Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-12-15
The Caesar Griffin Case.


On Monday, the 7th, Judge Underwood read
lengthy decision, the purport of which was
that Judge Sheffey is a pretended judge, and
Caesar Griffin, the negro man who shot young
Brockenbrough, was illegally convicted and
! sentenced to the penitentiary because tried be-
fore him.
He closed as follows:
But aside from the circumstances and hiss
tory of the reconstruction measures, the act of
February 9Th and the fourteenth article are so
plain and distinct in their terms as to preclude
all doubt of their intended application to cases
like the present
No additional legislation is needed in this
case. The third section of the fourteenth ar
ticle prOpTlO UlgOreg in connection with the act
Of February 5th 1867, decides the question in
favor of the petitioner.
Caesar 2. Griffin will therefore be discharged
from the custody of the Marshal. unless an ap-
peal is entered, and in that case he will be held
to bail in the sum of $500 for his appearance
at the next term of the United States Circuit
Court
Messrs. Neeson, Bowden and Bradley T.
johnson, counsel for the respondent imme-
diately took an appeal to the Circuit Court of
the United States for Virginia, whereupon AL.
bert Brooks colored, became bail for Griffin in
the sum required, and he was set at liberty.
| Upon this decision OF this Daniel risen to
the Judgment the Norfolk Targinian thus
comments:
''The effect of this decision should it be sus>
tanned, of which there is no danger, would be
to throw the whole State into chaos. Not
single finding of the courts, not single opin-
ion or act of the judges would be worth the pa
per on which they were recorded. Now the
law was all against Judge Underwood, why
then did he decide In favor of the petitioner?
The answer is plain and easy-the offices of the
State are desired by the hungry scalawags and
carpet-baggers, and decision to- vacate these
was party necessity. Wells and Brown, and
Bond, and Underwood are bent upon official
elevation in the State Wells desires to be
Governor, Bond looks to underwood's place,
| while Brown and the Judge" aspire to the
United States Senate. ~
Behind these leaders there follow great
troop made up of the rag-tag and bob-tail of
humanity 1t is worth a moments enquiry to
lind the nativity of these statesmen and pa
triots. Brown came from New Hampshire,
Wells from Michigan, Underwood and Bond
from New York, and their followers, as rule,
are just as much entitled to be called Virgin
lans as they are. 1t is not necessary to pause
here to indulge reflections on the condition of
a country when the ermine of the bench is
boldly polluted by contact with dirty partisan
machinery. We ali know that these people are
like SO many pirates who are attempting the
capture of a vessel, on whose decks they have
| already got a footing; and if they do capture
our battered old line of battle ship we may be
| certain that when they have plundered and
stripped her, her sides will be scuttled and she
will 60 down while they escape with the booty.
| The opinion in the Griffin case, which we
feel certain will be reversed, is but another of
the evidences which accumulate around us,
that we are fighting for our lives, and if the
people will not rally now, they would not move
| though one rose from the dead to speak to
| them"
| The proposals of capitulation made by the in
| surgents at Cadiz were not accepted, and at the
expiration of the armistice hostilities commen-
ced and desperate conflict took place, with
| heavy loss on both sides In killed and wounded
but no decisive result. Great excitement pre-
walls in the Southern provinces, and General
| Prim is on his way thither, hoping his presence
will restore tranquility.
| Among the persons reported to have lost
their lives by the late steam boat collision on the
Ohio, was Rev. Robert j. Parvin, general Sec
rotary of the Evangelical Education Society of
the Episcopal Church.