Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-02-27
BARMORE.
THE MAN In Velvet.
What lie was, and Why He was
Killed

The Courier Journal of Thursday
Commenting on the late detective Bar
more ard his "t0king off" says:
The taxing off Of BsrmOre was 1
|, pleasant New YEARS. blessing to the Rad
ical papers, and they did not fail t.
make good use of It. His temperance
for the last time on any stage, is q re
neWal Of the benedictioa which they
hardly looked for, but they are glad
enough TO get it and profit by 1t. Ever
the snpercilious Cincinnati Commercial
contrives to boil down its cold-blOOded
and proverbialiy lukewaTm cynicism to
an indignant point, while the little stew
Kettles of the psrty, which are always
Boiling over, and will boil over for the
least pretext, are putting out great gusts
OF steam n Kissing as if they would
burst, over the fate of the lest detective.
Barmore was a loose, eccentric dare
devil. He had 10 friends among his own
class, speaking politically, for personally
he mad no class. He led an isolated,
hayward, freskish, mysterious, crooked,
and vicious life, q detective by nature,
with one frsilty, and one only. He was
overload of women, credulous to q degree
where they were concerned, q often
victimized by them. His dress M air
were curious. Velvet was his weakness
cunning at once his bOast ard his
strength. 1t is believed by many that
he Wa q spy for both parties during the
war. AssuFedly he could not be suspected
Of patriotism and, il John Morgan had
had him, he might have made . mar
tisl hero out Of him, for BarmOre Nas
brave and enterprisiDg, being q cross be-
tween the bandit and the peddler, with
q dssh of the gypsy. He was more odious
TO the Radicals than to the Conserve
tives, but sIi parties at Nashville would
have rejOiced TO hear of his appointment
as Envoy Extraordinary to the Feeise
Islands.
Now, as to the peculiar method of his
final exit from public life, it is to be said,
in general terms, that such acts OF vio-
lence are revolving to all whose impulses
are kindly, as they sre outrageous In the
eyes of the law. No one can defend
them. No one pretends to excuse them.
Bat they are sometimes inevitable, and
this was one OF the instances which
could hardly have fallen out otherwise,
for Bsrm9re was on the blood track when
be met his swift and ~ssnguinary end.
The Ku-KluX Khan was not organized
in Tennessee for nearly three years after
the war. During those years the State
bristled with Loyal Leagues. These
Leagues we're composed OF negroes and
abandoned white men. They met in
They were organized, armed,
and drilled by night. They menaced the
people. They perpetrated the grossest
0utrsges on undefended homes. They
formed the nucleus of the militia, and
when BroWnioY drove all but his own
satellites cut Of the courts Of law, pack
Jog the jury-boX with Radicals o%rOwding
the bench with Radicals, and denying
the people the very forms Of Justice, the
Khan was formed ID certain
sec i DDS in self defense. BrownlOw then,
backed by his militia and his Loyal
Leagues, which had set the example and
been tolerated for two years, outlawed
the Kan, gave general license to shoot
its members on sight, and set Barmore
to work ferretiDg out its hidden mystic
ries. The life OF no man IN Marshall,
Giles, Msury and Williamson counties,
safe. 1t was only necessary for Bar
more to say the word. The lives Of the
people were in Bsrmore's hands, and
Bsrmore was a shrewd, ambitious, IN
principied detective.
They pat him out OF the way. Who
the deed We know not; bat we dare
had The scene been tr~sBsplanted to
New England, and the Radical editors
d~euounce il formed a part of the dam
gsT-thIeatened community, they would
joined the posse. Rob a people Of
Law, drive them out of the courts,
pFCsoTiOe them % mssse-sll Of which
has done-and they are bound
ID protect themselves. If the people of
the North want peace at the South, th2y
must give peace and protection TO the
psOpie Of the South. They must not
E lot Of Migrants down there to be
Governors and Senators and Judges,
backed up by negroes and bayOnets, il
they expect good fellowship. Ku Klux
Am in Tennessee hes reen thS natural
rea6,!ap Of RscicaI ruGisnism. Stop the
On the q side, ald the people
will have no reason nor inclination to
their fresides by acts Of ruhAnly
but justidsble ~self-defsnse,
EVERYBODY goes to Locke's. 1881 Main