Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-08-18
GBNBRA6N NEWS.

Reuben ID. Herndon, the alleged murderer
! ofSliss Lumsden, was captured near Trevil-
ians Depot, in Louisa county, on the 9th, and
| taken to Orange CHI, from whence he had
escaped, After Herndon had finished his So
! called confession, and before his escape, he
amused himselfby writing his life. The Ed
itor of the Fisgihia1i; who has read portion
of the Mss, says it covers more than u hun
dred pages of foolscap, reiterates the asser-
| ton that Miss Lumsden committed suicide,
and is made up mainly of accounts of Loves
scrapes with various females, trivial personal
"reminiscences of business with sundry indi-
viduals, together with his career during the
war, and copious pious CALCULATIONS warnings,
and moral lessons addressed to the reader
1t throws no light on the dark and horrible
crime with which he is charged.
- The county of Spottsylyania was visited
on Friday afternoon week With the heaviest
rain storm Of the season, washing up corn,
aud destroying fences along the low grounds.
In some sections the rain came down in tor
rents, and the very windows of Heaven seemed
to be opened.
L. Il. Ackley, citizen of The county, was
killed by flash of the lightning He had
taken refuge in the barn, during the storm.
The only other occupants were goat and
horse. Mr.. Ackley was killed outright, as
was also the goat, and the horse badly stunned.
= John S. Parker, promising youth of
Is, and student at the Virginia Military In
stitute, was drowned near his fathers resi-
deace, in Cherry Stone Greek, Northampton
county, on last Friday week. He had gone
into the creek with several friends to bathe,
and few moments thereafter was drowned.
He is said to have been "thc pride and hope
of his tamily-affectionate generous, high
toned,an the type of Christian gentleman"
= Chief Justice Chase in charging the
the United States Grand Jury of West Vir>
ginia, said in effect: In order to crush the
rebellion it was necessary to create u large
public debt and that the debt must be paid,
for under the fourteenth amendment to the
Constitution of the United States the Nation
was pledged to it. This amendment he rccog-
nized as valid, and therefore, charged the
jury to see that the revenue laws, which were
made to pay the debt, were strictly enforced.
: Estimates carefully made of the wheat
crop in California, the harvesting of which
has just been completed, put the amount at
from fifteen to twenty millions of bushels
The San Francisco bulletin thinks it will be
between the two, but says that 'nevcrthelcss
there have been estimates published which
fix the crop at from twenty-five million to
forty million bushels; but such estimates
only excite smile among the well informed.
y crop of sixteen million bushels will give us
a surplus ofthree hundred and sixty thousand
tons for export, to say nothing of the quanti-
ty likely to be received from Oregon"
Hon. Charles Francis Adams ex>united
States Minister to Great Britain, in response
to n letter of the Boston Quincy Grant Club
announces that he has in ''in no respect varied
in attachment to the principles he held before
his departure from the United States" and
that he is 'still devoted to the support of the
self-evident truth proclaimed in the great
declaration of 1776, to the maintenance of
our glorious Union agairst every enemy, and
to the supremacy Of the constitution as our
protection against assaults from without as
well as within" he adds that his resigna-
ton and return to America was solely to seek
repose and retirement. He will not enter in
to politics.