The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-20
Che alorfulk 2ust.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1866.
THE MOUNT HOPE CASE.
From the baltimore Transcript Of Saturday. |

/ inc SplTlU WHICH has UlaTkeu ltS pfOSecu
ton, all become fit subjects for exami
nation and criticism. Indeed, when q
too frequently occurs. the machinery O
the courts has been employed to minis
ter to the qualification of religion
bigotry or partizan prejudice, the righ
TO comment upon such criminal per
version of the true aims and purposes o
our legal tribunals, rises to the dignit,
and obligations of positive duty.
IT is not strange, therefore, that tn,
recent extraordinary case which, fol
so long a period, has occupied the Cir
cult Court for Baltimore county, should
upon its termination, pass from the con,
sideration Of that tribunal to the bar o.
public opinion. Involving the manage
ment of n charitable institution, the ex
cellence of which has been attested by
the experience of years assailing the
personal and professional reputation oil
u physician whose honor, probity and
humanity are only paralleled by his
medical skill and scientific accomplish
ment; traducing the lives of those who
lave devoted themselves to the gentle
nurture of the poor, the sick, the unfor-
tunate, and rudely thrusting aside the
veil with which they have always
sought to conceal the charity to the per-
formance of whose pious offices they
have been cOnsescrated--the Mount
Hope Hospital case will be remembered
for years, as an example of the cruel
outrages which bigotry and INTOLERANCE
are so swift to essay, but which, even i'm
| the fiercest moments of popular excite
| ment, they are often so impotent to ac-
| complsb.
| An examination of the evidence which
was sought to be introduced, the long
studied and carefully prepared state
ment of the prosecution, aud its aims
| and purposes, as shown in the inciden-
| tai arguments of the counsel, must con-
vince every impartial mind that, i'm the
whole record of criminal Jurisprudence,
there will be discovered no instance
where grand jury has found an indict-
ment upon allegations so fiimsy, false
and absurd, as those which originated
the arraignment of DIR. Stokes and Mary
Blenkinship upon the charge of conspi-
racy.
And conspiracy against whom ? The
poor unfortunates, to the amelioration
of whose sad condition they had been
devoted, with an earnestness of purpose
and self-sacrifice, which could only
spring from the promptings of the high
est humanity or the teachings of the
nal, i'm what court, could malice expect
to induce men of sober judgment and
e9 81 WIS u aftIee9 t9 efsalt s4GA 4s1s82
spiracy was formed against the relatives
and friends Of those, whose darkened
intellects needed the guidance of some
kind and skilful hand, to direct their
cropping steps-and who had been there
fore entrusted to the custody of the
AZ - hat
array of grateful witnesses would have
Indignantly repealed the false allega-
| ton, and borne testimony to that kind
and gentle ministry, which had so often
recalled the wandering senses, and lifted
the dark curtain which had fallen be-
tween the victim of insanity and the
com panionship of home and kindred
To have sustained such an indictment
the proof must have gone still further,
and shown that there was a conspiracy
against humanity, against the dignity
OF science, and, above all, against the
proud and pure record of that SisterhoOd
which, with sublime courage and more
than human devotion, has ever sought
the path of duty amid the walks of the
| pestilence; stood undismayed by the
bed side of the plague stricken; and ad-
ministered To the wounded and dying
amid the red carnage of the battlefield
| seeking no reward save in the conscious
ness that no more grateful sacrifice can
| rise from earth to Heaven than the ex
| ercise Of that holy charity which finds
| its service amid the suffering and for
saken. w
And what the alleged motive which
could prompt this conspiracy? was it
| for gain, for profit, for price, in the
judgment of these false accusers? How
miserably barren of suggestion, the
rancor which would attribute greed of
money to those who take neither scrip,
nor purse, whose lives are uninterrupt-
eddy self-denying, and whose poverty is
emblematic of the sincerity with which
| they have fOrsaken the world and fol-
| lowed, with willing steps, the pathway
upon which the light of Divine exam.
| pie has been thrown.
But enough. The result of such a
purpose of impotent persecution might
have been foretold. He who hopes tO
find in bigotry and prejudice the spirit
which will prove persistent I'm outrage,
mistakes the duration of popular pas
sion and excitement. The influences
which might lead an infuriated mob to
break down the gates of convent, OF
consign the consecrated church to the
| IlaIIttS, CttuDOb OltcH COutIOl bilc sWOGI
jury or warp the decisions of the impair
tal Judge. Whatever, therefore, were
the hopes and purposes which prompted
this prosecution, they have met witt
merited disappointment; and the pres
can pay no better tribute to the justic'
and fairness of the mass of our people
than to record the qualification will
which all honest and riglit-minded mel
have welcomed the demonstration tina
Maryland court cannot be prostitute,
{ to the ends OF either religious intole
. rance or puritan malignity; and tina
the upright and innocent may defy alik
Q the suggestions of Islander and the for
, NAL indictments of persecution.
from the Richmond Times ofsaurdayl
; A very extraordinary trial has beel
= !, going on for the last week or so in Balti
more County Court, indicative of tn
age We live in. William Schley, al
eminent Baltimore barrister, remarked
during the course of the proceeding.
that in the course of thirty years expt
rience at the bar, he had never befor
y witnessed such bitterness of feeling dis
D played. 1t was prosecution brough
d nominally by the state against the ply
e, stefan and sisters of charity who la
e charge of the Mount Hope Asylum, al
cusiDg them of a conspiracy to maltres
and maltreating the unfortunate insaI
committed to their care. The physical
: i'm charge, DR. Stokes, is one of the fir
in his profession in the city, and a geI
n ~