Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-10-06
sTAUNToN, VA, TUESDAY OCTOBER g. 1868

| that they could use the torches for dwellings as
well as the guns and axes against people, A
painful rumor obtained currency that the ac
| ting Governor (Bullock) was in sympathy with,
if not actually aiding this movement I do
| not know that this was actually so. This state
of things naturally created alarm. Several
outbreaks were attempted, and several conspi-
races to kill white people were detected, and
the negroes, when arrested in different portions
of the State, said they had authority and Or
| ders to this effect.
| We had no confidence that the Governor
| would voluntarily aid us. Therefore letters
were addressed to the Legislature urging ac-
tion The Legislature did act by passing reso-
lutions requesting and urging the Governor to
issue his proclamation forbidding these armed
demonstrations. The Governor issued his
proclamation, but in style and with false
charges which greatly confirmed the worst fears
of the whites as to his sympathy with these
movements.
But we had the proclamation, and we hoped
that all threatened dangers would disappear
Now, there was not the slightest DESIRE as you
seem to think, of interfering with the constitu-
tional right of black and white ito keep and
bear arms" or to have Republican meetings
as many and as long as they desire. We only
desired to prevent military drills, and organi-
cations not authorized by law, and armed as
semblages calculated to break the peace; and
these we desired to prevent by legal authority,
executed by the civil officer. You now have
the exact reason why the Sheriff met the ap-
preaching armed procession, and after exhibit
ting the Governors proclamation, told the
leaders they could hold the meeting peaceably,
but begged them not to attempt it in violation
of that proclamation.
Camilla is very small village of not exceed
ing [ would say, 800 inhabitants-black and
white-men, women and children.
A large assemblage of negroes gathered from
surrounding counties, led by these white men,
and all armed, and to be excited by infamma-
tory speeches, and many of them by other
causes, placed the people, families and houses
of that little village in danger of pillage, rape
and burning, with the alternative, if prevented
of fearful ''rebe outrages,' to kill negroes
and prevent free speech, scattered all over the
North, just as the State elections were approach
ing which, it was believed, would determine
the Presidential election
| know both Pierce and Murphy, the two
white men who conducted this whole affair."
They are of the most emphatic specimens of
what are termed carpet baggers. Before the
passage of the reconstruction measures there
was no complaint heard against them. These
measures disfranchised every intelligent white
citizen who had held Office in that country
Pierce settled as a Bureau agent in Lee county,
and Murphy in Dougherty county, adjoining
the county in which Camilla is situated and
in the counties Of Lee and Dougherty there are
FIVE negroes to one white. have no idea that
one dozen white Republicans could be found in
the three counties. Thus you see at glance
the temptations offered to Pierce and Murphy
to get Offices by the large negro votes. Ac
cordingly since the passage of the reconstruc
ton measures these men have sorted with the
negroes. Pierce was for time candidate for
Congress at the last election. He has now re-
ceived the nomination for that position from a
convention of negroes. Murphy was elected
sheriff by the negroes at the last election, but
was unable to give the bond. He is now, |
believe, on the electoral ticket We have nar
rowly escaped several bloody riots in that re-
gion before. Our people here believed these
men, especially the latter, melted them. They
were both distinctly in view, with Others when
we counted the difficulties in the way Of pre-
serving peace, and when we sought to secure
the proclamation.
But in spite of that proclamation and all
the remonstrances Of our people, and the fears
of our women and children, they persisted in
holding armed assemblages of negroes, and the
Camilla riot is the unfortunate result.
This Camilla riot, properly understood, will
exhibit to the Northern people more clearly
than thousand speeches could, the exact rea-
son why the Southern whites are, at present,
unwilling to extend universal, indiscriminate
suffrage to the negroes 1t is because they can
be taken possession of by very few bad white
men seeking office at their hands, and made
terrors to society, and destroyers of safety for
property and security for families Many of
the more intelligent understand and repudiate
these Influences but the greater number do
not MHC
In these very counties of Lee and Dougherty,
in which Prince and Murphy reside, do per-
sonay know (for plant in both those coun
ties) that in 1S66-after the surrender, mark
>you-lapds were selling from $40 to 500 per
Imfrediately after the passage of these
reconstruction measures these very lands com
menced declining, and [ do know that some of
them have recently been sold with cotton as
high as it was in 1860 at one dollar per acre
In gold 1855 ,f.'t i@+
To have our families and our lives thus con-
stanty menaced and our property deprecated,
is certainly fearful and sad condition Let
every man in the North place himself, his fam
lily and his property in this condition in his ma
tive country, and then, when he makes the
most peaceabe efforts possible, lin lawful way,
to avert these dangers, let him hear himself
denounced as ''a Rebel ''an enemy and "a
traitor" and guilty of "Rebel outrages," and
he will have some idea of the exact condition
of the Southern whites, many of whom did all
in their power, like the writer, to prevent Sc
they would not give their lives to preserve the
Constitution. B. H. HILL.
New York, September "a, 1868.