The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-08-07
Poor Martin Caso,ina.

= ~ Jl-- =
The New York zymssss Republican).
aseg The, following sdepreeatory Language
in seieFencs to thas lniyandes Of che
PreEident ak the, proceedings Of The Cos
sernor Of North Carolina il eafah hliahing
martial lawsovera psaceable andS law.
abiding community: SiSi & 81; I !.
'It is unfortunate that the Governor,
who has placed himself above the law, is
nevertheless able to boast of the support
OF the Government of the United States.
TOr what purpose are national troops
sent into North CarolinaP Infamous as
Holden's orders are, Infamous as the
conduct Of his minion Kirk has been, we
have yet to hear of the first attempt mt
resistance to either. Tbero is martial
law without an insurrasf4on-ag great dis
play of military force to crush insur-
gents who have no visible existence.
There is no conceivable use for the
United States troops now in the State,
unless it be to keep guard at the polls on
Thursday in the interest of Holden.
But are bayonets proper edjunctJ of the
ballot-box, even in North Carolina?
Can President Grant have properly
studied tho position in North Carolina,
when he allowed Holden to make United
States soldiers the instruments of cruel
tyranny?"
CHEERING FOR TIE NORTH CARoLlN1ANs
Holdens organ at Raleigh gives this
promise: "After the election the Execu-
tive will, if possible, be more active than
he is now." It is hoped his activity will
display itself in dangling at the end of q
rope.
The Baltimore San says:
MILITARY TORTURE OF ClvJu1ANs.-Th
New York Tribune, of Monday, comments
as follows upon the account telegraphed
from Raleigh on Saturday of the hang
ing Of q respectable citizen of Alamance,
William Patton by name, three times, by
Kinks men, cutting him down each time.
barely 80 rs to save life, in order to make
him confess who murdered one Outlaw,
q colored man. Says the Tribune:
"We have been warned of late by spe-
cial telegram, as we'll as by former expe-
riences, to put little faith in the reports
from North Carolina. But there comes
from Raleigh so circumstantial state
ment of 80 horrible an outrage by the
troops which maintain martial law in
Alamance County, that it ought to be at
once inquired into. TO attempt to force
confession from prisoner by hanging
or other torture, is relic of barbarism
and slavery which not even martini law
recognizes, and which the people of this
country will not countenance for an in
stant We do not credit the story, but
it ought to be inquired into and its truth
or falsity established. If the offence was
committed, let the offenders be sent
where they will have opportunity in the
future to serve their State in better
manner. If the report is lie, MS we be-
lieve it to be, let the slandefers be hunt
ed down and made to suffer-
Perhaps we have livelier recollection
than the Tribune of the methods usually
adopted by military commissions in
order to obtain evidence upon which to
bnse their findings. In Georgia, not
two years ago, when heaven and earth
were being moved in order to fnsten the
death of Ashburnham, q radical member
of the Legislature, who was killed in
low haunt at Atlanta, upon some of the
most respectable young men of the
State, the identical expedients were re-
sorted to to obtain testimony to warrant
their conviction which the Tribune now
so Indignantly condemns-and that, too,
under the authority of officers of the
regular army, or with their connivance.
Colored men, who were held as witnesses
in Fort Pulaski, were confined in sweat
boxes, and subjected to all sorts of
ordeals calculated to make them confess
anything their torturers wanted to draw
out of them. One, we remember, after
wards published sworn statement of
the crueties inflicted upon him. Among
other things he was blind-folded and
placed in front of one of the large guns
in casemate of the fort, with soldier
standing by with lighted linstock in
his hand, the bandage then suddenly re-
moved from his eyes, and he was threat
ened with instant death, by being blown
from the mouth of the gun, unless he
confessed all he know-which happened
to be just nothing ut all. In the famous,
or rather Infamous trials by military
commission in Washington City, in the
spring of 1865, the same "relics of
barbarism" were witnessed, such as the
hooding of prisoners, loading them with
fetters, and resorting to every means of
intimidation, in order to extort confes-
sion which might implicato new parties
in the assassination of Mr.. Lincoln.