The Anti-Slavery Examiner Volume III Part 72

The Macon (Georgia) Telegraph of October 9, 1838, contains the following notice of two affrays in that place, in each of which an individual was killed, one on Tuesday and the other on Sat.u.r.day of the same week. In publishing the case, the Macon editor remarks:

"We are compelled to remark on the inefficiency of our laws in bringing to the bar of public justice, persons committing capital offences. Under the present mode, a man has nothing more to do than to leave the state, or step over to Texas, or some other place not farther off, and he need entertain no fear of being apprehended. So long as such a state of things is permitted to exist, just so long will every man who has an enemy (and there are but few who have not) _be in constant danger of being shot down in the streets_."

To these remarks of the Macon editor, who is in the centre of the state, near the capital, the editor of the Darien Telegraph, two hundred miles distant, responds as follows, in his paper of October 30. 1838.

"The remarks of our contemporary are not without cause. They apply, with peculiar force, to this community. _Murderers and rioters will never stand in need of a sanctuary as long as Darien is what it is_."

It is a coincidence which carries a comment with it, that in less than a week after this Darien editor made these remarks, he was attacked in the street by "_fourteen_ gentlemen" armed with bludgeons, knives, dirks, pistols, &c., and would doubtless have been butchered on the spot if he had not been rescued.

We give the following statement at length as the chief perpetrator of the outrages, Col. W.N. Bishop, was at the time a high functionary of the State of Georgia, and, as we learn from the Macon Messenger, still holds two public offices in the State, one of them from the direct appointment of the governor.

From the "Georgia Messenger" of August 25, 1837.

"During the administration of WILSON LUMPKIN, WILLIAM N. BISHOP received from his Excellency the appointment of Indian Agent, in the place of William Springer. During that year (1834,) the said governor gave the command of a company of men, 40 in number, to the said W.N.

Bishop, to be selected by him, and armed with the muskets of the State. This band was organized for the special purpose of keeping the Cherokees in subjection, and although it is a notorious fact that the Cherokees in the neighborhood of Spring Place were peaceable and by no means refractory, the said band were kept there, and seldom made any excursion whatever out of the county of Murray. It is also _a notorious fact_, that the said band, from the day of their organization, never permitted a citizen of Murray county opposed to the dominant party of Georgia, to exercise the right of suffrage at any election whatever. From that period to the last of January election, the said band appeared at the polls with the arms of the State, rejecting every vote that "was not of the true stripe," as they called it. That they frequently seized and dragged to the polls honest citizens, and compelled them to vote contrary to their will.

"Such acts of arbitrary despotism were tolerated by the administration. Appeals from the citizens of Murray county brought them no relief--and incensed at such outrages, they determined on the first Monday in January last, to turn out and elect such Judges of the Inferior Court and county officers, as would be above the control of Bishop, that he might thereby be prevented from packing such a jury as he chose to try him for his brutal and unconst.i.tutional outrages on their rights. Accordingly on Sunday evening previous to the election, about twenty citizens who lived a distance from the county site, came in unarmed and unprepared for battle, intending to remain in town, vote in the morning and return home. They were met by Bishop and his State band, and asked by the former 'whether they were for peace or war.' They unanimously responded, "we are for peace:' At that moment Bishop ordered a fire, and instantly _every musket of his band was discharged on those citizens_, 5 of whom were wounded, and others escaped with bullet holes in their clothes. Not satisfied with the outrage, _they dragged an aged man from his wagon and beat him nearly to death_.

"In this way the voters were driven from Spring Place, and before day light the next morning, the polls were opened by order of Bishop, and soon after sun rise they were closed; Bishop having ascertained that the band and Schley men had all voted. A runner was then dispatched to Milledgeville, and received from Governor Schley commissions for those self-made officers of Bishop's, two of whom have since runaway, and the rest have been called on by the citizens of the county to resign, being each members of Bishop's band, and doubtless runaways from other States.

"After these outrages, Bishop apprehending an appeal to the judiciary on the part of the injured citizens of Murray county, had a jury drawn to suit him and appointed one of his band Clerk of the Superior Court.

For these acts, the Governor and officers of the Central Bank rewarded him with an office in the Bank of the State, since which his own jury found _eleven true bills_ against him."

