Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-05-18
Judge Underwood. charge.

The late charge of Judge underwood, to the
grand jury in the city of Richmond, on the oc
casion of the opening of the court before which
jeff, Davis has been brought, has excited
great deal of comment from the Southern press.
Tie Richmond papers, in particular. have gone
beyond themselves in their expressions of an
ger and indignation, and one is forcibly remind
ed, In reading them of three and four years
ago, when they were used as special organs for
the purpose of stirring up and infaming the
Southern heart. If, instead of heaping vituper-
alton upon the charge and its author, it might
have been as well for our southern cotempora
ries to have calmly refuted its allegations, and
shown its untruthfulness and injustice. Fail
ing in this, and opening the sluiccs of billings
gate, leaves one to the conclusion that though
the severity might have been spared, yet the
chief objections to the charge are its candor
and ghtforwardness. 1t is one of the in
| trmities OF the South, that while they are fast
enough to exact tenderness and consideration,
their dealings with others are without this kind
OF seasoning.
The tone of those newspaper articles can best
be judSed by the brief extracts which we give
below. The Richmond Dispatch, one of the
mildest ofthe famous .IOureals ofthat city, says:
t;sssIf it were the object of Judge Under
wood to disgrace his government and
the court over which he presides, he la
bored in earnest yesterdayto carry it out
in his charge to the jury on opening his
court.
This charge, for the infin,y of its as
persions of whole community finds no
parallel in the judicial annals OF any conn
| try on earth. The world will wonder
how such q man ever got to be Judge;
but he would be awarded the credit OF
making good use of his Office to secure
himself notoriety in at least, one way
that of the foul and filthy calumniation Of
society,""
The Examiner, by all odds the most rabid
and most able of contemporaries, belches its in
dignation as follows:
"Let any white man in Virginia read
this low, obscure brute's viperous false
hoods, and remember that he, this I'm
derwood, is the cub OF republicanism,
no better and no worse than his dam,
and ask himself whether he is ready for
| the infinite abasement of fellowship with
such a creature. If not, he cannot be a
republican. Republicanism means herd
ing with such cattle, and wollowing in
the same mire. And all the winning
notes of editors, charm they never so
wisely, if they essay this thing, will be
lost on all the men who cheered for Har-
ry Clay.
We have to thank republicanism for
the samples it sends us. They speak
trumpet tonged for the union of all good
men in hostility more lasting than a
Carthagenian's against these slanderers
and blasphemers of all that is good and
pure and high and holy among us.
If any Virginian can read this crea-
tdre's charge and doubt the position an
honest man should take-with Under
wood and his party or against them-we
beseech him to read it to his wife or SIS
ter and follow her COUNSEL
The Times also has its say, though it says it
briefly Its whole allusion to the article is con-
tanned in a brevity of less than a dozen lines.
elsewhere in our columns will be
found the charge yesterday delivered to
his white and negro jury by John G. Tn
derwood, Judge of the United States
District Court of Virginia. AS a legal
charge to Grand Jury it is wholly be-
meath, criticism, and challenges comment
only as a display from the bench of a
groveling malice towards the respectable
people Of Virginia, and nauseating flat
terry of Stevens and the radical party
As an emanation from the supreme judi
cial functionary in this State, it is dis
graceful to his office; while, as literary
composition, it would not be creditable
to the brain of a thick skulled freedman" :"
HruI AnvcorIccMcure