Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-04-30
Continued SANDER.


the case. No opportunity Is omitted TO
publish the most outrageous ISLANDERS and
lies against the Southern people Even
the President gravely intimates thot popu'
Iation and capital are waiting for the as
surance of protection and quietbefore NOV
ing Southwark. They will remain from our
borders fer ever, if every act of murder and
arson and robbery, committed by Vagrant
negroes, is to be perverted into outrages
by ku klux KIans on unoffendlng citizens
for political opinions. If the President
and his organ are to countenance and give
credence TO such falsehoods, then indeed
are We never to have peace.
A miserable yagabond, living among
the negroes, with 40 white associate
in the town or community" who
had devoted his whole time and en-
ergies il arousipG tho pre3udices
and arraying the freedmen against the
whites, was recently found murdered on
the highway in Jefferson county, Georgia.
This man, Dr. Benjamin Aver, had just
returned from Atlanta with his entire pay
as a member of the Legislature IN his
pocket. He reached Louisville, the town
he called his home, about night tired and
hungry. He applied to two colored men
for permission to remain all night, but was
refused, even in one instance to lie down
on the floor on his own oVercoat. He left
to seek lodgings, and was seen afterwards
in company with colored man. short
time afterwards his bodyis found near one
of the houses, the skull fractured by
blow from club. The money ard pistol
of the deceased were not found.
The next night DR.. Ayers pocket-book
and a large sum of money were found on
The person Of a negro named Wilson, who
had been witness at the inquest. Money
was also found on the person OF a brother
Of Wilson's, and girl to whom
Wilson was paying his devotions,
which they say was given them by Wilson.
DR.. Ayers pistol was also proved to have
been in Wilson's possession subsequent to
the murder.
These are the simple facts of the case.
Nothing moro than what has happened
often in every State, and will again so
long as the heart of man is prone to
wiclledness. Aver had done much to make
the negroes of his county idle and vicious.
He cared not what damage he did them so
that he reaped the benefit of their creduli-
ty and ignorance. Returning home after
long absence, rich with the spoils of the
public treasury, he falls a victim to the
lawlessness and covetousness which he had
done so much to inculcate. The very
object for which he had sold his manhood
and betrayed his race was the cause of his
death, and those for whom he had pro-
fessed friendship, but had corrupted, were
his murderers.
The facts of the case were briefly tele-
graphed to the press, and we supposed
the matter would have been left to the
Courts of the State, and the negro and his
accomplices properly dealt with. But a
Radical, friend of Congress. loyal pat
riot and member Of the Legislature of
Georgia had been murdered, an opportu-
nifty too good to be lost, SO the Washington
Chronicle concocts dispatch, Or has one
gotten up by its prolific Atlanta outrage
manufacturer, as follows:
"ArLANTA, Ca, April 1S.-Dr Benz amin Aver,
Of the Georgia delegation to Washington, the
Oldest member Of the Georgia Legislature. and a
staunch Republican, w6s brutally and inhumanly
murdered near his home in Jefferson county by
Az hLuf, on Thursday night last; He was found
on the public road shot through the head Thus
the first OF the Georgia delegation has persisted
10y the wayside."
After the particulars Of the murder were
published, and the name of the murderer
given, with the certain facts connecting
him with the transaction, the organ of the
President, again on the Goth instant, re-
peats its original lie with the following ad-
ditions having as little truth, and resulting
from the same malice as that which die
tated the fret falschood
Tho question naturally presents itself, would
ho have been found dead by the roadside had he
not been friend of Congress and Republican
patriot. He IS said to have been the only white
man in the county who had the courage to vote
for General Gyant. We learn from private
sources that many outrSges are being committed
against the neGI0es in counties of Columbia,
Lincoln and Ebert, and that in Johnson county
man who had been notified by the Ku-Klux
committee to leave the town by certain day
named, WAS STACKED at his house and is now
'iOst. 1t Is currently reported also, among the
Georgians in this city, that man named Web
ster who is said to have been an assistant asses
sor of internal revenue, has been badly NAL.
treated IN Houston county. Other Georgians
here, however, state that Webster has not been
maltreated merely but has been hanged. These
are some of the results of leaving Georgia under
rebel rule during the vacation or Congress. In
the States wherein Republican rule is fully es-
tabhshed there Is comparative peace and con-
tentment. Ii Georgia, on the other hand, the
contest is still left unsettled by the failure of
Congress TO take action upon the matter, and the
result Is that in many portions of the State no
prominent Republican will be secure either in
life or property during the entire summer and
fall"
And this explains the cause of the SLAM
ders. Congress did not place Georgia I'M
der loyalists." Georgia did not ratify
the Fifteenth Amendment. Georgia voted
Tor SEYMOUR and BLAIR. A Democratic
Senator and Democratic Members of Con-
gress have been elected. In other words.
Georgia is Democratic State, and her re-
construction must be reconstructed. The
recognized organ of the President must
therefore wilfully and maliciously mann