Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-05-29
ON THE WAR PATH.
The Loyal Ku'Klux OF LIOunt
County : 25e Armed Loyalists
Hunting Minister OF the Gospel.
From the Knoxville Press and Herald of the

From the Knoxville Press and Herald of the
10Th Instant
1t will be remembered by our readers,
and, indeed, the people of the entire
country remember the affair with feelings
OF horror and detestation, that about one
month ago, Rev. Jacob Smith, while on
his way to fill an appointment in Blount
county, was seized by armed ruffians,
composing the leaders Of the League and
the Radical party of that county, taken
to the woods, stripped to his shirt, tied
to tree and whipped numerically with
withes, until his back and shoulders were
mass of blood and quivering flesh.
No reason existed for this .barbarous
action. Mr.. Smith was unknown in that
locality until after the close of the war.
During the civil strife Ike preached to
both armies "Christ and Him crucified."
He believed not in csrnal weapons, even
while in the midst of bloody strife. He
never carried pistol nor any other
weapon. His preaching was pre.emi.
nently the Gospel of Peace. He bears
the imprint of the Almighty, on his
calm, serious, guileless face, as "a man
unspotted from the world"
The vindictive and Satanic teachings
of Tennessee Radicalism bore their bitter
fruit in the martyrdom Of this man of
God.
As the time approached when Mr..
Smith had another appointment to fill in
that county, he received evidence and
information, the most trustworthy and
reliable, that the loyalists of the county
were laying their plans to prevent his
preaching, and many of them we're loudly
asserting " that this time we will make an
end of it,"
Not only this, but he also learned that
his friends in the county, the members OF
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
were being i'll treated and threatened, and
that an attempt by him to preach there
would result not only to his hurt, but also
to their injury.
Influenced more by the desire not to |
involve any of the friends of the church |
in trouble, and after consultation with |
his colaborers in the ministry ia this |
city, Mr.. Smith resolved not to attempt |
to preach the gospel of Christ to these
Pharisaical Loyalists How prudent was
this resolve may be learned from the ac-
ton of these loyal men; these simon
pure members Of "the party of great
moral IDEAS" ON the holy Sabbath.
Last Sunday morning, the day Of
Mr.. Smiths appointment at Logan's
Chapel, in Blount county, fully two hun
dred and fifty of these loyalists, all well
armed, and under the leadership of the
men who had previously whipped Mr..
Smith, assembled in the vicinity of the
chapel, and boisterously disclosed their
intention OF preventing the religious ex-
ercises from taking place. The members
of Mr.. Smiths church, aware of the i'm
pending trouble, did not 90 to the chapel,
and the rufians, after waiting some time,
determined not to allow their intentions
to be bsfled by the escape Of their prey.
Accordingly they sent squads out in
search OF the preacher, which visited
every suspected house for miles around.
Mr.. Smith, however, was quietly at
tending worship at Knoxville, and to-
ward noon his prosecutors dispersed, |
elated with the knowledge that they had
prevented the preaching of the word of
God.
These same men are now plotting to
prevent, by armed force, the fulfillment
IF Mr.. Smiths appointment, next Sab
bath, at Louisville, in the same county.
Of course, they will be successful, as
here are no officers in the county who
lare do right and arrest these violators
If law. Rather do they mix themselves
With the wicked perpetrators of cowardly
attacks on an unarmed man.
This, reader, is Brownlowism, Tennes
zee Radicalism, the offspring of the Evil
Inc.