Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1866-06-21

cap exploded, and no harm was
done. So adroitly did Lawrence
act, and so dense was the crowd
that ht wassnot discovered by any
one at; theT.m T.mement, except Gene
raj Jackson; who raised his cane
and calculated an emphatic expires
sion, familiar to himself, which
arrested the attention of others
when Lawrence was secured by
Captain Gedney, of the Navy, who
clasped him in his arms and then
pinioned him. The cry was, in.
stantly, "kill him, kill the assassin.
kill him." Gedney, however.
held the assassin fast, and de.
manding that the law and justice
should take their course, hurried
the mailman into a carriage, and
carried him to prison. o
The excitement that immedi.
ately ensued was terrific; the
mass in attendance swayed to and
fro like the waves Of the ocean
and hundreds, not knowing what
was the actual cause of alarm, at
tempted to make precipitate re-
treat, to avoid being trampled on.
Unfortunately, as it afterwards
proved. the Hon. George Poindex-
ter, a Senator from the State of
Mississippi, was one among the
first to make precipitate retreat.
As soon as the assemblage evinced
an intense excitement, Mr.. Poin-
dexter, who had been crippled in
a duel, hobbled as fast as he could
to his carriage, and leaping into it,
bade his coachman drive with all
possible celerity to Pennsylvania
Avenue. This extraordinary
movement at once confirmed, In
the minds of many, the suspicion
that very speedily arose, that he
had employed Lawrence to assas-
sinate General ] ackson.
Between General Jackson and
Mr.. Poindexter a most acrlmoni-
GUS feud had for years existed
They had, at one time, been on
terms of the closest intimacy, per-
sonally and politically. Mr.. Poin-
dexter had defended General Jack
son with great ability and success,
in the matter of the Seminolean
war, and the execution of the Bri-
tish emissaries, Arbuthnot and
Ambister; and, beside this, he had
rendered him important service in
the canvass that had resulted in
his election. The contest over,
and General ] ackson in Office, Gov
ernor Poindexter sought, and ex-
pected it was said, a diplomatic
Station, and being refused, or The
gift being procrastinated, a feud
ensued, which led to the most un-
pardonable bitterness on both sides.
The parties, and the friends Of the
parties, criminated and re-crimin-
ated each other, in manner that
led to the most implacable hatI ed,
an ,unconguerable thirst for VEN
geance.
To such length was this feud
carried that Governor PoindeXter,
goaded perhaps to madness by the
taunts and sneers of the Globe
newspaper, then the accredited or
gan of the Government, des-
patched a friend to the White
House with a challenge, inviting
General Jackson to mortal combat.
The challenge, and the bearer of
it,, were treated with correspond
ing indigrity and contempt; and
the latter was instructed to in
form his friend, Governor Poindex-
ter, that General jackson could
not recognize a blackguard, who
was in the daily habit of horse
whipping his wife! The assertion
having been made public, Govern
or Poindexter found it necessary
to appear before the public in self
vindication. He denied ever hav-
ing been guiltyof any rudeness to
the gentler sex; pronounced Gene
al jackson slanderer; and, as for
the charge of horse-whipping his
wife, he appealed to the lady her
self, to contradict the calumny or
to sustain it.
1t was while this unfortunate
state of things existed that Rich
ard Lawrence, the assassin, made
his attack on the life of General
jackson, and created the suspi-
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