Is Happiness always the 'best' end to our actions?

Aristotle defines our 'end' to be happiness. We are constantly seeking to make ourselves happy, to choose the path that may lead to self preservation or to personal delight. He defines happiness in chapter five of book one as "prosperity combined with virtue; or as independence of life; or as the secure enjoyment of the maximum of pleasure; or as a good condition of property and body, together with the power of guarding ones property and body and making use of them"( pg.188, bottom left column).
One might say in this case, that happiness becomes our exigence for discourse. To translate this more modernly, we persuade, or use rhetorical discourse, to work towards securing our end-- happiness. We can see this in action when we look at the most basic of argument; legislative rhetoric or the rhetoric surrounding law. Despite the fact that one might be guilty or not, it is a lawyers job to use (I almost feel 'wield' the more appropriate word here) language to create a discourse that will successfully persuade a jury that the accused is in fact innocent. Therefore, preserving the happiness of the accused by not sending them to jail, which would inherently be bad, since it represents a total loss of independence which Aristotle sights as one of the defining attributes of obtaining happiness.
But say, for the sake of argument, that the accused was guilty of a crime that caused another's unhappiness. Wouldn't it therefore also be the motive of the other person to gain happiness in that court room? In this case, it would come down to who (which lawyer) was able to present the case more clearly, and persuade more effectively to the sympathies of their defendant.

Maybe, it's easier the way Shakespeare put it.

Aristotle describes happiness again, "as being desirable in itself and sufficient by itself and being that for whose sake we chose many other things" (ch. 6, pg. 197, left column). Perhaps the value of the things in which we choose to reach the 'end' of happiness are less important than securing our own personal happiness, despite the collectively negative effect in some cases.
Food for thought.