The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-06-02
NUMBER 81.
One Page From the History Of Radi-
--r.r.r.g lcaliGm. g7aT FL. f.-

If he'll, with its torments, lis hopelessnes
and its eternal misery, was not created spec
ially for the fiends who have rioted in blooS
and outrages, and blackened history in the
name Of 'lOilty, y we can see no necessity
Tor place of that kind, andvo need of tax
ing nature to furnish birthstone TO keen IL,
blue blazes ahAme or its black devils busy
stirring up the fires. "A little scrap from
one Of the pages of the history that these
brutal nends have made, we get from the
Lexington QTO.) Caucasian, and publish it,
because, like the editor of that fearless jsur-
nal, we believe it to be our duty to let the
people know what Radicalism can do, what
it viii do, what ii has done. Let all read
and ponder: .-'
TIE NoNEm BurouKRY Ar PAIaryRA
30 long as God gives US life, and The earth
Is cursed with the presence of Mcneil. We
1eel 1t to be our solemn duty TO rehease.
once every year, the story of the most afro
cious and horrible occurrence in all the an.
mails of barbarous warfare.
On the 18th day of October, 1859, q deed
was enacted In the Fair Grounds at Palmy.
ira No, which sent q thrill Of horror
| tAISuBAlout the clFlllZeQ world.
Ten brave, and true, and innocent men
were taken from their prison. driven 10 the
edge OF the town. seated on their rough cof-
fms, and for no crime of their own. ronr-
dered like 50 many swinei =
Murdered
6y the hell spawned and hell bound
rebly CANNED old blotch upon creations
tace, John Mcneil, now, by the Rrace of
bayonstss Tom Flstchar and the devil. sher-
III of St. Louis county!
Aurdered!
Shot to death
Thsre was our pOoF, handsome, gallant.
boyhosd friend, Tom Sidener-as pure =
soul IS even winged its fight from blood
stained sod 70 that God who win yet, to al
eternity, damn the fiendish butcher Mcneil
Poor Tom!
he hs wa; was ...Ie = model paragon Of manly
So e1quiaitsly formed, features so per.
feet and so fair, 30 brave and yet SO gentle,
that even the vile reptile Winchel. now
editor of the Hannibal Courier, said that
'in his beauty and his Wickedness he res
minded him of Absalom''- ~ .lF7 -.
Poor feIIOwl a.- ..s.
He was engaged to be married to 4 Young
LADY in Monroe county. r....
When he learned he was to be shot, he
sent for his wedding suit, which had Just
been made, declaring that If he couldn't be
married in it. he intended to die In It.
AHAyed N hia elegant black bread cloth,
his coarse black cofan, in the wagon that
was To bear him to death, he looked Is If he
was going to be married instead of shot
The very guards cried like children
when they bade him good bye.
Raising his cap and bowing to the weep.
ing women who lined the streets, he was
driven from their sight--forexeri
Half an hour afterWard ak muslEet balls
had pierced his noble heart, and his white
silk wedding vest was torn and dyed In his
martyr bloodI i- n L5G = - :.
There was poor old Willis Baker, his
head Thitened with the SHOWS Of more than
seventy winters
Heroic old mani isat
With his white hair streaming In the
wind, he seated himself on his rude coffin,
and died without shudder, refusing with
his last breath to forgive his executioners,
and swearing he ssWould meet them and
torment them IN he'll, through al eternity 10
There was that helpless, half idiot boy
from Lewis county, who allowed himself
to be bindfolded, then, hearing Sidensr and
others refuse, slipPed up one corner of his
bandage, and seeing the rest with their eyes
uncovered, removed the handkerchief from
his OWL, and died as innocent Is lamb.
There was Humstead and Bixler and Nc.
And there was that most Wondrous mar.
tyr OF al-young Smith, Of Knox county
who died for another man.
Humphrey was the doomed man.
- His heart broken wife, IN widows Weeds,
with her eight helpless little ones in deep
mournings that was only less black than
the anguish they endured or the heart Of
him 70 whom they appealed, rushed to the
feet Of McNea1, and In accents 50 pIteous
that soul of adAmant must have melted
under them, besought him for the life of
the husband and father. .lra~' Il,
She was hrutaIy repulsed.
But Straehen, the monster of Shelby
county, whom the angel of God, & few
months afterWard, smote with Herodian
rotte1ness and Borms-StrachEh, who has
long been paying in the deepest, blacksst,
hottest hole IN perdition the penalty of his
forty ply damnafion deserving crimes, sVas
Provost Marshal ~ ttti u yIili,
HesaW the frantic agony of the woman.
called her into his Office, and told her he
Would save her husband If she would give
him three hundred dollars-and then sub.
mit-but, oh humanity shudders-sickens
at the hOTrid proposal! .eg -la ...I :
48O WASsCACll A1AL CEaALCua AkOlALGO
wife, not knowing what she did, acceded to
save her husbands life, and the next morn
ing she was found insane and nearly dead,
lying with her babe at her breast, near the
public spring of PalmyIAt 4a, vl fr.g,.
And after all this, her husband was only
released on condition that another should be
shot in his place.
Humphrey refused to let any man die in
his place, declared he should feel himself .
murderer if he did
Smith protested that he was only poor
orphan boy, that Humphrey had large
family entirely dependent upon hIno for
daily bread, and it WGs hia duty to live
while he could, and Smith, the simple eOun.
try led, without peer on sIi Faueis mighty
scroll, took his seat on his rough boxGand
was ahOti C1 j u zU..1 1fir'' 5vor T
We might dwell for hours on the Incidents
connected with this most frightfui butchery
of ancient or modern ages. : /
But why 60 ont AJ Nti-
The COnfederate GoVernnsat talked of
demanding the murderer Mcneil.
Then . memorial vas gotten up and sign
ed By two thousand MiasOnrians, recommen.
ding the heaven, earth and hell accuraed
old monster, on account Of his Palmyra
massacre, 70 the special favor Of Abe Lin
cold and he was promoted 20 Brigaaier
GeneralShipl a. ~. /
The last time we saw the place, the ploW
had turned upa part of the historic grounds,
and the green com giittered IN the sunlight
where once the murderers' mnskets gleam'
ed. !
But until tie heavens are rolled away Is
scroll, and the great Arch Angel sounds
the knell OF time,1 the blood Bp0ts of tie
Palmyra Massacre viii stand ont deep dark
and inefscsable upon the record of earth's
direst horrors. '--''A ''--- !
Generation after generation shsuld repeat
the story, mothers should repeat 1t to their
children, and the names of
Butcher Mcneil 4
and AL tl,e aigaers of his "blAck memorial
should be inscribed in letters of hame upon
the gates Of he'll, and damned, with their
owners, to everlasting infamy, hatred sAd
eIecrattOnl al-D uoIGiluYhli 81. ISY
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