Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-11-27

HE BAsTILE.

from Luc laLSeL pAaCCy al WuaL las DGtN
known for half q century a the Gun
Pond, General SAMUEL MITCHELL, al
old citizen Of the State, some years ago
settled and opened 3 farm. He died.
and his children became the owners o.
the place. Among these were a son anC
daughter. In August last the son haC
very recently married, and the daughter
s young girl, lived with him. Some
worthless person who had intruded upon
her before, and whose presence was no.
desired by her, came again to the place
when she was absent at q neighbour
some distance of, and hired q negro
man, employed On the place, to send 8
negro boy to tell her that 3 young lad5
had called 20 see her, so as to induce bel
to return home. She questioned the
boy closely, did not believe his tale, anC
did not return.
In the afternoon her brother came
home, learned what had happened, and
provoked 81 the impudenee Of the negro
who had taken the bride and sent a lie
to his young sister, dashed him well with
the reins Of 3 bride, his brother-in-law
NJ. OULD, being present but not assist
ing.
The negro went to Deval's Bluff and
complained to an sgent Of the Freed,
mems Bureau named MCCULLOCH, who
represented the matter TO General SMITH,
in command at Little Rock, by whose
order MITCHELL and OULD were ar
rested, in the latter part Of August or
early in September, and confined in the
Arkansas ~Penitentisry, near Little
Rock. in cells Of stone with iron doors,
each cell seven or eight feet in length By
about four in width, 10 await trial by 8
Military Commission. The keeper Of
the Penitentisry, q Northern s~dventuTer
Of the name Of HODGES, offered them
the choice Of remaining in their dark
close cells, or going to work among the
convicted felons, black and white, whom
be worked by contract. They refused the
latter, and continued IN their solitary
confinement.
About the 10th Of October, counsel
employed by them prepared an applica-
ti0n 70 the Judge Of the Circuit Court OF
the United States for the Eastern Dis
trict Of Arkansas, for s writ OF Hsbeas
Corpus but before it could be presented
the next day, MITCHELL, 8 respectable,
honest, industrious, peaceful and orderly
young man, shut out from the world in
the dark gloom Of his cell, and pining for
the young wife whom be was to see no
more, died iD his prison, the murdered
victim Of q brutal and insolent Military
Despotism, and from the house Of felons
was carried to his grave. A statement
OF the fact was appended to the petition
for the great Writ Of Right, and the
Judge granted the writ as TO OULD. Gen.
SMITH replied that be was imprisoned
By order Of General OBn. and rafnsad 70
obey the writ. OULD still remains in
the Penitentiary. After the writ had
been served, he was tried by q Military
Commission of five officers. His coun-
sci had applied for q few days delay, to
enable him to have the benefit Of Wit
nesses in his behalf, but the reply was
that some Of the members Of " the
Court would have in a few days to be
absent under orders, and that it was "a
military necessity that the trial should
20 on" He was tried, military neces-
sity depriving him Of the benefit Of his
witnesses. What the finding Of "the
Court " is, is not yet known. The Judge
ordered q rule upon General SMITH to
SHOW u why be should not be pun
ished for q contempt in disobsying the
writ; action on which rule is delayed by
the absence Of the Judge, who is now
holding Court in the Western District.
It is also TO be added, to complete the
record Of infsmy, that ample bail was
offered for young MITCHELL, and a de-
posit Of money to any amount, in lieu OF
bail. The negro whom be had whipped
was not injured, except 50 far as his skin
was made 10 smart under the lash Of the
bridIe-reins. He WAS not lacerRted, as
Polish snd Russian ladies have been with
the knost, or soldiers in the service Of
the United States with the cat, for inso-
lencs to a Lieutenant. And, finally, his
CORPSE was hurried of to the cemetery,
from the cell in which he was murdered,
an hour before the time fixed for the
funeral, that no respect might be paid
70 his remsins,-s small piece OF ignO-
minious malice that failed because the
Sexton, who CHANGED to have been 8
Confederate soldier, delayed the inter
ment.
About the beginning Of September, q
Young man named GARLAND, who had
belonged TO a JOHNSON Club at Grand
GIaize on White River, which bad met in
his Office or rooms, in which at the time
we speak OF, the registering commission
or something Of that sort sat, was told
by some young men that they meant to
put up in front OF his Office the United
States flag Of the JOHNSON Club, which
he hAd kept, and across which was the
name Of ANDREW JOHNSON. They did
50, and he, finding Il there early in the
morning, pulled it down, and perhaps
tore it somewhat in doing so. 1t was,
we understand, his swn flag. At any
rate, it wss in his keeping. For this
ofense" he was arrested, taken TO
Little Rock and confined in q cell o. the
Penitentisry. Bat heaccepted the alter
native offered by HODGES, and went to
work among the convicts. He is there
YET, having had no trial.
The simple recital Of these facts is
mere eloquent than CICERO's i~nvectiyes
against VERREs, or BURKE's and SHEER
dams d~enuuciations OF the atrocities Of
WARREN HAsTING's despotism in India.
one pictures to himself the lonely youth
wasting away and dying, al the long, hot
September days, In his dark and sitting
cell: a creature like ourselves, loving
and beloved, In the vigOur Of his early
manhood. and the flush OF manhood's
early hopes, when he entered bis prison.
house, 10 DC CAfIAcu hNN mum olbSA a
few weeks an emsciated pale mass Of
inanimate clay, the spirit gone from It
I'D to COPS iudgment-seat to bear wit
ness against the murderous lawgivers
whose Infamous enactnents made such
crimes possible We see the dungeon,
tie iron hinges, the dim hslf-light
creeping in over the iron door, "the box
Of stone. covered by its I'D of granite,
like a s~epulchre, with this difference,
that II shut in the living and not the
dead % the agonies and tears OF the heart
that grew cold within it, while breaking
with anguish; the terrible lonely desc
latlon OF the long weeks Of living death
the reason perhaps dethroned by the
mercy Of COP, towards the last and the
lonely death.
Well does VICTOR HUGO say, AS the
EERos reign darkly, they should be pie
tured 80. Work with the grsFer only
would be pale: into the grooves should
be poured q concentrated prose which
biteg.n
Men Uoodar 1t these things and are