Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1868-08-05
Nashville Correspondence of the Cincinnati CONNER
cal.
The Reign of Terror i'm Middle
Tennessee.
NASHVILLE. July 10.

| NASHVILLE July 19.
| Having Just returned from a month 5
tour through Rutherford, Bedford. Mar
shall and Lincoln counties of this
State, | take the opportunity Of for
| warding you some account of the po-
| lltical situation in Middle Tennessee.
| These counties are a present und-
er the Ku-Klux Khan and detail of
all the violence committed by them,
| that your correspondent saw and was
in person informed of by both parties,
would astonish the readers of the
Commercial, probably few of whom
would be able to comprehend such a
| condition of society
In Rutherford county, Sheriff " ebb,
Evanda Webb, his brother, Mr.. l..
NJ. Fletcher, clerk of the circuit court,
and many other old citizens, of blame
less character and quiet department,
have been outraged by visits at night
from the Klan, beaten by kicking,
while III some cases they rode horses
upon the porches and insulted the IN
mates. The agent of the Bureau is
daily appealed to by colored men who
have been abused or driven from the
| places where they have raised a crop
and - laid it by " Last. week one of
those who had been severely whip
ped, on the place Of man by the
name Of Jamison, reported to the
agent, who sent request to his en-
! ployer to pay him. Jamison replied
lot lo 4 |.
dered not to by the Ku-Klux Here
as elsewhere, the disfranchised de-
clare they will vote or keep others
from voting. The Union men say
that unless some permanent relief is
devised by the Legislature, they
will have to leave the country. |
saw on one Sunday night perhaps one
hundred of these disguised men in the
town of Murfreesboro. At concert
ed hour they came in on the different
pixies conyerging INTO town. and. after
parading through the main streets,
lett. The next morning three ne
groes were reported as having been
whipped.
Bedford county is filed with alarm
and excitement. On the night of the
Fourth of July, fortv-nine disguised
men suddenly appeared in the county
town of Shelbyville, and after going
through military evolutions on the
square, and hurrahing for Andrew
Johnson, they seized John Dunlap,
formerly from CINCINNATI, Ohio, who
was teaching the public colored school,
| and a negro blacksmith by the name
Of James Franklin, carried them out
Of town and administered about three
hundred blows with leather thong
Happening to be staying in the edge
of the town that night, | witnessed
this outrage, as it took place in front
of the house | stopped at. Several
prominent citizens were threatened
Galbraith, late of the Fifth Tennessee
Cavalry, William Wisener, Esq, and
Louis Tillman, Clerk of the Court.
The white citizens of Shelbyville, be-
ing about half composed Of Union
people, have threatened retaliation,
and have armed the negroes. \ force
of armed men sleep ont nightly, ready
to fight if the ku-klux make their
appearance. The colored schools at
Shelbyville, Belle Buckle, and differ.
ent points in Bedford county. are
broken up through the operations of
these gangs. In Marshall and Lin
coin counties several negroes have
been killed, ard hundreds whipped and
driven from their homes-many after
Gnrarol lForl;n
the head of the Freedmen's Bureau in
Nashville, has been taking the affida-
Wits of these refugees, as they reach
the capital, and has now, as one of
the clerks expressed it, "more than
a bushel of them" General Carlin's
monthly report for July will be called
for by Congress, and will exhibit a
state of society far worse than that
existing during the war.
The avowed intention of these ku.
Klux is to control the ballot box, and
carry the State for Seymour.
The nomination of Seymour and
Blair IS accepted without any enthu-
slasm, as the people had, previous to
the nomination, supposed that either
l4d4ltCGh VI N1dSc "OuIa DS HOUlIild-
ted Knowing little about men, they
care little; as physician remarked
to me that he would vote for any
man the New York Convention nom
mated, were it even General Grant" ="
Among the people the Ku-Klux is the
law, and Andrew Johnson their proph-
ct. The night exploits of the Ku-
Klux form the principal staple of con-
versation. The people talk of little
else.
The colored population will be
ground to the point, when they will
retaliate and then the war of races
will begin. Unless the legislature,
which meets on the 29th inst. speed
lily does something TO restore order,
Middle Tennessee will be once more a
/ battlefield