WHEN the day of trial dawned, Stella had succeeded in securing the services of two of the greatest lawyers in America, Reverdy John son of Maryland, Attorney General in the Cabinet of President Taylor, and Henry Stanbery of Ohio.
Attorney General in the Cabinet of Andrew Johnson.
The Government was represented by the finest legal talent its vast resources and power could command.
For eleven days, before two presiding judges of the United States Circuit Court, the fierce battle of legal giants raged. The great lawyers for the defence fought every inch of ground with dogged tenacity.
Stella watched from day to day with breathless intensity as she sat by John Graham's side.
It soon became plain that the Court had constituted itself a partisan political tribunal for the purpose, not of administering justice, but of crushing the enemies of the party in power.
Every decision was against the prisoner, though,
