31 March 1804

Evidence

Forthcomingness

Ch. Investigatorial

1. For the obtainment of the sort of evidence required - and for reducing to its /their/ lowest dimensions the vexation, expence and delay to /the manifestation//danger/ of which the course taken in the procuration[?] of the object is exposed - procedure in /directed at/ pursuit of this object /in this case/ is susceptible of a cause of facilitation which is not equally applicable to the case of procedure testibus cognitis. This is - the holding communication with each /any/ indicative witness by letter, and consequently at any distance, without the necessity of insisting on his presence. Why /How/ so? Because if, through the medium of an individual addressed /applied to/ in the character of an indicative witness information be obtained of another individual qualified to serve in the character of an ultimate witness, or even in the character of an indicative witness, provided /so is/ his station be nearer the source of ultimate evidence. No matter in what way obtained - the object so far as concerns the information he is capable of yielding, is accomplished.

In this way, true it is, that cross-examination, with the matchless security which it is of the nature of it to afford, will have no place. Equally true it is, on the other hand, equally true it is, that to this case, it has no application - in this case it would not be of any use. Suppose disposition to mendacity on the part of the indicative witness, the only person /party/ to whose interest it can be prejudicial is the party at whose instance it has been extracted. Take the case of an indicative witness standing in the chain of evidence next to the ultimate /individual qualified to serve in the capacity of an/ witness. Did you ever hear, (says the plaintiff) any person speak of his having seen any thing of the transaction in question? If the answer be no: true or false, the opposite party - the party adverse to the interrogator the defendant - is not prejudiced by it, but served. If the answer be, yes: I have heard Titius[?] speak of himself as having been present - here too again true or false, no injury can result from it to the defendant. If false, all the