The Baltimore County union., 1866-02-24
The Mount Hope Cases.

rial upon the Mount Hope cases, recently tried IN
our Court, undertakes to arraign the grand jury
OF our County, charging them, directly and In
directly, with having been Influenced by malice,
hatred and ill-wilI, in finding an indictment
against the heads of the institution named. We
did not wish to say one word in reference to this
trial. nor would we have done so, had it been
allowed to rest quietly where those most interest
ed were content to leave it, bat, as public journ
.alists, we feel it but due to the Grand Jury Of
our County-our fellow-citizeus-to deny that
in finding the indictment against Dr. Stokes and
Mary Blenkinsop, our Grand Jury were inAu-
enced by any but the purest motives of good
towards the community. 1t isno trihing mat
ter to charge Grand Jury with dercliction OF
duty. They come to the exercise OF the tnnc-
tions vested in them backed by the official oath
ofthe Sheriff of the County that they are "good
and loyal men ~ they are put upon their own
solemn oaths or afirmations that they will in
all things act as justice demands, presenting no
one through envy, malice, hatred or III will,
and leaving no one unpresented through fear,
favor or affection they remove themselves away
from everything calculated to influence their
minds or warp their Judgment, aud there deliber-
ate upon the matters brought to their notice,
and send out to the world the results Of those de-
liberations. Who dare say these men have been
improperly influenced Who will venture to as
sert that they have falsfed themselves, crproved
recreant to the obligations they have assumed
in
the most startling array Of allegations present
Observation-Disclosures which, if true, should
and would, cousign the Mount Hope Hospital to
everlasting infamy. False and fraudulent means
adopted to induce persons to place themselves or
their friends in this instituton-crnel treatment
of those helpless persons who by the vsitations
OF God, were necessarily confined there-the
shutting ont from the world and friends OF per-
sons who were perfectly sane, and harsh and
vindictive treatment of them if they dared COM
plain-these are but few of the charges brought
to the attention of the authorities in that instru-
ment. Are these charges true When the case
was first brought in our Court, we earnestly
hoped and believed that the picture had been
overwrought-that no such outrages against
decency and humanity had been committed, and
when we heard the solemn asSeverations of the
counsel for the defence that these charges were
groundIess-that all the institution required was
an opportunity to prove their falsity, our belief
in their innocence was strengthened. Has that
full, fair, and complete investigation, promised
by the defence, of the affairs OF Mount Hope been
had T? No! When the officers the State essay
ed to prove the truth of the matters and things
charged in the indictment, they were met-not
by proof to the contrary of those charges mot
by the evidence of Witnesses showing that the
usage Of the Hospital was different from that
urged by the authorities of the State-but By
technicalities Scarcely had the Indictment been
found, than it was demurred to. After q long
argument, it was sustained and the trial Of the
cause entered upon but here again the officers
of the State were met by objections to every point
they wished to prove, until at last it ended by
the withdrawal of the sutagainst the Institution,
the technicalaies Of the law would notallow them
to sustain by proof the charges made in the in
dictment Does this failure on the part OF the
State-this abandonment Of the cause, argue that
the authorities OF Mount Hope are innocent OF the
crimes with which they have been charged p
No, although they may have the entry o.
eNot Guilty appended to their cases on
our Criminal records, yet there stands the indct
ment, with all its charges, uncontroyerted by 9
single witness, not undermined by particle o.
proof, as if yet appealing to the world for re
dress fthe fiendish treatment of those particu
larly mentioned in that instrument.
In view of these facts, it lily becomes public
journals even though they be in the interest o
the particular institution named, to apply harsl
epithets or vulgar phrases to the Grand Jury
who, in the exercise OF their high vocation
thought it but due to justice and right to indie
that institution Let Mount Hope be cleared o
the allegations against it, before the Grand In
quest that brought these allegations is assailed.