MR. VAN VOORHIS: I ask that the jury be polled.
The clerk polled the jury, each juror answering in the affirmative to
the question, "Is this your verdict?"
On the next day, June 19, 1873, the counsel for the defendants, Mr. John
Van Voorhis, made a motion to the Court, for a new trial in behalf of
Beverly W. Jones, Edwin T. Marsh and William B. Hall. The argument was
oral and is not given, but the following are the grounds of the motion:
1. The indictment contains no sufficient statement of any crime under
the Acts of Congress, upon which it is framed.
2. The Court has no jurisdiction of the subject matter of the offense.
3. It was an error, for which a new trial should be granted, to refuse
the defendants the fundamental right to address the jury, through their
counsel. This is a right guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
(_See Article VI. of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 1 Graham &
Waterman on New Trials, pages 682, 683 and 684._)
4. The defendants were substantially deprived of the right of jury
trial. The instructions of the Court to the jury were imperative. They
were equivalent to a direction to find a verdict of guilty. It was said
by the Court in the hearing of the jury, that the case was submitted to
the jury "as a matter of form.
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