Some time after this, 1 heard of
subpoenas being served on General Lee, David M. Randolph, and others, as
witnesses to attend the trial. I then, for the first time, conjectured
the subject of the libel. I immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, to
require an immediate dismission of the prosecution. The answer of Mr.
Huntington, the district attorney, was, that these subpoenas had been
issued by the defendant without his knowledge, that it had been his
intention to dismiss all the prosecutions at the first meeting of the
court, and to accompany it with an avowal of his opinion, that they
could not be maintained, because the federal court had no jurisdiction
over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till then know that
there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I now know what
were their subjects. But all went off together; and I afterwards saw, in
the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the clergyman, disavowing
any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly declaring he had never
uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger either showed me, or said
there were affidavits of at least half a dozen respectable men who were
present at the sermon, and swore no such expressions were uttered, and
as many equally respectable who swore the contrary. But the clergyman
expressed his gratification at the dismission of the prosecution. I
write all this from memory, and after too long an interval of time to be
certain of the exactness of all the details; but I am sure there is no
variation material, and Mr.
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