In the Milledgeville Federal Union of May 2, 1837, we find the following presentment of the Grand Jury of Union County, Georgia, which as it shows some relics of a moral sense, still lingering in the state we insert.

Presentment of the Grand Jury of Union Co., March term, 1837.

"We would notice, as a subject of painful interest, the appointment of Wm. N. Bishop to the high and responsible office of Teller, of the Central Bank of the State of Georgia--an inst.i.tution of such magnitude as to merit and demand the most unslumbering vigilance of the freemen of this State; as a portion of whom, we feel bound to express our _indignant reprehension_ of the promotion of such a character to one of its most responsible posts--and do exceedingly regret the blindness or _depravity_ of those who can sanction such a measure.

"We request that our presentment be published in the Miners' Recorder and Federal Union.

JOHN MARTIN, Foreman"

On motion of Henry L. Sims, Solicitor General, "Ordered by the court, that the presentments of the Grand Jury, be published according to their request." THOMAS HENRY, Clerk.

The same paper, four weeks after publishing the preceding facts, contained the following: we give it in detail as the wretch who enacted the tragedy was another public functionary of the state of Georgia and acting in an official capacity.

"MURDER.--One of the most brutal and inhuman murders it has ever fallen to our lot to notice, was lately committed in Cherokee county, by Julius Bates, the son of the princ.i.p.al keeper of the Penitentiary, upon an Indian.

"The circ.u.mstances as detailed to us by the most respectable men of both parties, are these. At the last Superior Court of Ca.s.s county, the unfortunate Indian was sentenced to the Penitentiary. Bates, as _one of the Penitentiary guard_, was sent with another to carry him and others, from other counties to Milledgeville. He started from Ca.s.sville with the Indian ironed and bare footed; and walked him within a quarter of a mile of Canton, the C.H. in Cherokee, a distance of twenty-eight to thirty miles, over a very rough road in little more than half the day. On arriving at a small creek near town, the Indian [who had walked until the _soles of his feet were off and those of his heel turned back_,] made signs to get water, Bates refused to let him, and ordered him to go on: the Indian stopped and finally set down, whereupon Bates dismounted and gathering a pine knot, commenced and continued beating him and jirking him by a chain around his neck, until the citizens of the village were drawn there by the severity of the blows. The unfortunate creature was taken up to town and died in a few hours.

"An inquest was held, and the jury found a verdict of murder by Bates.

A warrant was issued, but Bates had departed that morning in charge of other prisoners taken from Canton, and the worthy officers of the county desisted from his pursuit, 'because they apprehended he had pa.s.sed the limits of the county.' We understand that the warrant was immediately sent to the Governor to have him arrested. Will it be done? We shall see."

Having devoted so much s.p.a.ce to a revelation of the state of society among the slaveholders of Georgia, we will tax the reader's patience with only a single ill.u.s.tration of the public sentiment--the degree of actual legal protection enjoyed in the state of North Carolina.

North Carolina was settled about two centuries ago; its present white population is about five hundred thousand.

Pa.s.sing by the murders, affrays, &c. with which the North Carolina papers abound, we insert the following as an ill.u.s.tration of the public sentiment of North Carolina among 'gentlemen of property and standing.'

The 'North Carolina Literary and Commercial Journal,' of January 20, 1838, published at Elizabeth City, devotes a column and a half to a description of the lynching, tarring, feathering, ducking, riding on a rail, pumping, &c., of a Mr. Charles Fife, a merchant of that city, for the crime of 'trading with negroes.' The editor informs us that this exploit of vandalism was performed very deliberately, at mid-day, and _by a number of the citizens_, 'THE MOST RESPECTABLE IN THE CITY,'

&c. We proceed to give the reader an abridgement of the editor's statement in his own words.--

"Such being the case, a number of the citizens, THE MOST RESPECTABLE IN THIS CITY, collected, about ten days since, and after putting the fellow on a rail, carried him through town with a duck and chicken tied to him. He was taken down to the water and his head tarred and feathered; and when they returned he was put under a pump, where for a few minutes he underwent a little cooling. He was then told that he must leave town by the next Sat.u.r.day--if he did not he would be visited again, and treated more in accordance with the principles of the laws of Judge Lynch.

