The Trial of Theodore Parker for the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall Against Kidnapping Before the Circuit Court of the United States at Boston, April 3, 1855 With the Defence

If it were a merely personal matter for which I was arraigned before the United States Court, after the trial was over I should trouble the public no Further with that matter; and hitherto indeed, though often attacked, nay, almost continually for the last fourteen years, I have never returned a word in defence. But now, as this case is one of such vast and far-reaching importance, involving the great Human Right to Freedom of Speech, and as the actual question before the court was never brought to trial, I cannot let the occasion pass by without making Further use of it.