152 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



Hereof fail not and make due return of this writ and your doings tliereon unto 

 myself, on or before the said hour of the said third day of June. 

 Dated at Groton aforesaid, the sixteenth day of May, A. D. 1831. 



Caleb Butler, Justice of the Peace. 



The students decided to stand trial, and act as lawyers for each 

 other ; and they studied the law pretty thoroughly, fearing that they 

 might make a failure on their first attempt in the legal forum. 



On the day appointed they presented themselves before the 

 Justice ; and soon ten other delinquents, mostly farmer boys, filed 

 in, causing an overflow in the small ofiice ; and the court was ad- 

 journed to the hall of the neighboring tavern, which was then kept 

 by Joseph Hoar. 



As it was noised through the village that those college boys were 

 to be put on their trial before Mr. Justice Butler, and that they were 

 foolish enough to attempt to play the lawyer for each other, there 

 was quite a gathering of the villagers, who came to witness some 

 fun. 



Bradford Russell, Esquire, a legal light of Groton, appeared as 

 counsel for the complainant, and the proceedings began. The case 

 against Thomas Hopkinson was called. The Court, after ordering 

 him to stand up, read the complaint and inquired : " Thomas Hop- 

 kinson, what say you to this complaint? Do you plead guilty, or not 

 guilty?" Hopkinson. " Not guilty." " Have you any counsel? " 

 " Yes, your Honor ; my friend James Dana is to defend me." Court. 

 "Mr. Russell, proceed with your case." "Yes, your Honor; " and 

 he offered his documentary evidence, and his witnesses in support 

 of the allegations in the complaint, and then said, "We rest our 

 case here." 



Mr. Dana, for the defence, then arose and addressed the Court 

 as follows : 



" May it please your Honor, our defence will consist of eleven 

 points, some of which we flatter ourselves will be considered an 

 ample defence to the annoying and unjust prosecution of innocent 

 law-abiding citizens of this ancient town ; and we trust that our 

 defence will be such that the complainant and his associates will 

 not have opportunity to gratify their spleen against those college 

 fellows, — a fellowship of which we are in no way ashamed, but 

 justly proud." 



Mr. Dana then elaborated six of his points, and proceeded : 



" We have now presented and argued six of our points. Our 

 seventh point is that although we are liable to be enrolled in the 



