The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-05-29
THE LAW.
Important Charge of Judge Underwood to
the Grand Jury at Norfolk.
Gentlemen Of the Grand Jury:

upon me the duty of submitting to you some
considerations for your direction. To the last
Grand Jury assembled in this city my views IN
relation to the great crime of treason against
che Government of the UHited States were full
ly presented, and were also so extensively
published as not to require repetition.
But the liabilities of persons who were then
subject to the parole agreed upon by the COM
!. manders of the armies which had been con :
tending in daily conflict was at that time an
unadiudicated and embarrassed question:
Happily, however, the universal concurrence
bfjudici Il aud legal authorities with the opin-
ion given by the court on that occasion, has
relieved US of all doubt upon the subject.
We are also from the changed condition Of
the country, as the smoke of battle is clearing
away, more free to act in the administration
OF civil Justice. Except in special cases the
writ of habeas corpus is restored, and the re-
straints of the parole having been removed 6y
the proclamation of peace, it becomes our
duty to proceed in the investigation and pun
ishmeut of some of the crimes which have
been committed against our laws.
The omission of the last Grand Jury to find
indictments against those who may be con-
sdered the principal criminals and greatest
offenders against the national sovereignty,
who were, in fact, the most prominent in po-
sition at the time they deserted their places in
the ST nate of the United States, and became
lea lers of the rebellion, has been mi5under-
stool, and the President has Informed the
court that be is unwilling to advise proceed
inps against such subordinates as Wirz, while
their superiors and more guilty leaders are
not brought to Justice. This court entirely
agrees with the President in his often-re-
peated declaration, that treason is the great
- nd tO ba eli Y
ished, and that it is 1ly to punish the
subordinate and comparatively Insignificant,
and allow the principals to escape. We also
concur in the opinion that the leaders in the
late rebellion may be treated either as traitors
or public enemies, rs they were undoubtedly
both by the laws of nations.
1t is due, however, to the late Grand Jury
to say that their omission to find indictments
against the greater criminal; when present
ing these of inferior position and prominence,
was caused by the knowledge that the leaders
had been previously indicted in Washington,
and the jury was uuw Ing to seem yindictiyc,
or to do any act not demanded by the stcrnesI
and clearest duty. Since shat time the Attor
nev General has published his opinion that
Washington is not the proper place Of trial,
but that the trial should be in Virginia, where
the actual offences had been committed. We
therefore submit the matter TO your consid-
GRAFTON.
Much complaint has been made by our fell
low-citizens Of the North Of the tardineSS Of
our,crminal prosecutions. We think it bet
ter, in imitation Of the great and good mar
tyred l. ncoln, and in imitation Of the Great
Ruler of the Universe, whose judgments and
retributions are slow but sure, that we should
approach this great question Of the punish
ment of the authors of the terrible and unpro-
voked re belhon with all possible deliberation
discrimination, caution and clemency, so that
no unnecessary blood shall be added to the
torrents that have already soaked the soil of
our devoted State.
The Sc at the North who assail us seem to
forget our peculiar circumstances. That edu-
cation which is almost universal with them is
here confined within very narrow limits that
the masses of people with US who cannot read
are necessarily dependent on the educated few
for their opinions and conduct; and hence the
necessity of greater care and discrimination
in ascertaining guilt and intlicting punish
ment. 1t may be said that ignorance is not
an excrse for crime in free government; but
the truth is, Virginia has never had really
free, government, nor could freedom exist for
any class where nearly half the people were
held in ahject slavery.
we f4sten one end of the chain uLon fellow
being the other and heavier end is linked
around ourselves, cOToding our bodies until
the iron enters our very souls. We insist
therefore, that the masses of our people were
10 lrafoundly ignorant of the condition of
publ c affairs, and so misled and deceived by
the intensely selfish and wicked aIistocracy,
as u)t to be morally responsible for their par
ticipation in the late rebellion, and that it
would be adding cruelty to injustice to hold
them so.
TO convince the most sCepticai on this sub
iect let US look at the condition and history
tofthe First congressional district in this State
That districl containing more than four times
the territory of the rich, prosperous, enhght.
ened happy, liberty and equality loving State
of Rhode island once the seat of learning and
of boasted Virginia hospitality, the birth place
of four Presidents of the United States, en-
bracIng the site of the first English settlement
III America, the city of Jamestown, which,
now more fallen than Tyre or Sidon, or So
dom or Gomorrah, has not enough of runs
even left for bats to fit or owls to hoot in.
Z Ia the nineteen counties Of that district.
there is not now las its Representative in Con-
gress thirty years ago boasIed, single news
paper published, and so long has the school
master been abroad, that probably more than
three-fourths of its native grown men and
women can neither read nor write Rhode
Island, with its half million acres, has nearly
double the population, times the wealth, EN-
terprise and education, and contributes to the
national treasury more than twenty times the
amount of that district, with its more than
two millions of sterile acres lying on both sides
of the Chesapeake bay, and on the great rivers
James, York, Rappahannock and Potomac,
having the greatest commercial, oyster and
fishing capabilities of almost any district in
the United States. What forcible illustration
of the truth that justice, equity, industry and
virtue, or as the Bible says, Goodness, is
profitable for the life hat now is as well as
that which is to come. That righteousness
exalteth nation, but sin is reproach to any
people"
We would not object to the sentiment of the