"On Sat.u.r.day last, he was again visited, and as Fife had several of his friends to a.s.sist him, some little scuffle ensued, when several were knocked down, but nothing serious occurred. Fife was again mounted on a rail and brought into town, but as he promised if they would not trouble him he would leave town in a few days, he was set at liberty. Several of our magistrates _took no notice of the affair_, and rather seemed to tacitly acquiesce in the proceedings. The whole subject every one supposed was ended, as Fife was to leave in a few days, when WHAT WAS OUR ASTONISHMENT to hear that Mr. Charles R.

Kinney had visited Fife, advised him not to leave, and actually took upon himself to examine witnesses, and came before the public as the defender of Fife. The consequence was, that all the rioters were summoned by the Sheriff to appear in the Court House and give bail for their appearance at our next court. On Monday last the court opened at 12 o'clock, Judge Bailey presiding. Such an excitement we never witnessed before in our town. A great many witnesses were examined, which proved the character of Fife beyond a doubt. At one time rather serious consequences were apprehended--high words were spoken, and luckily a blow which was aimed at Mr. Kinney, was parried off, and we are happy to say the court adjourned after ample securities being given. The next day Fife was taken to jail for trading with negroes, but has since been released on paying $100. The interference of Mr.

Kinney was wholly unnecessary; it was an a.s.sumption on his part which properly belonged to our magistrates. Fife had agreed to go away, and the matter would have been amicably settled but for him. We have no unfriendly feelings towards Mr. Kinney: no personal animosities to gratify: we have always considered him as one of our best lawyers. But when he comes forth as the supporter of such a fellow as Fife, under the plea that the laws have been violated--when he arraigns the acts of thirty of the inhabitants of this place, it is high time for him to reflect seriously on the consequences. The Penitentiary system is the result of the refinement of the eighteenth century. As man advances in the sciences, in the arts, in the intercourse of social and civilized life, in the same proportion does crime and vice keep an equal pace, and always makes demands on the wisdom of legislators. Now, what is the Lynch law but the Penitentiary system carried out to its full extent, with a little more steam power? or more properly, it is simply thus: _There are some scoundrels in society on whom the laws take no effect; the most expeditious and short way is to let a majority decide and give them_ JUSTICE."

Let the reader notice, 1st, that this outrage was perpetrated with great deliberation, and after it was over, the victim was commanded to leave town by the next week: when that cooling interval had pa.s.sed, the outrage was again deliberately repeated. 2d. It was perpetrated by "thirty persons,' "_the most respectable in the city_." 3d. That at the second lynching of Fife, several of his neighbors who had gathered to defend him, (seeing that all the legal officers in the city had refused to do it, thus violating their oaths of office,) _were knocked down_, to which the editor adds, with the business air of a professional butcher, "nothing _serious_ occurred!" 4th. That not a single magistrate in the city took the least notice either of the barbarities inflicted upon Fife, or of the a.s.saults upon his friends, knocking them down, &c., but, as the editor informs us, all "seemed to acquiesce in the proceedings." 5th. That this conduct of the magistrates was well pleasing to the great ma.s.s of the citizens, is plain, from the remark of the editor that "every one supposed that the whole subject was ended," and from his wondering exclamation, "WHAT WAS OUR ASTONISHMENT to hear that Mr. C.R. Kinney had actually took upon him to examine witnesses," &c., and also from the editor's declaration, "Such an excitement we never before witnessed in our town." Excitement at what? Not because the laws had been most impiously trampled down at noon-day by a conspiracy of thirty persons, "the most respectable in the city;" not because a citizen had been twice seized and publicly tortured for hours, without trial, and in utter defiance of all authority; nay, verily! this was all complacently acquiesced in; but because in this slaveholding Sodom there was found a solitary Lot who dared to uplift his voice for _law_ and the _right of trial by jury_; this crime stirred up such an uproar in that city of "most respectable" lynchers as was "_never witnessed before_," and the n.o.ble lawyer who thus put every thing at stake in invoking the majesty of law, would, it seems, have been knocked down, even in the presence of the Court, if the blow had not been "parried."

6th. Mark the murderous threat of the editor--when he arraigns the _acts_," (no matter how murderous) "of thirty citizens of this place, it is high time for him to reflect seriously _on the consequences_."

