Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-04-28
No. Rest Fvidence Yet Taken.

The Best Evidence Yet Taken.
In the last few days, we have presented to
our readers extracts from the charges Of two
Of our Circuit Court Judges to their Grand
Juries, indicating their opinions as to the rela-
tons Of the negro to the courts Of the Com
monwealth, and extra udiclally, as to the
mode Of treatment that it becomes their former
masters to pursue towards them. The two
Judges referred to are, Messrs. SHEFFEY and
CHRISTIAN. There are two ways in which these
Judges might have dealt with this delicate and
interesting subject-one as a difficult and dis
agreeable subject to be dismissed with brief,
ungracious and grudging statement Of the laws
relating to the negro. The other, Icy approach
ing the subject in cheerful manner, dealing
with the negro in the true spirit of his legal
relation, expOunding as we'll the privileges and
projections accorded to him, as the pains and
penalties prescribed for his offences. To the
credit Of these Judges, they chose the latter
mode, and to the credit Of the assembled law
yers practcing in their courts, the course they
took was warmly approved and commended by
them. Both of these high judicial officers
seemed to be imhued not OILY with all the
equities that pertain to the subject, but with a
spirit Of the pureSt humanity and bcnevoleuce.
The sentiments expressed by both were in as
harmonious accord as if they had been the off
spring Of one heart and the utterance
Of one tongue. They. both alluded feel
ingly to the fact that the emancipation
of the negroes was without any agency
of their own, but the result Of a war with
which they had little to do; and to the other
remarkable and croditable fact, that, during
the tendency of that war, which they had been
taught to believe was waged to effect their
liberation, they were, in many, very many in
stances, the protectors of the wives, children
and property Of their absent masters, engaged
on the Southern side. They both declared
that the negroes are by the Constitution and
laws clothed with certain civil and personal
rights which courts are in duty bound to re-
cognize and respect.
One Of these Judges SAYS: " 1 feel assured
&c the Grand Jury Of this county will so dis
&C charge their duties as to give no occasion
&" for criticism to the most sensitive or suSpi-
&" cious" The other says: " Let us cheer
fully and heartily accord to them that pro
"tection in all their civil and personal
rights
We find more than all thS-SentimentS OF
kindness above aud beyond the mere judicial
duty. These charges breathe the pure spirit
Of charity, humanity and personal bencvolence.
They remind us all of the duties we owe to
the freedmen as human beings, and urge that
we shall not hold ourselves aloof from them,
but exert upon them moral, religious and edu-
cational Influences, so that they may be ele
waited to the highest point Of Improvement they
are capable of.
The feelings with which the Southern peo-
pie regard their former slaves have nowhere
found more correct and appropriate express
sion than in the charges Of Judges SHEFFEY
and CHRISTIAN to their Grand JurieS. No
right-miuded man in the South can read them
without according to them warm and hearty
response.
These two documents are worth volumes OF
the evidence taken before the " RecOnstruc-
ton Committee" Though not designed rs
evidence, not intended to be printed deliver
ed, indeed, in chambers, and under influences
free from every faint of politics, the approval
and sympathy they commanded among the few
who heard them have led to their unexpected
publication. They have thus become evidence,
and the best and most unaSSailable evidence
that can be cited of the real relations between
the Southern whites and blacks. As such We
commend them to the attention of all fair
minded journalistic any there be-on the
Radical side. rs much as they talk about the
welfare of the negroes, two-thirds Of them, we
believe, would rather hear that a collision had
occurred between the whites and blacks, in
which one-half of the latter had been butch
cred, than to hear that the two races were
living in harmony, and diScharging faithfully
all their duties to each other. Such COLI
sion, with such results, would give them the
very argument they want. 1t would inspire
SUNNER with orations Is long, learned and va
red as an Encyclopedia, STEVENS with an
inexhaustable stock of his peculiar, strong and
ribald rhetoric, and would li0 WENDELL
PHILLIPS to the seventh heaven, whence he
would shower down comets, stars and thunder
bolts without number.
Let us of the South see to it that these male
VIOLENT spirits shall not make us depart from our
propriety, shall not goad us to passionate ont
breaks. They want to force us TO treat the
negroes badly. Let us disappoint them and
treat them with as much kindness as il they
belonged to us.