| 312 All we ask is a fair and impartial trial. We ask the sympathies of no one. We ask sheer justice; 'tis all we expect, and all we merit, but we merit that. We know the people of no county in this State to which we would ask our final trials to be sent, are prejudiced in our favor. But we believe that the state of excitement existing in most of the upper counties is such that a jury would be improperly influenced by it. But that excitement and the prejudice against us in the counties comprising the fifth judicial circuit are not the only obstacles we are compelled to meet. We know that much of that prejudice against us is not so much to be attributed to a want of honest motives amongst the citizens as it is to wrong information.
"'But it is a difficult task to change opinions once formed. The other obstacle which we candidly consider one of the most weighty, is the feeling which we believe is entertained by the Hon. A. A. King against us, and the consequent incapacity to do us impartial justice. It is from no disposition to speak disrespectfully of that high officer that we lay before your honorable body the facts we do; but simply that the legislature may be apprised of our real condition. We look upon Judge King as like all other mere men, liable to be influenced by his feelings, his prejudices, and his previously formed opinions. We consider his reputation as being partially if not entirely committed against us. He has written much upon the subject of our late difficulties, in which he has placed us in the wrong. These letters have been published to the world. He has also presided at an excited public meeting as chairman, and no doubt sanctioned all the proceedings. We do not complain of the citizens who held that meeting, they were entitled to that privilege. But for the judge before whom the very men were to be tried for a capital offense to participate in an expression of condemnation of these same individuals, is to us at least apparently wrong; and we cannot think that we should, after such a course on the part of the Judge, have the same chance of a fair and impartial trial as all admit we ought to have.
"'We believe that the foundation of the feeling against us which we have reason to think Judge King entertains, may
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