Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-10-17
A WORD OF WARNING.
Harper. the Noted Guerrilla Chief.

The fact has been pretty clearly estab-
lished that the robbing of the pay train
on Wednesday last was perpetrated by
Harper, the noted guerrilla chief This
man has been for long time terror
to the section of country in and ada
cent to Sumner county, Tennessee, and
his lawless excesses have kept the peo-
pie in constant state of excitement.
1t is believed that he has been enabled
to continue his career thus long through
the sufferance Of citizens who have har
These friendly offices have been extended
to him for several reasons In the first
place, he is native of, and was raised
in, the neighborhood in which he now
operates, and, of course, has his share of
personal friends. He was Confederate
soldier, which fact attaches many earn
est friends to him. There is another fact
too, which, no doubt, secures for him a
large amount of public sympathy, which
is this: At the conclusion of the war
he came in like all the Confederate SOL
diers and accepted a parole, which be
very naturally supposed would protect
him against molestation. Shortly after,
however, his friend and associate, Champ
Ferguson, who had done the same thing,
was arrested and dragged before mill
tary tribunal and arraigned upon charges
to which he was as obnoxious as Fergu-
sou. He took the alarm, and no longer
trusting to his parole, which had been so
perfdiously violated in the case of his
friend, fed to the woods, and in the alb
sence of other means of support, has
since preyed upon the public. But of
course the well being and good order of
society can not tolerate any such lawless-
ness as this. Whatever merits a man
may have which entitle him to sympathy,
the majesty Of the law must be vindicated
and its volators brought to the bar of
justice The people residing within the
field of Harpers operations are doing
themselves grievous wrong, and exposing
themselves to serious and annoying re-
taliaton by giving him their counten-
ance and protection. 1t is certain that
if the civil authorities and the commun-
ity are impotent to stopthe aepredations
of this man, the military authorities will
and hunt him down, and, it
may be, punish those who are supposed
to have protected him or winked at his
excesses. We do not wish to be under
stood as suggesting or approving of such
for we are very decidedly |
of the opinion that any community |
which cannot, with the aid of the
civil law, protect themselves against
violations of the law, are not entitled to |
and should be permitted to
suffer. Under no such circumstances |
would we justify the use of the military |
arm, for we do not believe that it is the
province or duty of the army to override
the civil authorities and assume the ad-
of justice. Such practices
drift inevitably TO despotism. But things
are not precisely as we would have them.
The military still exercise authority |
within the States, in derogation of civil
law, which we maintain is an outrage
and burlesque upon republican institu-
lions, but we have no power to resist the
and in accordance with the
old maxim, whatwe cannot cure we must
endure. We therefore say to the people
in the section of country to which We
refer, that il they do not expel Harper
and his band of desperadoes the military
will be sent to do it for them Whether
they prefer military occupation to the
discharge of their plain duty in this re-
spect is for them, not for us to decide
Louisville Courier.