The weekly standard., 1870-08-10
The Contrast.

Mr.. EDITOR. The Sentinel has seduously
endeavored to produce the impression that
Gov. Holden has not been as energetic in
pursuing the murderers of the Mcleod
family, in Cumberland county, as he has to
discover the murderers of Wyatt Outlaw, in
Alamance, and of Senator Stevens, In Cas-
we'll Let us examine into the matter.
A small band of robbers attacks the Nc
Leod family, fires upon them, robs the house
and escapes. No person supposed that any
thing but robbery, with any degree OF rio-
lence that might be necessary to effect that
end, was the incentive to that dark
and villainous deed. 1t did not appear that
any portion of the people of Cumberland
county sympathised with the robbers. 1t
was not believed that the civil arm would
be too weak to apprehend the malefactors,
and bring them to justice and the Govern
or felt that he had done his duty, when he
issued the usual proclamation, and offered a
reward for their apprehension.
Wyatt Outlaw, of Alamance, was taken
from his house at night, by band of dis
guised men, numbering fully one hundred,
and hanged in the Court House yard, on a
Saturday night, and, though it was in the
middle of village, no one came to cut him
down. until the day was considerably adj
vanced. Numerous other acts of violence
were perpetrated by large bodies of men
riding armed and disguised. Two terms
of the Superior Court were held, subsequent
ly in the county, and no man was presented
for these outrages. The majority of the
cftjemsynpnthized in these acts Of = rude
justice" "a they were styled. and many per
sons openly applauded. The officers Of the
law either would not or COULD not preserve
the peace and give assurance of safety to
citizens. The Governor was beseiged with
applications for protection. Should he have
sat quietly and witnessed this reign of ter
tor, this carnival of blood No. He came
forward boldly and applied the only means
he had not exhausted, the bayonett, that
great peace-maker. The remedy has proved
most eficacious. The Kuklux have ceased
to charge down by the hundred, upon Re-
publicans, in Alamance. When they ride
at night now, it is to escape the avenger of
blood who is upon their track.
A similar state of things existed in Cas-
well. Days and weeks before Stevens was
murdered, it was well known that his de-
struction was ordered. In the words of one
of the citizens CT that county "the air was
filled with murder" The muttcring of the
storm was heard, its dark shadows were cast
forward; 1t burst, and poor Stevens went to
bloody gravel This deed, talked of be-
fore, carefully planned, and skiltully exccu-
ted, was perpetrated by "persons to the
jurors unknown" And there most of the
people of Caswell were well content to
let it lie.
In the mean time, the Kuklux went their
nightly rounds, whipping and RAINING off
every man obnoxious to them. In six
weeks time, from the I'd of April, 1870, to
the 18th of May, 1870, not less than twenty
one persons, white and black, in the county
of Caswell, were cruelty whipped and
scourged by the Kuklux Klan
On the 18th of May, Robin Jacobs, a poor
colored man, was murdered by them, and
on the 21st of May, Senator Stephens walked
the plank.
Reader, suppose you had been Governor,
what would you have done2 Would you
have issued a proclamation He had al
read issued four on the subject, and one of
them as late as the 7th of March, 1870, and
they had produced no effect to suppress
crime and violence, but had rather embold-
ened it.
Gov. Holden sent for Col. Clarke from the
East, and said to him, d" help me to restore
law and order; raise me regiment" Tie
Colonel went to work and raised several
companies, and they arc now giving peace
and security to many neighborhoods where
the citizens, two months ago, were living
in terror of their lives. He called Col. Kirk
from the West, and said the same thing to
him. Kirk went to the mountains and sum
moned his highlanders, and they rallied
around him He took the field and COM
menced operations Sn the blood stained
counties of Alamance and Caswell. Pretty
soon he had a number of the murderers by
the throat, and now holds them in Gus
tody to answer for their crimes. What good
and true man can blame Gov. Holden for
his course9 Surely none but those who
sympathize with the Kuklux will censure
him and henceforth, you may know the
members of that band of Thugs by their
denunciations of Gov. Holden and his
melish."
Go to, ye cut-throats, howl long, howl
loudly. the day of vengeance and recon-.
pense is at hand. H.B.