The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1862-04-24
Judge BrOwn.

JUDoE BnowS in delivering his charge
10 the Grand Jury on the 18th inst, said:
That the law made it his dGiy to
charge the Jury upon their very import.
ant AMI responsible duties as the grand
inquest for the county of Mason-ihat
in doing so he deemed !! proper to adj.
vert to the peculiar circumstances undor
which they were assembled whole
year had elapsed since their predecessors
had occupied that box--a term or the
Court had passed, butno Court satat the
time and in the manner required by the
Iaws--and why this in.errcgum? When
the last inquest for the county met in that
houso-poaco and prosperity peryaded
the land-bu. now how changed Be.
hold our once happy, much loved, but
now bleeding country. wrcnt by civil
war. and brethren warning against brcth-
ron aud pouring out each others blood
like water. Happy homes and smiling
fields nave disappeared before the
tramp of armies, and widespread desc
lation marks tbs red path Of war through
tho land, How many thousands Of our
people who year ago slept quietly in
their homGs--securt from eyory hOrm--
uulcr the protection o(lho laws, that
nov find safety in the forest brakes whilst
those who remain in their homes are
startled in their slEmbors by constant
alarms, and apprehOnsioas of scouts and
guerillas, Moccasin rangers and Jay
hawkers, proyling bandits, and assassins
And why this change, and for what
proft2 Our revolutionary fathers after
achicving'national independence, notonly
recognizing the theore,ic necessity of
national government. but also acknowl-
edging after eleven yearsof painful cSpe
rieace the the full necessity OF a STATE
Govcrnment, assembled in Convention
with Washington presiding and framed
the Constitution ofthe United States
Under it we have grown from small to
a great Notion.-rich prosperous aud
powerful
This Constitution intended to be per-
petual. contained no provisions for its
destruction, Those great aud good men
we'll knew that constitution intended
to endure for ages, would in the course
Of tmo need alterations 10 suit the aller
cd circumstances which the distant "a
surc might Develop uud so the coRstlil-
ton declares in plain terms, how it may
be amended or changed, viz: by tho vote
ofthrec tomths q all The States of the
Union-thereby excluding the idea that
any one or more SIatOG less than three
fonrths, could alter or abolish it, slter
it was once ratified. Yet a portion of
the people of some Of the States, discOn-
tented aud dissatisfied, being too lew to
amend the Constitution tc suit their
wishes or even to elect the, officers of
the Government to their liking -resol-
we'd to dissolve the Union, throw of the
Constitution, and establish another TO
the liking of the malcontents-and to
make their resolves effectual they APP
pealed to the sword and have inaugural
ted civil war--a part Of the people OF
our own loved State embarked in the mad
career and attempted to force the rest to
90 with them, and tako up arms against
their own Governmct and country-hdt
they refused TO do--preforing to adhere 10
their allegiance in which they were born
and the Constitution and Government
they had sworn to support For this
they wers denounced as traitors, and ior
following the dying advice of Washing
ton to cherish "au habitual affection fol-
the Union, and frown indignantly upon
thefrst dawning Of an attempt to dissolve
it, they we're hunted like wild beasts,
and cast into prison, like felOns, theil
properly con6sca,cd, their houses desola'
Observation-Disclosures pat .tS.GSh!,.......
The Constitution Of the United States
is as much the Constitution of the people
of Virginia as i; is the Constitution o.
the people of any other State in thf
Union, AID K possible it is even 'ncft
SO, for they bore the most Promipop'
nort in ia formation. The Constltu.