The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-04-15
what rhe1 Are Saying Against Us.

what fneJ Are oayins AGAINST ~
Below we make some choice extracts
from Secretary Fletcher's testimony,
given before the Reconstruction Com
mittee i'm Congress. Our readers can
thus readily imagine what mountains
of false evidence has been presented at
Washington, for the purpose OF de-
-troying Tennessee's Statehood. That
they are gross and cowardly misrepre-
sentatioas of a brave people, is readily
admitted, but they viii be none the
less effective if they are not proven to
be lies. Fletcher even drags into his
evidence the case of Friedman, who
was murdered in the Greenfield Bend.
Mr.. Friedman was in the Confederate
army, aud after his murder the whole
people of the lower portion OF the coiin-
ty did al in their power to arrest the
murderers and find the dead body
Two men are now in jail heavily IRON
ed, under charge of having killed Fried
man, and the evidence at the prelimi-
nary trial was sufficient for Justice
Wood to deny bail, and find them guilty
of murder in the first degree. The case
of Morrow is a little different. He
never belonged to the Federal army,
and merely commanded squad Of
desperadoes Lieut.. Coffee, a Confed-
crate officer, returned home, took the
oath, and was quietly staying at home,
when Morrow came along through
Mt. Pleasant, and made Major Howell
deliberately shoot Coffee while he was
setting on a rail. 1t was cold-blood-
ed, dastardly, unprovoked murder of
an innocent, unoffending man, and a
numbe- of the best citizens Of Mt. Plea
SAINT witnessed it. Peace came, and
one night Morrow was killed. Was it
strange? Would it have been other
wise in any of the Northern States?
False Fletcher attempted to make
capital out of the assassination of Gram
vile and William Pillow. These
Young gentlemen were natives of Maui
~ county, but for several years had
been living in North Alabama, where
they Were murdered. They belonged
to one of the most intensely Southern
families in the State, and were them
elves true Dem They were
murdered in the trooly loil y recon
structed State of Alabama, but these
are very good specimens of the falsity
of the reconstructing evidence furnish
ed by False Fletcher. We might dis
prove nearly all of the statements in
regard to the outlawry in Maury coun-
ty, but we have not the space. The
truth is, Mr.. Fletcher is playing des-
rerate game to avert the penalty he
must pay for malfeasance in office.
In the summer of 1868 the streets
of Nashville were thronged with col
cred men from Maury county. They
exhibited their beaten backs, and told
of a number of cases of the hanging
of negroes in that county. | remem.
Der three or four cases ofhanging and
shooting. but cannot give names OF
the victims. In one case woman
was said to have been shot.
In July last body of 500 ku-klux
appeared in Maury county, Tenn, all
armed. They went into general
WINNING of negroes for day and
(cn,, In.p,.r hpI m
letterfrom E. a. Douglass to Hon, ;.
NJ. Arnell.
In 1869 Capt. Barmore was taken
from the train at night. at the Colum.
bia depot. by men in mask, and a
month aftnward his body was found
ia Duck river, his head and body per-
forated with bullets, a rope about his
body which had been fastened to a
stone. When the conductor on the
train returned to Nashville he told
the particulars of his taking off the
train. as did the engineer and other
attaches of the train, but they subse-
ouently denied all knowledge Of the
case. The newspapers at Nashville
made merry over this case, aud said
Barmore had run away. Barmore
was a detective, and was said to have
designs to ferret ont the secrets OF the
ka-klux.
A week since a pedler was murd r
ed in Maury county. The Sheriff
made sham hunt for the murderers,
but was generally laughed AT. The
body was found-robbcd.
In the fall OF 1868 remember hear
inc of the killing of a colored man by
the name of Burch, or Buck, near
Cornersville, in Maury county.
think he was accused of attending a
debating society and justifying eman-
cipation
In the fall of 1868, four men were
seized near Columbia, Tennessee, by
masked men, and carried off. Two of
them returned and refused to tell
anything that happened to the other
two. but the other two never return
ell that have heard Of. One of the
missing men was named Kelly and
the other Jordan, as | remember. \
man BY the name of Eakin was my
Informant.
have not endeavored 10 call 10
memory the cases of whipping and
robbing of colorcd men, but the whip
ming OF Jerry Polk in Maury county,
i59fas.les with 'stirrup strap" oc-
ours to me also the whipping of one
Belleronte. with ''strap and buckle"
IN the same county comes to my rec
election.