gentlemen, you are all sensible that as social beings and members of society, it is our duty to embrace every opportunity to serve our fellow creatures; how often Gentlemen, have many of you and perhaps all of you been called upon by strangers, to be a witness to their contracts, and have readily complied with their demands, without ever considering [...] consequence; but how must your feelings be if that bond [Page] or contract should afterwards, by the oath of the oblige [...] be proved to be a forgery, and you arraigned and condemned for assisting in the forgery; your name was signed as a witness to the bond, and therefore you must be concerned; in vain would the poor unfortunate obligee cry out that his bond was a good one, and call upon you to declare it such. which you are ready to do, but are not allowed; therefore you are both convicted, condemned, and obliged to suffer a shameful death, and your memory branded with eternal infamy; say, Gentlemen, which of you; to [...]rve neighbour, acquaintance, or a stranger, will ever [...]are to be a witness to an obligation, when, perhaps, at the very moment you are attempting to oblige them, you are signing your own death warrant? Therefore, as there can be no witness with safety, there can be no obligations; and of course all contracts by writing must stop, and the art of writing become useless: And still farther, Gentlemen, which of you will ever dare to receive an assignment of an obligation from a friend or a debtor, against any man, since you see me arraigned and tried for my life, for no other cause than receiving a bond from a debtor to prosecute? And you see I am charged with assisting in the forgery of the bond, although I have produced my letters of attorney, which authorizes me to put the bond in suit, and have proved the letters geuuine, and proved the bond to be legally given by Mulherrain, and proved the bond to be offered years ago for sale by Ross? Neither is there any proof against the legality of the bond, but Mulherrain's own evidence, which is sufficiently bore down by disinterested witnesses, which renders sufficiently conspicuous the authenticity of the obligation, as well as my innocence of the present charge.—I think, Gentlemen, I have plainly shewn the present case to be a very important one; but some attoruies may say, that I have not laid [...] the case according to law. but I believe I have [...]aid it down according to reason, and I can assure you, Gentlemen, that if you give a verdict that is founded upon [Page] reason and justice, the law will never censure you; for although by the laws being so numerous, and lawyers frequently wresting them to their advantage construing passages to suit their own particular cases, without paying attention to their real meaning, by which means it renders them difficult for common capacities to understand; yet we find all laws founded upon the law of natural reason, and as Justinian observes, are reduced to three general heads, viz deal justly with all▪ hurt nobody▪ and render every one his due.

"And your finding me guilty upon the evidence offered in this case, would in fact be complying with no one of those important law maxims. You will likewise Gentlemen, take notice, that I had a very fair opportunity to make my escape from prison, and could have secured my liberty with the greatest ease and safety. Had I been guilty of this charge, I should have embraced the opportunity, and with the others, quitted my unhospitable mansion, to enjoy the pleasing and delicious sweets of liberty; for wisdom teaches you that a guilty mind is ever tormented with disagreeable fears and apprehensions, and more especially so, when in the hands of justice, which they so cruelly dread, for then they expect to receive a punishment equitable to their crimes: but Gentlemen, no one of those fears tormented my breast; but conscious of my own innocence, I disregarded the self interested malice and cruel persecutions of my adversary, but with humble resignation. I put my trust in that Almighty Being, whose assistance I have often experienced in my hours of calamity, and remained in full belief, that his all-seeing spirit would assist me to declare my innocence to the world, and to convince the public of my injuries: this belief made me forego the opportunity of relieving me then from unutterable distress to enjoy the blessings of freedom, but with my free and voluntary will now appear before you, and confide in you to publish my innocence, Gentlemen, favors I ask none, for could I be sensible that my mind was ever so depraved as to forge a bond, and to hire two men to [Page] become witnesses to prove it, my aversion now to so horrid a deed, and the love I bear my country would make me sincerely wish to be annihilated, that I might not live a monument of shame and self remorse, and a baneful pest to society. But I can positively assure you, Gentlemen, that so far from ever committing such an action, you may rely upon it that the deed never once existed in idea: but Gentlemen fully relying upon your integrity, I humbly submit this important case to your candid consideration

ABRAHAM MORHOUSE."

