The prosecution's Molly Casey stood up to present the final closing arguments.
"I'd just like to object to Mr Jones' attempt to bias the jury. We're going to do this next year anyway, so I encourage you to
NOT come back with a hung jury as that will not affect whether we come back and do this again next year.
"When this poem was first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel, the editor of that newspaper had this to say about it,
'There is, to our apprehension, a spirit of cordial goodness in it, a playfulness of fancy, and a benevolent alacrity to
enter into the feeling and promote the simple pleasures of children, which are altogether charming.'
"You had a chance to see Mr Moore here tonight, the man who for two centuries almost was falsely credited as the author of this
poem. The steely, rigid biblical scholar. Now Mr Moore did write a poem about Santa Claus and you heard that today, too. And in
that poem, Santa Claus differentiated between the good little girls and boys and the bad girls and boys. He made a moral judgment
about these children and the bad kids, even if they were just a little loud, they got long, black birchen rods from Santa Claus.
And not only that, but their parents were encouraged to beat them with those rods. There's nothing playful about that.
Beating your children is just about the opposite of promoting children's simple pleasures, wouldn't you say? That poem was not
anonymous. That poem was written by Moore and there's no question about that."
[Ms Casey was inaccurate here. The poem she describes,
Old Santeclaus,"
was attributed to Moore by Don Foster.
The Santa Claus poem which was in Moore's handwriting was "From St. Nicholas." In that poem, Moore sympathizes with his daughter
whose stocking was left "quite empty."]
"Now let's compare that with the poem at issue here today.
'The children were nestled all snug in their beds / While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.'
And then describing Santa Claus, 'He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, / And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.'
Now if Mr Moore was such a biblical scholar, would he take a saint and turn him into a jolly little elf? I don't think so."
[Actually, he did exactly that with the poem "From St. Nicholas."]
"The Santa Claus in the poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas,' Livingston's Santa Claus, he filled the stockings with treats for the children.
He didn't differentiate between the good kids and the bad kids. He made the parents laugh, in spite of themselves. He didn't
encourage them to beat their children. I want you to ask yourself, "Could the same man have written those two poems? The answer to that
question is no. You know it. I know it. And Clement Clarke Moore knows it, too.
"Now you also had the chance to meet Henry Livingston tonight - the jovial, good-natured, gentleman farmer. Twinkling eyes,
his merry dimples, his cheeks like roses, mouth like a cherry. He wrote poems for children. He wrote poems for his family.
He wrote poems to make the world happy. He didn't write poems to teach lessons and he didn't write poems for fame.
"Now I also want you to pay attention to the styles that these poems were written in. We talked about that today, too. I have a poem written
by Henry Livigston which he didn't read on the witness stand tonight. I'll read you that verse.
"Such gadding - such ambling - such jaunting about
To tea with Miss Nancy - to sweet Willy's rout
New parties at coffee - then parties at wine
Next day all the world with the Major must dine.
Brother Beekman
"And you have a poem by Moore.
"Amid life's wreck, we struggle to secure
Some floating fragment from oblivion's wave
We pant for somewhat that may still endure,
And snatch at least a shadow from the grave."
Portrait
Ms Casey was interrupted by defense counsel Jones objecting that the poem from which those
lines were taken was not in evidence, but the judge found the lines and allowed the
lines to stand. Ms Casey resumed her closing arguments.
"I know you've been given an instruction by the court that you're not allowed to do any
independent research, but I'm going to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that if you were
to go out and you were to read every single poem that was written by Henry Livingston and
every single poem that was written by Clement Clarke Moore, and you paid attention to the
metres, cadences of the rhyme scheme and the syllables, you would see..."
Jones objected to the fact that all the poems were not in evidence. The judge ruled it was fair comment.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you went out and read all those poems, you wouldn't have any doubt that Henry
Livingston is the author of 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'. You'd really have to strain your rationale to find
very many similarities at all with Moore's other work. And I'd also like to just draw attention to the fact that
the only copies of 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' written in Moore's hand or after 1844 - anyone could have copied it.
"And you also heard from Pamela McColl today. She's our expert witness. She's an anti-smoking advocate - a smoking
cessation advocate. She took smoking out of this poem because she felt strongly about smoking. Now you also heard
that Clement Clarke Moore was avid, vocal anti-smoking advocate. A man who hated smoking. Would he have painted
the hero of a children's poem and made him a smoker? No. It's another example of how Clement Clarke Moore's story
and his case just doesn't add up. You can rely on Mrs McColl as an expert.
"Moore dudn't have an expert. The only
thing supporting Moore's case is his own self-serving claims. Well, and those of Mrs Sackett.
You also heard from Mrs Sackett. She was here today. She came back from the dead to tell you all about how she
was the reason the poem was published. She was the only reason it made it into the newspaper. She had absolutely
nothing probative to offer at all. She told you that she got the poem from one of her students, and that was all
she was able to tell you about it.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, for some reason, after all of these years, we don't know the reason,
for some reason this poem was attributed to Clement Clarke Moore somewhere along the line. We don't know why.
You've heard all of this evidence here today, and still weren't able to answer it.
"Twenty-one years after this poem was published, Clement Clarke Moore made a furtive enquiry of the editor of the newspaper to make sure
that no author had come forward. And he did that so he could misappropriate this poem with impunity. Literary piracy
at its finest, ladies and gentlemen. Mr Moore wanted to make sure that he didn't get caught. And he didn't during his
lifetime.
"But now 160 years later, you have the ability to set this right. You heard the evidence. You know that
Henry Livingston wrote this poem. And you honor his memory and his reputation with your verdict in his favor tonight.
I want to thank you for your service, and I want to thank you for doing the right thing. Finally."
