The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-08-06
Texas.

Texas.
THE REIGN OF TERRoR-THE MASSACRE OF
THE FREEDMEN-THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES
REFUSE TO PUNISH CRIMINALS.
! GALVESTON, Texas July 16.-Colonel Sin
clair, the officer appointed to superintend reg
| istration in the Northeastern counties of the
State, reports from Clarksvifle. Red River
county. depicting miserable social condi-
ton of anarchy and crime. Ruflianism DOM
ineers over society, and controls the law
Reconstruction and everything tending to-
ward civilization and order is fercely and
brutally opposed. Colored registrars dare not
| accept their appointments, and the Boards
| OF Registration are threatened with death.
Judge Latimer, Agent of the Freedmens
Bureau, has resigned. Being without troops
he was in constant peril, and was also nat
urally unwilling to make of his position a
mockery by witnessing and recording wrongs
that he had no power to redress.
The Unionists are strong in numbers, but
completely terrorized If they dared, they
would petition that the county be placed
undermartial law but they are disheartened
passive and dumb. They fear to organize
hold meetings, or to openly express sentl-
ments of loyalty to the national govern
ment.
In a word, the flames of Rebellion are not
quenched, but smothered only, and ready to
break forth on the least occasion. Civil law
is dead, and its officers so many utilities.
The only official who shows disposition to
do his duty is the sheriff cf the county, and
he is powerless, being alone. Murderers,
against whom the sheriffs holds indictments
for the worst of crimes, ride freely into
| town. The sheriff calls upon the people to
| help him make arrests, and they refuse
He reports them to Judge Mabry, who fines
them 800 for refusing, and RENTS the line.
The criminal rides off in triumph, and is the
| hero of the occasion.
| In this atmosphere of outrage and muir
der the freed people are, of course, the deep
est sufferers They have generally received
no paw for last years labor, and are now
held by their employers in condition OF
servitude that has oil the bitterness of slav-
cry without any of the alterations that the
sense of ownership and of property threw
round the old system. The colored people
are beaten daily, and shot at will by gangs
of cut-throats that infest the country. In
some localities the freed people will not 60
to the woods alone, because of the daily
wanton murders.
One of these Williams, named Guest, stands
prominent in infamy. He has been known
to kill three coored men in single day
AS he rides along the road whole fields 81
hands drop their tools and run for the
woods
One planter informed the officer that his
laborers lived in such terror of this man
that when he sent them to the woods to cut
fuel, he had to accompany them armed. He
rides freely in and out of town, has troops
of admirers and friends, and no one dares
! to arrest him. He was once surrounded on
the open prairie by four men who, at the
risk of their lives, captured and brought
him to town. But the civil authorities
lodged him in Jail secured by a common
paddock, and did not even station guard
He escaped of course. There are dozens OF
such men in this tier of counties, who rank
as heroes in the eyes of their abettors, who
never weary of harboring, defending and
sounding their praises.
The Freedmen are held down by the shot
gun and the six-shooter. They are afraid
even to make complaints against the OPP
pressions they endure; they know that Con-
Dress has granted them suffrage; they are
! ignorant of their rights as citizens, and they
will be allowed neither to register nor to
vote unless a strong cavalry force with ener-
getic officers be sent to rule with strong
hand and summary powers this pandemo-
MUM.
| General Griffin promptly on receipt OF this
report, ordered cavalry company to hunts
vile, and will do all in his power, with IN
sufficient means, to enforce order, arrest
murderers, develop loyal sentiment, ana
protect both black and white in their rgats
of citizenship.-Neao York Tribune.