Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-15
RECONsTRUCTED STATE NEED
ING UCrING.

- - A<GDlN8A LE NilU1l4 - ~ ~ \. nN@A3''
ING RECONsTR0CrENG.
Alabama has been thoroughly recon
structed after the strict formula of the
Congressional plan. Ithas Radical Gov
ernor, Radical Legislature, . Radical judi
ciary, and perhaps seven-eighths of the
county officers in the State are of the same
political faith. Yetthings are neither pros
porous nor peaceful In Alabama. Crime
is rampant in various portions of the
State, and an exceedingly small number
of the criminals are arrested and brought
to justice, but we do not learn that Con-
gress is importuned TO reconstruct Ala
bama The Eutaw Wing contains the
following particulars of an airocious as
sassinafion in that town:
son last Thursday night the 18th
inst, about IL O'Clock, q party OF dis
guised men entered our town, on horse
back, coming, it is reported, from various
quarters and arriving about the same
time. Having dismounted, they proceed
ed at once to Cleveland's hotel; forced
the clerk by intimidation and threats, to
show them the lodging room of Alexan-
der Boyd, the Register in Chancery and
County Solicitor, end went Immediately
TO It. In few moments the screams OF
a man, accompanied end succeeded by
the reports of several pistols, were heard
in that quarter of the hotel In less than
five minutes after entering the building
the disguised party withdrew, remounted
their horses and disappeared as suddenly
and mysteriously as they came. Both
men and horses were so completely
masked as to defy recognition or identifi-
cation. The guests in the hotel and the
citizens who were drawn to the spot by
the commotion, on going to the place OF
disturbance. found the door of Mr.. Boyds
room forced and his body lying some feet
from 1t on the outside entirely hfeless ana
pierced through with many balls"
1t is supposed Boyd was killed by the
friends of a man he had murdered few
years ago, but it was just such an assassi-
nation as would have secured the recon-
struction of Tennessee, and the placing
her people under the heel of military
tyrant. This is specimen of the law
lessness that prevails in Alabama, and the
immunity which the perpetrators of these
crimes enjoy, shows that even the Radical
officials of Alabama are powerless to con-
troll or restrain the passions of men who
are goaded to the commission of desperate
acts by personal injuries. These are the
character of outrages that we hear of
occasionally in other Southern States
as well as Alabama. They have
no connection whatever with politics,
and are only seized upon by Radicals and
held up as possessing political sig
nifcance in States where that party has
lost the offices and the control of the gov
eminent. If the Democrats should carry
Alabama in the fall, as they confidently
hope to do, these outrages will be resur-
rected and turned to political account by
the defeated Radicals, just as they did in
Georgia and Tennessee. Some of the
outrages that have occurred in Alabama
serve to illustrate in striking manner the
animus of Radical rule. Only few days
before the assassination of Mr.. Boyd, a
student in the State University, aided and
abetted by a Professor in the same insti-
tuition, attempted to assassinate Mr.. Ry-
land Randolph, the editor of the Tusca-
loosa Monitor, Democratic newspaper.
The Professor is Radical and the student
a relative of the Governor of Alabama.
The Governor did not proclaim or call on
Terry for troops to keep the peace in
Tuscaloosa, and to punish the assassins.
But when Boyd was killed he
Immediately wrote a letter to the
Sheriff of Greene county, from which we
make the following extract:
''You shall be sustained by the military
arm of the State, if necessary. / am now
in correspondence with Gen. Terry about
troops for your place, but they will be of
no avail unless you do your duty. The
probate judge can and must summon be-
fore him every person supposed to have
any knowledge Of the guilty parties, and
it will be your duty to serve his process.
If parties supposed to have knowledge of
perpetrators of crime, will not obey the
ordinary summons, attachments for them
must be issued, and you must arrest and
carry them before the judge. He can
then make them testify, or keep them in
custody and punish them for contempt
until they do"
According to this Gov. Smith, it would
seem that the laws involving the personal
rights of citizens must have been radically
reconstructed at the same time that the
State was put through the infamous pro-