Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1867-05-08
u. s. CIRCUIT COURT At RICHMOND.
Judge Underwoods Charge to the Grand Jur!


u $. CIRCUIT COURT At RICHMOND.
Judge Underwood's Charge to the Grand Jury.
:.Gentlemen of the. Grand Jury: :;
'The circumstances surrounding US demand
devout thanksgiving to Almighty God that
we, the friends and representatives, OF the
Government of the United States, who, last
wear we're threatened with destruction and
hunted by assasSins in this city for attempting
to execute the laws OF our country, can now
meet in conscious security under the wings OF
the starry banner which our patriot Congress
has raised for our protection. That we are
permitted to meet in this building Of everlast-
ing granite. so embematic of the power and
strength of our Government, standing alone
and unharmed amid the great confagration
that swept as with a besom OF destruction all
around it.
Sand what solemn associations are suggest
ed by rejecting that in the very rooms we now
occupy dwelt the fiery soul of treason, rebellion
and civil war-hence issued that fell spirit
which starved by wholesale prisoners for the
crime of defending the flag of our common
country; assassioated colured soldiers for their
noble and trusting ahors In behalf of gov
ern,nent that had as yet only promised them
protection; burned towns and cities with
barbarity unknown to Christian countries
scattered yellow fever and small pox among tue
poor and helpless, and finally struck down one
of earth's noblest martyrs to freedom and
humanity.
Another subject Of thanksgiving is present.
ed 10 the very constitution of your body, turn
ishing ocular evidence that the age of caste
and class cruelty has departed, and the new
era of justice and equality breaking through
the clouds of persecution and prejudice is now
dawning upon U.s.. And strangest of all that
this city of Richmond should be the spot of
Richmond, the beautiful and abandoned seat
of the rebellion. looking as comey and specious
az goodly apple or gilded sepulchre, where
bloody treason hourished its whips of scorpi-
ons Richmond, where the slave trade so long
held bgh carnival; where the press has found
the lowest depths Of prohigacy where licenti
business has ruled until, probably, a majority
Of births were iiligitlmate or without the forms
of law; where the fashionable and popular
pulpit had been so proStituted that its full fed
ministering gay Lotharios generally recon-
mended the worship Of what they most respec-
ted, pleasure, property or power, correspond.
ing to the pagan or NEUROLOGICAL ideas of Bac-
chus, MammoD or Mars.
'Gods brutal, partial, passionate and unjust;
Whose attributes were rage, revenge and lust.
as
Against the seraphs they assailed;
And fixed on heavenly thrones should dwell,
The freed inher:tors of he'll.
So soft the scene, so formed for joy,
So cursed the causes that Destroy
"But we are reminded that, "where sin
abounded, grace may much more abound, . and,
in the light of recent changes, may we not hope
material and moral future for this city OF
Richmond, in strong contrast with ITS awful
and atheistic and in harmony with the salu-
brity of its climate, the poetic beauty OF Its
scenery and the magnlticence OF Its water
power.
II have sometimes found that, by the usages
of this State, which have given the selection
of iuries to the, sheriffs and marshals, or, in
professional language have packed juries In
stead of drawing them from box OF names Sc
lected by other officers, as is done in most OF
the States, there was danger of getting indiffer:
ent persons upon the panel, but the care and
rage Judgment which our marshals have always
shown in their selections, prove my tears un-
fnnnded and I am truly gratifed to find sc
many gentlemen OF public and private worth
upon the present jury.
:sWe so often hear, from reasonable sources
around US, of cruel acts passed by Congress
since the beginning OF the war-acts which We
are called upon to enforce--that 1t is we'll, per-
haps, for one moment. to consider the utter
fslsehood of such charges, and to find, on ex
animation, the unparalleled cemency and for
bearauce of the victorious government which,
but for the cost of the rebellion, would now
be felt only 10 its protection and It's blessings
While it has heretofore been the common
law of all nations, our own included, to pun
ish treason by death, it was reserved tol
the American Congress, IN the midst o.
gigantic rebellion, on the 18th day O
July, 1862, to reduce that punishment, i
courts should see ft, tofne and imprisonment
Again, it has been the usage Of all nations, II
peace as we'll as war, to make the wrong. doer
even in the most trivial trespass, respond ou
of his property to the full amount of the dam
ages he has committed; a practice and usage
also of victorious governments IN all ordinary
wars-and yet we have seen patriot states
man, venerable alike for his age and th,
blessings of education, culture and improve
ments he has conferred upon his State anc
country statesman greatly eminent amon
his fellow-legislators, and, by common consen
of successive Congresses, acknowledged as
leader and father with Difference that nelthe
Clay, Fox. the Pitts, nor even Cicero had eve
known. This noblemau we have seen assalle
With bitterness and .falsehood peculiar to tb
authors and leadersof the rebellion, its pimp
aud apo!ogtsts, aDd f0r what! Why, Tor pro
posing that lew Of those who had been chief
instrumental in filling the land with woe an
mourning, and debt and taxation, and who
like the late Secretary of the Rebel finances
had made millions by blockade running and b
sneculating upon the general distress, should
ont of,their 4prlncely estates, contribute one
tanths of The damages they had done, and ;
the same time expressly exemptng from pc,
aIty All the great masses of these who had bee
drawn into the late war. This humane state
;manlalso proposes not to punish any with tn
extreme rigor usualin civil wars, and not ev,
to the extent exacted by every Eur1nean q, ll N
tionf0ins ordinary foreign wars was So.
moderation and clemeucy eyerbefore SO Iabus
and insulted! May this grandest Old state
man nf .o11r country and age still continue