Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-10-11
The Case OF MIR. Davis-Thc Legal Obstacle
to q Trial.

The Case OF MIR. Davis-Thc Legal Obstacle
to a Trial. -...
The Philadelphia Ledger, has the follow
ing clear and interesting special dispatch
from Richmond:
RICHMOND, Sept 80.
The facts connected with Jefferson Da-
Wis case-and I have them from an author
itative source-are these The Circuit
Court of the United States for the Fourth
Circuit originally sat at Richmond. In
1864, Richmond being the seat of the rebel
Government, and Norfolk being held by
the Union forces, Congress passed law re-
moving the Court to the latter place. The
words of the law are that the Court {" shall
be held at Norfolk on the first Mondays of
May and November the place and time
were-designated-" and no other" John
G. Underwood was appointed District
Judge" and as such, in the absence of a
Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
| held the Circuit Court at Norfolk in May
| 1866. The Grand Jury of this Court found
| true bill for high treason against Jeffer-
son Davis, and on May 9Th Judge Under
wood, without authority of law, adjourned
his Court to Richmond, where it met on
June 9Th. The reason the Judge gave for
this procedure was that he supposed an act
of Congress had passed authorizing the
change.
Such an act did pass, but not until May
ODD, seventeen days after the Judge order
ed the adjournment This act directs the
adjournment as a future thing to be made
from Norfolk in a certain way and the pa
pers to be transferred. The course direc-
ted has never yet been pursued, nor have
the records been removed. Had Jefferson
Davis case been tried last June, it would
not have been properly before the Court,
and a conviction could not have been sus-
tanned. We're it to be tried now at Richmond,
the effect would be the same. All this was
known in June last to Judge Underwood,
yet, in his remarks to the counsel, Messrs
Reed and Brady, at that time he said:
"The Chief Justice, who is expected to
preside on this trial, has named the first
Tuesday in October as the time that will be
most convenient to him. When this Court
adjourns, it will adjourn, not until the next
term, which is in November, but until ithe
first Tuesday in October next.
The time appointed has come and the
prisoners counsel are here, and say that
they are ready to begin the trial but the
fact is ascertained that the entire judicial
procedure is wrong and void from the be-
ginning Judge Underwood will probably
have to treat all that was done by him in
June last as nulllty, and go to Norfolk
and begin anew, whilst in the meantime,
the trial which the public SO generally de-
mand is indefinitely postponed Other
difficulties hang around the case, but this
is the main one.
The New York Tribune of Monday snarls
about the postponement after the following
elegant fashion
There is a conglomeration of shuttle,
sham, shirk and sneak in the treatment of
this prisoner which is calculated to nauseate
the civilized world, and for which somebody
will yet be held to stern responsibility.-I
Every manly instinct demands that Davis
should be promptly tried if he is not to
be tried, or is only to be subjected to a
costly and mischievous sham trial, with
no expectation or desire of convicting him
he should be liberated at once. And, if he
IS to be tried only for treason, then the
charge of assassination should be retracted
as publicly as it was made. And it is the
duty of the Executive, through his Attor-
ney General to act promptly and frankly
in the premises, SO as to relieve the Govern
ment from the imputation of calumniating
an enemy and holding for eighteen months
prisoner whom it dare not put on trial.
The American people are being disgraced
by the acts of their rulers, and they must
insist on a speedy change