New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-11-30

monv IS all IN they VIII nave tue nearing. ht
intends to have them indicted under both acts o
Congress. They are all clearly guilty of {
conspiracy that brings them within the terms
of the law of 1870, and to bring them under
the Ku- Klux act also, it will only be necessary
TO prove that they continued in the unlawful
conspiracy after the goth Of April. 1871. The
objection TO bailng them is that, If it had been
done at first, few, if any, of the confession:
would have been obtained. The men on tria
would have picketed the roads, and every
countryman coming in to coufess would have
been persuaded or intimidated into returning
home, and saying nothing. Besides, great
number OF the prisoners are implicated In muir
ders and murderers are not entitled to bail
under State laws, so that class eff prisoners are
suffering no hardship by their deteation by the
military, that they would not have suffered il
arrested by the civil authorities.
In cell occupied by men who were nearly all
farmers and landowners, the prisoners told me
that their crops had not been gathered, and
that they feared the cotton and corn would
perish in the fields. There was no one but the
women to save the crops, they said for the
negroes could not he depended on, and all the
white men were in Jail or had run away. 1.-The
niggers have their own way now" said one
"any niger can get white man arrested, and
he's given no chance to find out what's agin
him." The ow-down white people are heap
worse than the niggers,r another prisoner
said lone of them put me in here"
None of the prisoners complained OF their
treatment in the Jail, and a number said that
Captain Ogden, the officer in charge, had shown
great kindness toward them, and had worked
hard to make them as comfortable as possible.
One man accounted for the conduct of the
Captain by saying that he was not Yankee,
but was born in the South. Every fair day
the prisoners are taken ont and marched to a
field near the Jail, where they have two or
three hours of outdoor air and exercise. "A
few infantry soldiers guard them, and three
cavalrymen are at hand for service in case any
nimble fellow should run the guard and take
to his heels. The prisoners run about the lot,
wrestle, dance to the music of fiddle, and
exercise in various other ways. Most of them
are quite cheerful, and appear to hope for
acquital. Some are respondent One man
who has confessed that he helped murder a
negro, is nearly insane, and spends hours cry
ing and repeating, I" / shall be hung! l shall
be hung ~ The prisoners are allowed to 90
over to headquarters and make inquiries and
statements concerning their cases to the Com
mander aud the District Attorney, if they
desire to. Some have confessed, aud others
have been able TO ex plain circumstances against
them to the satisfaction of the officers, and
have been discharged on parole. Yesterday a
Justice of the Peace was sent home in this
way, who had been twenty days in Jail. He
said he knew he could at any time convince
the officers that he was guilty of nothing more
than having beer sworn into the ORDER but he
preferred to wait till all his neighbors had come
in and told what they knew, before as king for
a hearing.
Last evening, the dull routine of taking
down the confessions of the lesser sinners who
had been inactive members of the Khan. or had
only Helped to whip two or three negroes, was
varied by the appearance Of murderer from
the jail, who came over to have a talk with
Majo Merrill. He was a lank, loose jointed
looking youth Of 81, with feeble
piping voice, and a dull, simple countenance
that showed little capacity for good or evil
abOut?' asked the Major. Il wanted to know
what you'd got agn me, Major that's all
Pm pure man, and I've got wife and two
children, and eff don't git to go home l don't
know where they'll git bread to eat You
know what I've got against you as we'll as i
do" said the Major. No; | don't Jest know
what it is" replied the Ku Klux, after hesitat
ing while. You are one of the men that
helped kill Charley GOode." There was "a lonp
silence. The man fumbled his hat between
his knees, changed his position in his chair
he said, in weak, whining tone, "Major,
never laid a hand on him." "What is the use
of lying about il" answered the officer: u
don't ask you to say word, but if you do say
anything | want it to be the truth. You and
three other men killed Charley Goode. You
know it, and you know | know it" Then the
man told the whole story, or his version of it.
g was a workin' for Wesley Smith, he said
"and one day Wesley Smith he said to me as
how he'd got orders from four chiefs to kill a
niger, and | must go with him. We went
out to the road, and met White and another
man, and went down the road together. We
met niger coming, and Smith he said it was
the niger we was 10 kill. Then they tied him
and took him into the woods aud shot him and
pounded his head with the butts of their guns
L jest stood off as far as from here to the wall
aud never laid finger on him. | said, Boys
don't kill the poor niger I'd nothing agir
the niger. l never saw him in my life be.
fore, and / don't know why they killed him.
They told me if ever | opened my mouth about
it they'd kill me-"
Nothing better illustrates the diabolicaI
character Of the Ku-Klux order than this muir
der. Neither of the murderers appear to have
had any special animosity against their vic.
TIM His death was ordered because ne was
influential with the colored people, aud the
men selected to do the deed believed themselves
bound to obey the order of their chiefs. The
man who made this confession appears to have
no consciousness Of guilt or appreciation of the
horror of the crime. One of the other men
engaged in the murder had previously con
fessed, and according to his statement this
fellow crushed the head of the victim with 6
rock to make sure he was dead. This he de.
MED, however, and repeated that he "neveI
laid hand on the nigger-never teched him
no way" The fact that he had been ord cree
to help kill the man, under penalty of death
If he dsobeyed, appeared to fully justify hin
with his feeble conscience, for whatever par
he had played in the affair.