Mr Benson, the States Attorney, then got up and made a few observations to the Jury; but was very short and concise in his remarks.

The Honorable Judge then rose up and gave a charge to the Jury, which was very unfavourable to the prisoner, for he appeared to consider the bond as a forgery, and that Jacob Ott had spoken the truth, in giving in his testimony. The Jury then went out, and in three fourths of an hour returned, all agreed, and pronounced the prisoner at the bar, not guilty, which words were no sooner spoken than the numerous body of spectators, made the whole house resound with a universal acclamation, which plainly testified their joy at Mr Morhouse's success in not falling a victim to selfinterested motives.

Mr. Morhouse then desired to know of the Honorable Court, if they ever intended to bring him to Trial, on the other Indictment; the Court answered in the arffimative, be then desired to be brought down to answer them the next day, as some of the witnesses were from a distance, and upon expences which made it difficult for them to tarry, but he received no answer, but was ordered back to prison without being admitted to bail or trial until the next setting of the Court.

The end of the first Trial.

§

§

[Page]

[Page]

THE FIRST TRIAL of A. Morhouse, FOR [...]GERY. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

[...] YORK. [...]

VERSES ON ABRAHAM MORHOUSE,

[Page]

By a Friend to the Distressed.

NEAR Hudson's lucid stream, all on a rock alone,

Columbia's genius sat, and pensive made her moan;

The briny tear ran trickling down amain,

Her heaving breast express'd her inward pain;

The laurel wreath her sapient temples bound,

With rage she tore, and dash'd it on the ground:

At length I saw her raise her streaming eyes,

To Heav'n, with lifted hands, the Goddess cries:

I see my country's fate once happy land

Where truth and justice once went hand in hand:

My children's rights was guarded by good laws,

Mercy give judgement—truth first tried the cause;

It ne'er was known a man condemn'd to die

On groundless evidence for forgery;

Laws should be founded on—true equity:

No life fell victim—to a Judas' tribe,

Who'd sell his brother for a paltry bribe.

By such base means—behold! with pitying eye,

One of my sons, unhappy youth! must die.

Young Morhouse, whom a Judas did betray,

A murd'ring witness swore his life away:

A villain, who poor Purdy's* blood did shed,

Branded by justice, from Nova-Scotia fled.

Fly, villain fly! thou ne'er can'st have rest,

Corrosive guilt lies cank'ring in thy breast;

Lamented youth, adieu I mourn thy fall,

May Heav'n the dreadful sentence yet recall;

May justice give to each their due reward,

May Morehouse live—may virtue be his guard,

To use that life aright—if once bestow'd,

[Page] May Ott,† detested, tread the Tyburn road.

This is my wish, oh Heav'n! in mercy hear,

Columbia cry'd and shed the friendly tear.

Notes

*

In Digby, Nova-Scotia, for wich he was branded as a villain.

†

The person named Ott, whose real name is Otten [...] mer, is known by the author to be the man who basels, and without any provacation, shot the above named Purdy.

Information about this book

Title statement

The first trial of A. Morhouse, for forgery. Written by himself.

Morhouse, Abraham, d. 1813.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2008-09.

ID [DLPS]

N17047

ID [TCP]

N17047

ID [STC]

Evans 21976

ID [NOTIS]

APX7284

ID [IMAGE-SET]

21976

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99024136

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 21976.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N17047)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 21976)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 21976)

Source

— The first trial of A. Morhouse, for forgery. Written by himself., Morhouse, Abraham, d. 1813..

Extent

24 p.

[s.n.],. New York :: 1789.. (Caption title: An accurate description of the trial between the people of the state of New York and Abraham Morhouse, at the Supreme Court, holden at the Exchange, in the city of New-York, on Tuesday the 20th January, 1789, and continued by adjournments until Saturday the 31st of said month and year. The Honorable Judge Morris on the bench.) ("Verses on Abraham Morhouse, by a friend to the distressed."--p. 23-24.)

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.