The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-12-08
TEfE GRIFFIN HABEAS CORPUS
CASE DECIDED.
CESAR SET FREE.
d " A p p Z A Il.

Judge Underwood rendered his decision
yesterday in the case of Caesar P. Griffin.
The document is as follows: r. sr-
r. .&,' THE CASE STATED. ~
Cesar P. Griffin, the petitioner in this
case, AYERS thst he is deprived of his
liberty contrary to the fourteenth article, or
of the Constitution Of the
United States because he is confined in
prison by virtue and in pursuance of the
sentence of pretended Judge of the Cir
cult Court of Rockbridge county, which
Judge, at the time of passing such SEN
tence, was incapable of holding, and ex-
pressly prohibited from holding, the Office
of Judge by the said fourteenth article or
E%
The application is based upon the act Of
Congress passed February 5th, 1867, ex-
tending the privileges Of the writ of habeas
corpus, and as both this act and the consti-
tutional amendment above referred to seem
to be parts and parcels Of the extraordinary
legislation under the belligerent powers of
Congress, or acts passed in reference to the
late civil war, and in settlement Of the
troubles following the war, it may be PRO-
ftable, in order to a. full understanding OF
.he act and amendment, to consider some OF
The historical and legal circumstances con-
nected with this passage.
- FEARFUL CIVIL WAR.
That we have had fearful civil war in
his country is made painfully evident by
he more than one hundred thousand SOL
liers' graves with which the face of Virgil
1ia is ridged, and the almost equal number
If widows and orphans, of broken hearts
md ruined fortunes, which meet us on
avery hand. This war, as We all know,
ragged with unusual violence for nearly four
years, assumed distinct and well-de6ned
territorial boundaries, and WAS carried on
against the United States by the old organ
zed government Of Virginia in all it's de-
partments Legislative, executive, and ju-
1icial. .-....-.. ... Fl.
By the well-established laws of war, as
aid down by Vattel and other writers, all
the people of this State, by virtue of their
residence and citizenship, without regard tc
their private opinions, friendship, love, or
devotion to the National Government, and
in spite of oil wishes and prayers for the
success of the national cause, became ene-
mics of the United States, and as such
enemies their property became liable tc
seizure and confscation; not for treason.
not for any crime or offence against the
United States, but simply as enemies pro
perty.
WE ALL BECAME ENEMIES.
Bythis war. we, each and all, though not
inimici, or private enemies, became hosteS,
or public enemies, Of the United States, and
thereby lost all our rights under the Con-
of the United States as effectually
as if we had been born and always lived in
q foreign country, and were aliens and
foreigners.
s7ss, NO PARDON FOR Us.
No pardon of the President could change
these facts or reach our case, because he only
pardons crimes and offences, and cannot
change the status Of States or enemies, or
save them from the consequences of being
This last work is left by the Con-
stitution to the law-making power, or Con-
yress, of the United States.
After hostilities ceased by the conquest of
the United States, as the con-
aueror, had not only. the right to exact
within the laws of war its own terms, but
to treat us all, without regard to our indi-
vidual conduct or efforts in the past, as
alien enemies demand compensation out
If our property for all the expenses of the
war (which would have absorbed our whole
,states), or to make such discrimination in
aer treatment as she deemed meet and pro-
per.
But the United States, as intimated by
Judge Grier in giving the opinion of the
Supreme Court in the prize cases, and by
,ther decisions of the same court, might
reat those of us who had actively partici-
,ated in the war against the national au-
hority as rebels and traitors, and subjected
,uch to the extreme punishments de-
,ounced against treason-the highest crime
Known to our laws. "
UNEXAMPLED MAGNANIMITY.
But in a spirit of mercy and magma
,imity unexampled in the history of civil
wars, not a single person has ever been
punished for treason for his participation in
he war. Very little property has been
seized and sold under the belligerent powers
IF the Government, and that little with the
'ole view of crippliug and weakening the
enemy, and thus bringing the war to a
;peedier end. The seizures thus made were
confined carefully to the property of
classes who were actively hostile to the
Government during the war. Since
he termination of active hostilities
10 property of even the most active
enemies has been sold or condemned,
Ind by the reconstruction acts Of Congress
nearly all the residents of this and other
southern States, instead of being treated IS
public or private, have been re-
stored to all our rights, thus forfeited, in
,luding citizenship, property, suffrage, and
,ffice-holding, both in the State and National
Government and, as to the very limited
number temporarily excluded from the last
named privilege Of oftice-holding, ample
provision for full restoration has been made
~ Congress as soon as, in its wisdom and
humanity, it shall deem such restoration
;afe and ,expedient. 1t may be observed
hat no one is even temporarily excluded
who had not only actively engaged in the
var against the United States, but in addi-
ion to this, he must have held an office
previously which made him q leading and
man, and which required
,im to take special oath to support the
Constitution Of the United States. In other
words, those required by these measures of
restoration to retire for q limited time to
private life are the leaders of secession,
Who, as our former rulers, had brought upon
Is all our unutterable woes Of poverty, war,
lefeat, death, and State degradation.
Those of US who are familiar with the
history of these measures know also that
Congress was influenced by the belief that
hese former leaders, stung as they were by
lefeat, and almost necessarily influenced
~ the fierce passions and prejudices that