7th. The open advocacy of "Lynch law" by a set argument, boldly setting it above all codes, with which the editor closes his article, reveals a public sentiment in the community which shows, that in North Carolina, though society may still rally under the flag of civilization, and insist on wrapping itself in its folds, barbarism is none the less so in a stolen livery, and savages are savages still, though tricked out with the gauze and tinsel of the stars and stripes.

It may be stated, in conclusion, that the North Carolina "Literary and Commercial Journal," from which the article is taken, is a large six-columned paper, edited by F.S. Proctor, Esq., a graduate of a University, and of considerable literary note in the South.

Having drawn out this topic to so great a length, we waive all comments, and only say to the reader, in conclusion, _ponder these things_, and lay it to heart, that slaveholding "is justified _of her children_." Verily, they have their reward! "With what measure ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." Those who combine to trample on others, will trample on _each other_. The habit of trampling upon _one_, begets a state of mind that will trample upon _all_. Accustomed to wreak their vengeance on their slaves, indulgence of pa.s.sion becomes with slaveholders a second law of nature, and, when excited even by their equals, their hot blood brooks neither restraint nor delay; _gratification_ is the _first_ thought--prudence generally comes too late, and the slaves see their masters fall a prey to each other, the victims of those very pa.s.sions which have been engendered and infuriated by the practice of arbitrary rule over _them_. Surely it need not be added, that those who thus tread down their equals, must trample as in a wine-press their defenceless va.s.sals. If, when in pa.s.sion, they seize those who are _on their own level_, and dash them under their feet, with what a crushing vengeance will they leap upon those who are _always_ under their feet?

FOOTNOTES.

Footnote 39: A few years since Mr. Bourne published a work ent.i.tled, "Picture of slavery in the United States." In which he describes a variety of horrid atrocities perpetrated upon slaves; such as brutal scourging and lacerations with the application of pepper, mustard, salt, vinegar, &c., to the bleeding gashes; also maimings, cat-haulings, burnings, and other tortures similar to hundreds described on the preceeding pages. These descriptions of Mr. Bourne were, at that time, thought by mult.i.tudes _incredible_, and probably, even by some abolitionists, who had never given much reflection to the subject. We are happy to furnish the reader with the following testimony of a Virginia slaveholder to the _accuracy_ of Mr. Bourne's delineations. Especially as this slaveholder is a native of one of the counties (Culpepper) near to which the atrocities described by Mr. B.

were committed.

Testimony of Mr. WILLIAM HANSBOROUGH, of Culpepper, County, Virginia, the "owner" of sixty slaves, to Mr. Bourne's "Picture or Slavery" as a _true_ delineation.

Lindley Coates, of Lancaster Co., Pa., a well known member of the Society of Friends, and a member of the late Pennsylvania Convention for revising, the Const.i.tution of the State, in a letter now before us, describing a recent interview between him and Mr. Hansborough, of several days continuance, says,--"I handed him Bourne's Picture of slavery to read: _after reading it_, he said, that all of the sufferings of slaves therein related, were _true delineations, and that he had seen all those modes of torture himself_."

Footnote 40: The following is Mr. Stevenson's disclaimer: It was published in the 'London Mail,' Oct 30, 1838.

_To the Editor of the Evening Mail:_

Sir--I did not see until my return from Scotland the note addressed by Mr. O'Connell, to the editor of the Chronicle, purporting to give an explanation of the correspondence which has pa.s.sed between us, and which I deemed it proper to make public. I do not intend to be drawn into any discussion of the subject of domestic slavery as it exists in the United States, nor to give any explanation of the motives or circ.u.mstances under which I have acted.

Disposed to regard Mr. O'Connell as a man of honor. I was induced to take the course I did; whether justifiable or not, the world will now decide. The tone and report of his last note (in which he disavows responsibility for any thing he may say) precludes any further notice from me, than to say that the charge which he has thought proper again to repeat, of my being a breeder of slaves for sale and traffick, is wholly dest.i.tute of truth; and that I am warranted in believing it has been made by him without the slightest authority. SUCH, TOO, I VENTURE TO SAY, IS THE CASE IN RELATION TO HIS CHARGE OF SLAVE-BREEDING IN VIRGINIA.

I make this declaration, not because I admit Mr. O'Connell's right to call for it, but to prevent my silence from being misinterpreted.

A. STEVENSON

_23 Portland Place, Oct. 29_