The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-02-21

New KENT MURDER CASE CoSTIHUED.-Yes-
terday being set for the argument in Clark $
case charged with murder, quite crowd
gathered to hear the argument and see the
prisoners.
Mr.. J. II. Gilmer, Jr., counsel for Clark,
opened his argument by appropriate illusions
to the solemuity OF the occasion, and the hlgh
responsibilities of adj parties engaged in the
trial The members of the Commission, he
said, were engaged in the most awful duty
that, under any circumstances, can deVolVe
upon mortal man, and their responsibility
upon this occasion to their God, TO their coun-
try to the prisoners, and to themselves, was as
great as it was possible for the frail shoulders
of human nature to bear. lie referred 10 the
fearful power that could WELD life and death /;
and told them that they were not here to-day
simply to preserve the safety of the commu-
nifty, but that they were imminently the guar
dians of the life of the prisoner. The COM
munity cannot die: 1t is guarded at every
point but you alone stand between Clark and
q sudden eternity.
He said that he labored under great disad-
yantages, which were not felt by the prosecu-
ton. He had come into the case at a late stage
of it's progress, and he had not had the oppor-
tunity of cross examining many OF the most
material witnesses. He insisted that these
circumstances should add great weight to the
principle that every doubt must be In favor OF
the prisoner. =.
Mr.. Gilmer contended that the Commission
did not have jurisdiction OF the case. lie con-
tended that no military commission could,
under the Constitution of the United States,
take cogniZance of felony. He discussed the
act of Congress passed March Sd, 1868, and
argued, first, that 1t was unconstitutional
and second, if constitutional, that 1t had
expired by the termination of the war. lie
made the point here that the law under which
the authority of the Commission was claimed
was an exception to the constitutional rule
and the fundamental policy of the country,
a temporary suspension of the right OF Amerl-
can citizenship and American freedom, like all
penal provisions it must be strictly construed !;
and that the letter of the Constitution, the
spirit of the laws and the essential policy OF the
Government does when once hostilities have
ceased, reinvest the constitutional projections
and the laws Hereunder with their original
vitality and inviolability. The civil courts,
he maintained, were all open.
In discussing the merits of the case, he con-
tended for the following points, and elaborated
them First That Clark was not guilty
under the specification, because not one OF It's
items had been sustained in the evidence
Second. He was not guilty Of the charge OF
murder because he was, though present in
the body, not criminal in intent or actively
complicated therein. Third. Not accessory
before the fact because he was present at the
killing, though he did not aid comfort, or abet.
Fourth He was not accessory after the fact.
MIR. Gilmer then gave minute commentary
upon the evidence following Clark from his
appearance in il to his arrest, and giving q
plausible explanation Of his connection with IT,