The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1865-07-20
JEFF. Thompson has q Family
TALK" WITH his Riu \MrFPtSs.

When JEFF. Thompson's men had
been assembled at Jacksonport, Ark.
to be parolcd, few weeks since. th,
redoubtable hero of the white plum,
mounted a barrel and spoke to then
after this wise:
! Gentlemen, | have come here tc
have little family talk with you, n,
this will be the last time | may cvel
meet you together. | have come her,
to tell you the news. Many of yor
don't know yet that Vicksburg ha.
fallen, and many of you don't know
that Lee or Johnston have surrender.
ed, but | tell you it is all true
Many of the 5000 men now sec
around me, very many of you, hav,
been skulking for the last three year,
in the swamps, within a few miles o
your own homes, skulking duty, anC
during that time have not seen YOU
/, own children. | see many faces abou
me, that have not been seen by morta
man for the last three years, aud wha
have you been doing all that time
Why, you have been lying in til,
swamps until the moss has grown siS
inches long on your backs, and such
men call themselves " chivalrous sol.
diers. a few weeks ago General
Reynolds sent flag of truce to my
headquarters and | sent out to gather
up n respectable force to meet those
officers, and not one of you responded
a few days later when Colonel Da-
Wis and Captain Bennett of General
Dodge's staff bore dispatches to me
from that General, | again attempted
to call about me enough of you to
make respectable show and how many
of these bfavc 5000 men reported at
the call? One sore eyed man with
green gogytcs. But you rally like brave
and gallant men around Uncle Sam $
Commissary stores, and | now come
to surrender you aud hope you will
make better citizens than you have
soldiers. Voice from the crowd" GEN
cral, talk to us like gentlemen. u
Now you just dry up until / get
through then get up on this barrel and
talk. l know there are some gentle
men here, and | know there are more
ID sncaking, cowardly dogs
who "haye never done nothing on
any side, and am going to talk to
you all.
In the first place, | wont to say this
to you The Federal officers who have
come here to parole and feed you, have
acted as gentlemen, in good faith
They have not gone about pceping
under your coats to see if you had
pistols; they have not spied about
your camps to sec if you were secret
ing your arms, but they have treated
you as gentleman but tell you that
goH have not acted in good faith
Those of you who had arms, with n
very few exceptions, have left them at
home, and those who had government
horses have failed to report them here.
Now let me say to you, one and all
those Of you who have retained your
arms, as soon as you get home, take
them to the nearest military post and
deliver them up, or burn them, or get
rid of them in some manner, for as
sure as there is God in heaven if
they are found in your houses, Just so
sure will your houses be burned to the
ground, and | hope to God every one
of you who keep good arms or prop
erty Of any kind in your houses will
be hanged, and you will too.
Now | want you to go home and
work hard and take care of your fami-
lies, work early and late, and get up
at night and see if your crops are
growing. Above all things avoid pol
itical discussions. If any man says
niger to you, swear that you never
knew or saw one in your life We
have talked about the niggers for
forty years, and have been out talked,
we have fought four years for the Mig
gers, and have been id badly
whipped, and now it is not " your put v
the Yankees have won the nigger, and
will do what they please with him, and
you have no say in the matter; if they
want him they will take him, and il
they say that you must keep him, you
must do it and no mistake. / tell
you that you have no say in the mat
ter, and you oughtn't to have any
Go home and stay there don't go
anywhere but to mill, don't go to
church for the ministers will put knots
and mischief in your heads and got
you,into trouble. Begood citizens, and
then those Of you who have been good
honest and brave soldiers have nothing
to fear, but l warn those of you who
have been doing nothing but sneak
ing, cowardlyjay -hawkers, cut -throats,
and thieves, that just retribution
awaits you, and hope to God the
Federal authorities will hang you
wherever and whenever fhcy find you,
and they viii do II sure. Now want
to talk to you Missourians. You are
talking about going to your old home
to live again. What did every one of
you say last fall, when You went into
Missouri and expected to remain there?
Why, that you would make every
Union man "climb tree and many
threats of a similar character. Now
do you think that these Union men
whom you threatened with the haltar
a few days ago, if you got the power,
'sss now going to permit you 10 cone