His homestead and a magnificent tract of pine land lying on the northern slope of the Alleghenies, were sold by the sheriff of Indiana county to pay the penalty of this act of Christian charity; but the Dr.said earnestly, "I'll do it again, if they take every dollar I have." This ruling was alarming, for under it, it was unsafe either to sell or give food or lodging to a stranger.

The alarm was general, and even pro-slavery men regretted that this necessary act of justice should fall so heavily on so good and gentle a man.

There was much unfavorable comment, but all in private, for the Pittsburg press quailed before Judge Grier, and libel laws were the weapon with which he most loved to defend the dignity of the bench.

One editor he had kept in jail three months and ruined his business.Col.Hiram Kane was a brilliant writer, a poet and pungent paragraphist, and had at one time criticised some of Judge Grier's decisions, when by a libel suit the Judge had broken up his business and kept him in jail eighteen months.

Public sentiment was on Kane's side, and he had an ovation on his release, when he became city editor of the _Journal_.
There was disappointment that I had not criticised Judge Grier's course in the first number of the _Visiter_, but this was part of my plan.