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a white man of low character. Such is the general character of the persons who testified against Lewis. These facts did not however appear in the evidence, yet they can be established. In the defense it was proven by Mrs Parish, [[strikethrough]]that[/strikethrough]] the lady from whom Dr Lewis rents land, that she never saw anything out-of-the-way in Dr L, that he has conducted himself, so far as she knew, in a gentlemanly manner; that he has been engaged as a teacher of a colored school & practicing medicine among the colored people; that she never heard him say anything against the white people particularly; that she has heard him on all occasions give good advice to the colored people, to be respectful to every one, to work hard & be honest &c; that E.A. Tillman had broke up the school which she was trying to conduct while Dr Lewis was in jail before being bailed by order of the Mil Court; that Dr RS Powell & Stephen Tillman had forbidden her renting her land to negroes or anybody unless they gave their consent; that no d--d Yankees should live in their neighborhood &c. These persons have no legal control whatever over the land belonging to Mrs Parish. Another witness testified that she overheard Dr Powell tell John Shell that if they could not get rid of Dr. Lewis in any other 

way that they would have him waylaid & shot. Others testified as to the character of the meeting July 5th; that is was a political meeting & nothing more; that Dr Lewis never said one word to them about organizing a military company, arming them or anything of the kind. The whole spirit of prosecution & its witnesses throughout the trial seemed to manifest a predetermined & preconcerted plot to accuse and condemn Dr Lewis; for the prosecution signally failed to make out their case - that of conspiracy on the part of Dr Lewis to incite the Freedmen to insurrection against the whites - but it did prove to my mind a conspiracy on the part of the Whites in the neighborhood to get rid of and drive him (Lewis) from the County. Notwithstanding all this the Jury, after the appeal of the Atty for the Commonwealth & his associate, to their prejudices & passions, in their verdict found him guilty of the charge and sentenced him to imprisonment in the Penitentiary for the term of seven - 7 - years. A most palpable, flagrant, damnable outrage & injustice ever perpetrated on man, Yet I was not surprised at the verdict, although the counsel for Dr Lewis made a very good defense. Yet one [[strikethrough]]may[[/strikethrough]] might as well attempt to dam up the