Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1867-05-17
Remarkable judicial Utterance.

United States Circuit Court at Richmond,
Va, on Monday. The address deserves
fuller notice. 1t opens by returning
thanks to God that the friends Of the
Government, who were last year threaten
cd with destruction by It's enemies, are
now able to meet in security in the very
rooms where dwclt the spirit oftreason and
civil war, and wherein issued that fell
spirit which starved prisoners by whole
sale, assassinated colored soldiers, burned
towns and cities, and scattered abroad
yellow fever aud smallpox. The charge
continues:
Another subject Of thanksgiving is pre-
sen'ed in the very constitution OF your
body furnishing ocular evidence that the
age Of lust and class cruelty is departed,
and the new era Of equality and justice
breaking through the clouds of persecution
and prejudice is now dawning upon us;
and, strangest of all, that this city Of
Richmond should be the spot Of earth to
furnish this gracious manifestation. Rich
mond, the beautiful abandoned seat Of the
rebellion, looking as comely and specious
as goodly apple or gilded sepulchre,
where bloody treason fourished its whip
of scorpions; Richmond, where the slave
trade so long held 4eltsrnival; where the
press has found the lowest depths Of profit
gacy; where RIGHTEOUSNESS had ruled until
probably majority of births were illegiti-
mate or without the forms oflaw; where the
fashionable and popular pulpit had been
so Frustrated that its full fed ministering
gay Loiharios generally recommended the
worship of what they most respected
pleasure, property and power-correspond-
ing to the pagan and neurological ideas Of
Bacchus, Mammon and Mars:
Gods brutal, partial, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge and lust.
1t was as II the fends pre- vailed
Against the seraphs they assailed;
And fixed on Heavenly thrones should dwell,
The freed interiors of hell.
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 aud moral future for
this City Of Richmond, in strong contrast
with its awful and atheistic past, aud in
harmony with the salubrity Of its climate,
the poetic beauty of its scenery and the
magniicence Of its water powers
After referring to the clemency Of Con-
gress in reducing the penalty OF treason
(act of July IL, 1882 to fine and i'm.
prisonment when al other nations punish
the crime with death, the Judge goes on
to say Of the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens;
ave have seen patriotic statesman, ven
cradle alike for his age and for the blessings,
education, culture and improvements he
had conferred upon his State and country,
statesman greatly eminent among his
follow Legislators, and by common consent
of successive Congresses, acknowledged as
leader aud father, with Difference that
neither Clay, Fox, the Pitts, nor even
Cicero had ever known-this noble man
we have seen assaied with a bitterness
and falschood peculiar to the authors of
apologists. And for what? Why, forpro-
posing that few Of those who had been
chiefly instrumentalin filling the land with
woe and mourning, and debt and taxation,
and who, like the late Secretary of the
rebel finances, had made millions by specu.
lating upon the general distress, should
out Of their princely estates contribute one
tenth Of tho damages they had done, and
at thn same time expressly exempting from
penalty all the great masses Of those who
had been drawn into the late war. This
punish any with that extreme rigor usual
in civil wars, and not even to the extent
exacted by every European nation in
ordinary foreiga wars. Was such moder-
alton and cle,aency ever before so abused
and insulted? May this grandest old
statesman OF our country aud age, this
honor to humanity and light among the
nations, still continue to live, notwithstand-
ing the advance Of years and disease, and
may We yet be guided by his wisdom and
benedcencc, until the great questions now
pending shall be decided in tho interest
Of peace, progress aud freedom.
The charge concludes by tho expression
Of the pinion that the session Of the Court
will be long. 1t says:
The unmiiigated disloyalty which ami
mates so large "a portion Of our newspaper
press in this State Is producing such
effect upon the public morals, especially in
creating disposition by frauds and PERU
~ to escape taxation necessary for the
support Of the Government, in encourag-
ing the circulation of counterfeit money,
and il is TO be feared the anxiety to vote
at tho approaching elections by persons
engaged IN the late rebellion, is about
TO produce an immense amount Of labor
for our Grand Juries. On this subject
| may have occasion to address you more
at length on future occasion. Your
attention is particularly called to an
abuse which had assumed an alarming
aspect in this city as relic Of the old
barbarism Of slavery; / mean the brutal
rejection Of a great laboring and useful
class Of the people from the street cars, un-
der the act of Congress commonly called
the Civil Rightsbill. There is an undoubt-
ed remedy for such outrages. Chartered
transportation companies owe impartial
duties to the public, and the gross wrongs
complained Of deserve your Indignant re-
probation. | know the matter has been
arranged by tho Commanding General
with his usual great prudence and judg-
ment, but il is from its nature mere ten.
porary settlement, and needs confirmation
by the legal sanction Of courts and juries,