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[Page 2]
Service? Who is there warmly interested for the promotion of public good, or for the furtherance of public discipline, that must not sometimes be transported beyond the bounds of private judgment, [judgement], and cool in dispassionate reasoning, by the ebullitions of the mind warmly bent to those invariable and undeviating objects? But if their feelings are checked by the cold neglect of indifference and disregard, who is proof against those Sentiments? And again with all the merits of the best of men, perhaps I might even say, with all the distinguished merits of the gallant officers who compose this Honorable Court, if all the articles that elapsed in the cause of twelve months were to be scraped [scrapped] and thrown together, who is there so virtuous? Who is there so wise? Who is there so perfect as to be able to say, I am not he against whom a charge can be framed? For myself I frankly confess, I am not the man, and submit my weakness to the liberality of this honorable Court.
And here it is impossible not to call the attention of the court to a situation of public evil and personal mortification, with which no person can fail to be impressed; but especially those whom I now address, feeling the responsibility and ardor of their situations; this is the situation in which I have been placed for several months. I have been threatened with a prosecution, which is subversive of all discipline and personal respect, and has been kept hovering over my head; still the only circumstance I have known of my charges, has been the endeavering [endeavouring]