Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1865-06-05
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COUKT Ar NORFOLK.
JUDGE UNDERwOoD's CHARGE.

the general and special oathS. The following
charge was delivered by Hon. J. G. Under
wood, Judge for the Eastern District of Yir-
GINA:
Gentlemen Of the Grand Jury:
You have been sworn to the discharge of
duties most mOmentous and responsible.
You will be compelled by your regard for
country, freedom and humanity TO present
for trial the authors and conductors of the
most gigantic, bloody and unprovoked crimes
tina ever cursed our world. You are TO pass
upon those who caused not only tens of thou
sands OF deaths on the battle fields of the
rebellion, but the greater agOnies and tortures
of starvation in tue Libby Prison, on Belle
Island, at Salisbury and Andersonville, in
comparison with which the crueltes of Span
ish inquisitions, the maSsAcres Of St. Bar
tholomew, and of the French Revolutions,
sink into insigniticance. You are 10 review
the conduct and motives of men whose lust
OF power and greed of gain are without
parallel; whose thirst for notOriety, strange
ly desired and cOurted and finally acquired
the public gaze only to sink them to disgrace
and iutamy. There has been nothing so ter
rifle since the CTucIixiOn as this conspiracy
against the mIldeSt and best government the
human race has ever known-against liberty
and humanity, and in the interest OF slavery
and despotic power-until it has eliminated
in an assassination which has shaken all
ChristendOm with horror and adherence.
1t is saddening to reflect that our own
beautiful State has been the principal theatre
OF this treason and carnage, and that many
of our fellow citizens, who had been honOred
by our confidence aud suffrages, have thus
raised their hands against the life of our ma
ton.
The crime of treason, though new and
strange TO our courts of justice, is clearly
defined in our laws aud constitution.
1t consists, as described in Article Sd, Sec
tion Sd, OF the United States Constitution,
in leVying war against the United States, or
In adhering to their enemies, giving them
aid and comfort, and includes cOmmissaries
and quartermasters, contractors, and civil
agents of rebellion, who are not less guilty
IN an those who bore arms.
The District Attorney will furnish you
with the acts of Congress passed to enforce
this provision of the Constitution, which de-
tiue also the inferior crime of misprison of
treason and that of giving aid and comfort to
the enemy.
In condition OF affairs like that which
now surrounds US, when those who are tech
nically guilty OF treason .aay be counted by
hundreds OF thousands, a universal prosecu.
ton wolld be unreasonable and impossible.
We know that the masses OF our people, not
only citizens, but soldiers, cOnScripted and
driven into the Rebel service, are not moral
ly responsible ior the rebellion. Unlike the
citizens of the Northern States, where eiu-
cation is generally diiiused, and almost every
man reads his Bible and newspaper, our poor
people have been deprived OF these sdyan-
tages by the proud and tyrannical aristoc-
raey, aud have been despotically controlled
by their wicked leaders, and are therefore
rather to be pitIed than punished more Sc
verely than they have been already. We are
now living under the Christian Dispensation,
and would not say, like Joshua: every one
who rebels shall be put to DEATH"
But the enforced ignorance Of our poor
people, which alone made the rebellion pos
sible, and therefore may excuse the masses,
only increases tue guilt of the ruling leaders,
who, before committing the crime Of trea-
son, had prepared the way by keeping their
poorer neighbors in ignorance, and thereby
secured to themselves the undisturbed pos
session Of all positions OF influence and au-
thority.
II Will hG AhA 1Vu ~ uCNAAU WIZ duu uON
many Of the most prominent aud guilty are
to answer TO the violated laws Of the coun-
try. The eyes of the nation and of all Chris
tendon are upon you. Ii will be expected
that by your action you will declare that
treason, like all other crimes, snail be pun
ished in this home Of liberty and Justice
Civilization demands this, not in vengeance,
not as indemnity for the past, but as some
security for the future of our republican in-
stitutions. There seems to have been fatal
ignorance or forgetfulness on the part of our
aristOcracy Of their duties, and We have
witnessed the frightful consequences in a
land desolated by civil war, drenched with
the blood OF. our slaughtered brethren, fur
rowed with graves and filed with widows and
orphans.
We have seen as no other State or people
have seen, that treason IS the greatest OF
crimes. That it is wholesale murder and
embraces in its comprehensive sweep all the
crimes Of the Decalogue. 1t has already
murdered tens Of thousands of the flower of
our youth, and manhood, by slaughter on
our battle-6elds, and by starvation in the
most lOathsOme dungeons. 1t has invaded
almost every domestic circle in the country,
scattering woe and death, breaking the hearts
of wives and mothers, and sisters. 1t has
poisoned the wells of truth and loyalty, teach
ing terrible instructions and yet the grand
instigators AID most responsible and intelli-
gent principals of this great conspiracy, with
hands dripping with the blood OF our slaugh-
tered innOcents and martyred President, are
still at large unwhipped Of justice.
1t is for you to teach them that those who
SOW the wind must reap the whirlwind, that
and mercy to them would be
cruelty and murder TO the innocent and un-
born.
1t is your business so to administer the laws
that our children's children will not be COM
PEELED to look upon a rebellion like the one
we nave seen, for many generations.
To an inquiry which has been made by an
officer of the Court, whether the terms of
parole agreed upon with Gen. Lee were any
protection to those taking the parole, the
answer is, that was = mere military arrange
ment and can have no influence upon civil
rights or the status Of the persons interested.
A DEFAULTER.-The Chicago Tribune says that
the business community Of that city have been
aware for some time that a person moving in
their best society" and occupying one OF the
most costly residences on the most fashionable
street has been charged with having distracted
the sum Of two hundred thousand dollsrs from
Western Marine Insurance Company. W. II.