Excerpt from Speeches in Stirring Times and Letters to a Son: Edited, With Introductory Sketch and Notes By this mental process, he, when twenty-nine years of age, worked out the true rule of law regarding the burden Of proof in criminal trials, in the Peter York case.1 Peter York was charged with murder, and Mr. Dana defended him. Mr. Dana urged that upon the government lay the burden of proving, beyond rea sonable doubt, the malice aforethought as well as the mere killing. The language employed in the legal text-books and in the published judicial opinions was Opposed to Mr. Dana's contention, and the majority of the Massachusetts Supreme Court then decided against him; but Mr. Dana's View has prevailed, as will be told more fully farther on in this sketch, and is now the law of the land. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.