The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-24


But we are willing to consider the case on
the showing of the Rebels themselves. Here
is the understanding of the matter attained
by the Express, after study of the accounts
from its ffiends:- ID |rUE
ut 10 quite plain that II the radical caudi.
date for Congress- aud his negro mob mad for
borne to invade town when the sheriff anu
citizens begged them to- leave in peace, no out
break would have happened"
"The radical candidate for Congress and his
negro mob" were simply political process
sion-not even charged to have acted thus far
otherwise than peaceably-of citizens of the
State, II they were armed, as is possible, is
that a new thing at political ass, mblages, or
assenblages of any sort, in Georgia Is there
any law, written or unwritten, by which one
citizen shall be permitted bear arms for that
he has been Rebel and is now paroled sol
der, and another citizen shall be punished for
bearing arms for that he has been a Union
man and is now a Republican 7 Does it con-
si;ute an ''invasion' of a town in Georgia
for q peaceable procession of Union men to
enter 1t IAN 'indasion" so dangerous as to
warrant the late Rebels in mastering to repel
it, and in pursuing the scattered and fleeing
Union men five to seven miles from the place,
killing aud wounding Unfortunately all they
can reach
We now have five versions of the occurrence
that OF our special correspondent, published
on Tuesday; the Rebel version of the Associated
Press, gwen in the same paper; the formal
statement of the sheriff and other citizens of
Camilla the accounts gathered by General
Howard and others from eye-witnesses, and
telegraphed to Washington; and report made
by Georgians to the local officer of the Freed
mems Bureau. They all agree on the follow
ing points,
l. The Republican procession was peaceably
approaching the town, in accordance with
previous announcement, to attend meeting
IN ha a6d pH nv ha 1otA for
in that district.
2. While still some distance from the town
they were met, first by courier5, and subse-
quently by a regular committee of resident
Rebels, warning them that they could not enter
it in safety.
g. They refused to bs deferred by such
threats, insisted on their rights, and, while
entering the town with their music, were fred
upon by white citizens.
4. They made little resistance, soon fled
and were pursued six or seven miles. They
lost in killed and wounded numbers variously
stated from forty, in one Rebel account, all the
way up to hundred in another. The rebels
lost none killed, and the largest number
claimed to be wounded is six.
These are the facts admitted on all hands.
Can the most prejudiced man put any but one
honest construction upon them2 II was de-
hberately determined that a Republican meet
ing should not be held in Camilla. Carpet
baggers," ''scalawags," and 'loil niggers'
We're to be taught that Rebels ruled in that
oailiwick, and none bat true Democratic senti-
ments We're tolerated.
The Rebel accounts, in their impotent and
impudent attempts to conceal this, fall into
sufficiently distressing difficulties. They admit
that "a citizen" 1. e., a white Rebel, fired the
hrst shot, but plead i'll eXtenuation that he was
drunk. They insist that they were themselves
Legally and virtu0usly unarmed but admit in
the very next line that the moment the
negroes returned this shot, immediately
to their arms and fred into the
column, by which two negroes were
killed and an unknown number woundedu -
They profess only the must lam like dispo-
sition and the most perfect willingness for
Republican meetings to be held, but in the
next sentence regret that only negroes were
killed, and that the white men escaped "with
but little injury" Z. e., with only bullet-hole
in the leg of the "scaawag" candidate for
Congress. They profess fears that the negroes
would have become ''an infuriated mob, " and
explain that therefore they got up mob
themselves. They complain that the negroes
"vastly outnumbered" them, and were fully
armed, while they were ''wholly unarmedn
and then exhibit, as the result of this danger
Gus state of affairs, 100 negroes, more or less,
killed and wounded, with a beggarly loss of
''six wounded" on their own side.
"A tiimsy excuse is set up by the Sheriff
and other citizens of Camilla that, because
the negroes were armed Governor Bullock's
late proclamation warranted their forcble dis
person. Let us see. The only sentences in
that proclamation referring to the subject are
as follows
mo authority has been granted by the Exc.
cutive for the formation Of armed or unarmed
organizations of any kind or character, and the
drilling or exercising in military tactics with
arms of any organized body of men within this
Stale, except the army of the United states, Is
Unauthorized, unlawful, and against the peace
and good order of the State and must be inn
mediately suspended" --...
The following extracts from the Constitution
and the Code are recommended to the thought
full consideration of the public
"Sectton 5. The right of the people to appeal
To the Courts, 10 petition Government in all
matters, ard peaceably TO assemble for the con
paired.
section II. The right OF the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed."
1t is not pretended that the dispersed pro-
cession was drilling or exercising in military
tactics. That is all that Governor Bullock
forbade. Admitting the Rebel statement that
the negroes were armed, wherein do we find
them differing from the Rebel themselves,
save that the negroes carried their arms
openly and the Rebels had theirs concealed ?
Does the Sheriff OF Mitchell county happen to
know which of these acts it is that the laws
forbidl
But why should the negroes not be armed
Has not John Forsyth said:-"O Organize a
Ku-KluX Klan whenever they organize a
league; meet friendship and peace as Chris
tians should, meet midnight leaguers and
enemies as manhood dares."
Were the negroes incapable of understand