Litchfield enquirer., 1860-08-09
REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS FOR PRESIDENT, ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
 OF ILLINOIS.
 FOR VICE PRESIDENT, HANNIBAL HAMIIN.
 OF MAINE.
REPIrRLICAN NOMINATIONS
The Case of Dr. Richards.

The CaSe OI Ofs 1H1Cu0c06,
 Our patrons and readers will bear us suficien witness that in the late and long continued min isterial difficulty, which has for months agitate, she community of this village, and which has b. rumor and report, false and true, been sprea, abroad through other towns of this County ant through the State, that we have lent our col umns to neither side of the controversy and tha we have not even admitted anything into then on the one side or the other, which could be construed into any personal or public sympathy with either party, or with the merits of either case.
 As long as this controversy was confined to disputed point as to the right or the propriety of a minister of the Gospel who has been de, posed from office, still preaching the Word of God in the pulpit of a neighboring. or any oth' CT parish, or of the right or propriety of body of ministers in association assembled, passing resolutions of censure upon derosed brother minister, and of holding him up to the world as character unmistakably, in their opinion, infa' nous and untrustworthy, we considered the mat ter one with which secular journal has nought to do, and one which we at least, could better let alone than mix up in. And in this respect we have not changed our opinion in the least :; on the contrary, feel more and more justified in the course we have pursued.
 But the case has lately assumed another as- pect, and one which in the course of our pro- vince as @ recorder of passing events, we are not only justified, but, as we deem, necessitated to give plain statement of facts with regard to it, aud only Mis, lest we should be considered as wanting at least in spirit of independence, without which newspaper is plainly imbccile, and an Editor unjustifably timorous and lax in his duty.
 The difficulty between the Rev. James Rich ards, D. D. and the Etchfeld South Association which has been waging in the public newspa- pcrs and the public streets for the past two years, as many of our readers arc already aware, culminated, for the present, in an assault by the former upon brother of the Rev. Mir. Bacon, at house of the latter, on Saturday, July 2lst
 On the afternoon of that day, the Rev. Dr. Richards did enter the house of Rev. Mir. Ba- con, and then and there," in the language of the complaint, "did beat the person of Francis Bacon, by inaicting divers and sundry blows up- on him, and did by violence terrify and disturb the good people of this State, contrary to the peace," &c. &c.
 For this offence, which the counsel for the de- fendant in the late action of breach of peace, defended on the ground of insanity" as repor- cd in our last issue, an exciting trial was held last week, the decision upon which was rendered in crowded courtroom on Monday of the cur rent week, and which will be found in our " To- cal" column.
 Upon the trial of the case, the Counsel for Dr. Richards went into a long and elaborate ar gument to prove that this assault, or the state of mind in which it was committed, was tho consequence of series, long continued, of abu- sive articles reAecting upon the character of Dr. Richards, which have appeared from time to time in print, principally in the columns of The Neao Kork Independent Had this defense been sustained, Dr. Richards would of course havo been released from any bond for future good-be- havior; the presumption, therefore, clearly now being, by the decision of tho magistrate, that he was not insane at the time of the commission of the assault.
 These are the plain and unvarnished state ment of the facts of this case, as we under. stand and believe them, and we give them to our readers now, as we could not justi6ably do be- fore the trial, on the principle of giving publi- city to notling which should bear in any way upon tho merits of the case while it was still in the hands of the magistrate.
 After the decision of the case, on Monday evening, Q meeting of the friends of Dr. Rich ards" was held in the Court Room, and rcsolu- tions were passed, upon which we make no comment, which were voted to be published in the ENQUIRER, and which will be found in an- other column.
 With this meeting, these resolutions, and the speeches which were there uttered, we have nothing further to say than this. Was, or was not that meeting gotten up, proceeded with, and concluded, under an excitement occasioned, uo by sympathy with Dr. Richards for the article which appeared in the Independent nearly q fortnight before, but for the reason of his prose cmiom for the assault upon Dr. Francis Bacon Does such meeting, and do the respectable gentlemen, who in the main composed it, evince that the sympathy of this town is in favor oi mob4aw and violent assaults upon inoffensive citi; IS or strangers? Does the prevailing sen timent of Htchfeld uphold and justify ony at tack by a"y individual, contrary to the peace and safety of the good people of this state, or does it not?
 In all conscience, in all honor, in all sense of proprietY, justice and right, We trust not-apd we as sincerely trust that the language of that meeting, of those speeches and these resolutions may be read aright, and the fair fame of thi. town and these sympathetic friends of Dr. Rich ards, may not labor under the impression whicl might go abroad from them, that it even depre ciates the act while it applauds the spirit
 We have said nothing upon the merits of thi case, of the provocation offered in extenuatio by the friends of Dr. Richards on the one sid, or of the svmpathy and feeling that exists anon