The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-03-09
TrRox oun OWN coRREspoNDsr.l

COLUMBIA, March Z.
The much talked of investigation by the
Legislature of the trial Of the suit Of BEDDING
vs.. the South Carolina Railroad Company took
place this morning before the judiciary com.
mittee of the House, and resulted, as might
have been expected, not only in the complete
vindlcatlon of Judge Graham, but In the utter
discontinue aad generalization Of the parties
who appear to have instigated the whole pro.
ceedlng with view to making little political
capital for themselves. The history Of this
remarkable and super. judicial appeal, so far as
1t has appeared from the surface, has been
duly chronicled In this correspondence. aud is,
no doubt, familiar to the readers of The NEWS.
The authority under which the committee
acted was contained In the following resolu-
tion offered by Mr. Jervey, and adopted BY
the House on Tuesday last:
Resolved, That the judiciary committee be,
and they are hereby, directed to make an In
yestigation Immediately into the case of VIM.
=. Redding ct ux., VS.. the South Carolina Rail-
road Company. to report the facts Of the case,
a. Investigated by them, to this House as soon
as possible: Provided, said report be made
before the adjournment of the General Assem-
bly,; .,,, ,.uo..,u,,,,n ...
this morning, and, accordingly, Judge Gra-
ham, accompanied by General Conner and
Colonel T. z. Simons, as his counsel. appeared
before the judiciary committee to-day, and de-
manded the investigation. The Judge took
the ground that his rulings to the jury, and
the record of his whole course in the conduct
Of the case, were before the committee to
assist them in forming their judgment; that'as
to the accuracy of his rulings, the Supreme
Court OF the State, having appellate jurlsdtc-
ton, was the only tribunal competent to pass
10 fhA nho whit oh hoa
been made Of corruption and malteasance In
of3te, he desired to be furnished with the &C
cusstion against him, aud with the name Of
his accuser.
On tbs the committee produced the above
resolution as authority for their action In the
matter, and Mr.. Jeryey, as the introduser Of
PRODUCTION. Mr.. Jervey stated that he had
known nothing of the merits of the case, but
had been induced to offer the resolution upon
the representations of Mr.. E. B. seaDrook,
who, as the solicitor OF the first circuit, might
reasonably be supposed to be eognizant Of the
facts In the case when making so serious
charge against the Judge presiding in that Cir
cult and the officers OF the Court OF General
Sessions.
Mr. seabrook was then called upon to e1-
plain, as it appeared 10 be narrowed down to
against the judge, he branched of into high
ly euloglstic opinion Of that gentleman's con-
duct. and ended by saying that bis expressions
to Mr. Jervey had been wholly misunder-
stood-thst In speaking of the influences
brought to bear upon the judge and jury he
that they had been brlbed, or anything of that
kind, but simply alluded to the pressure of
public opinion In the case, &c, DC.
This recRnatlon on the part OF Mr. Sea-
brook left nothing for the committee to do
but to adjourn and prepare q report e1culps-
49, 4,.Iz all al tn,
they Immediately proceeded to do. An at
tempt was made this evening to revive the
investigation In consequence OF the arrival of
several additional witnesses from Charleston
who had given their testimony upon the trial,
and were prepared to rehearse the same be-
fore the committee; but the committee very
senslbly decided that all the matters to which
theyfdesired to testify were questions of fact,
and as such had been submitted to the jury
who had found verdict upon them; that
there WAS no appeal as to matters of fact; and
that as to matters OF law, the Supreme Court
was the proper appellate tribunal; that the
only province Of the committee was the In
vestigatlon of the allegations of fraud or cor
ruption, and these charges having been with.
drawn, the labors Of the committee were at
an end.
This may be assumed to be the end, and 1t
has surely been inglorious enough for the &C.
cusers of the charges Of corruption against
u
ever. an ugly question of veracty between
Mr. Seabrook, on the one side, and Messrs.
Jervey, Hunter, Thomas and other eoiored
members of the House on the other, as to how
the charges first originated. These members
feel sorely a2grieved at the course which they
allege Mr.. Seabrook has taken In first causing
them to broach the investigation under the
suppostion that justice had been denied to a
man of their own race, and then, when the
issue comes to be squarely met, retracting the
charges and leaving them to shoulder the re-
ter of q Judge who has conducted himself with
such ability and uprightness as to have won
the respect of all classes Of citizens, and who
had but few days before been unanimously
reelected by the very Assembly In which these
grave charges were brought against him.
fnese members have to-day most posi-
lively declared to your correspondent that
thew were only induced to propose and favor
the investigation upon the representations Of
M. Seabrook; that they believed him to have
been the author of an anonymous communi-
cation In Charleston paper OF the z 2stn NUT. nt;'
which bitterly attacked the court In conse-
.nneece Of the result of the Redding case;