Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-05-22

ENsLA ~ IN UIuEMLM-ELa
THE APPEAL, conscious Of the In
finite detriment to the South, and
especially TO Mississippi, to result from
any misstatement Of facts incident to
the recent unfortunate affair in Pom
totOc, has rofrained from giving pub
licity to statements that have been
sent over the country by telegraph,
and to the diffusion OF which even so
called Democratic papers have de-
voted their energies. The statement
given by US is taken from the Equal
Riohts, paper edited by FlournOy,
q devout, crazed, violent Radical,
whose excuses Of passionate denun-
ciation, ike those Of Sam Bard, come
Of his tnordinate passion for notOriety.
He loves a row and must live in a
tempest. The people Of the town Of
Pontotoc, differing as they do en- Bgasse
in political opinions and prejudices
from Flournoy, have ever been utter
ly regardless Of his wild, incoherent
AAsNAA=5a III AlA-A AAE AAA-1f anu 4A0AlAAAF
deserves many personal friends. He
Is only 8 littls cracked. People living
In remote districts Of the county
know less OF FlOurnoy's virtues.
They read his paper and were
sore under the persistent mis-
representations and denUnciations
to which they were subjected. They
assumed the fearful KU-Klux garb,
devised originally to protect pig styes
and hen rOosts against wandering
bands Of negro thieves. They entered
the village at night, and it was as
sumed that they proposed to terrify
or murder FlOurnOy. FlournOy is in
formed Of the facts, and he and seven
others, strangely enough, attempt to
capture thirty CHASTITY Ku-KluX.
They summon the thirty to surrender.
A pistol was fred by one Of the thilty
terrible fellows, and they are fired
upon, retreat, are pursued, Overtaken
and again an Intellectual fire is evoked,
which Is answered with fatal effect.
The very efforts made by these thirty
men to escape from eight pursuers,
show that they entertained no MUIR
derous purpose. They fred pistols,
but it is not even asserted
that they sought to slay those
who pursued them. Reflect, too,
that this statement Of facts ema-
mates from FlOurnOy, and it is
demonstrated that these Ku-KIux
were most vilainOus towards, or re.
solved to do no violent deed.
That there are a few bad men In
every district of the South is no more
or less true than that they exist in the
North. 1t is also true Of the South as
Of the North that the grert mass Of the |
people are earnestly anxious, as they
are entirely capable, Of maintaining
order and peace. Radicalism con
fsssed this fact when FlournOy and |
his friend the Chancellor boldly de- |
manded the surrender Of the dreadful |
Ku-Klux Klan, arrayed in all the
frightful paraphernalia Of red eyes and |
negro-terrifying black cambria over
coats.
Grossly, shamefully, this whole sf- |
fair has been misrepre5ented. The |
AUaJqRchs, in hot haste, adopts the
recital Of facts surely conveyed to it |
by some plunderer Of the South, who /
would have martial law proclaimed, |
and rushed to the AUalaHcHe to attain
his end. The AUqlaac8s introduces
she story to the public with
the frightfuI headline "DiabOl-
ical," in great glaring black let
ters, and then it continues "A
fight between a gang Of masked |
msrauders and citizens Of PontOtOc, /
Mississippi" "a member Of the gang
killed, aud the others put to fight"
What a few organized scoundrels |
have done" The Avalanche then |
tells how eX-Confederate soldiers have
been punished because they have
taught negroes to read and write. It /
then tells how FlOUrnOy was threat
ened by anonymous letters, and then,
when the maraUders were asked to /
surrender, that the ''reply was a dis
charge from the guns and pistols Of the /
marauders." How swift this witness |
Flournoy says the disguised men fred /
q single pistol. The AUGlanche says
that the shots Of the Ku-Klux "lor-
tunately sped wide" Of their mark.
But we have not space for the further
discussion Of this gross wrong done.the
South, and especially Mississippi, by
the wholesale, ,incautious misrepresen-
tatiOns o. facts, which were eagerly
caught up from the Avalanche by the
Associated Press, sent abroad every
where, and have come back 20 US in
Northern papers, arrayed in all that
hideousness and false colOring, with
which Radicslism usually invests
every incident Of violence in the South.
We have given the most
horrible aspect Of the story,
adopting Flournoy's own version.
This is bad enough and certainly col
ored by FIournoy's prejudices. But
Flournoy's recital could do us no
mischief compared with that which,
condensed from the AUalduc6e by the
telegTaphic reporter for the Northern
press, has gone to twO-thirds Of the
papers Of the North, and can never
more be corrected. To. these agencies
Mississippi viii probably owe the
suspension Of hobeus corpus, the re-
moval Of Alcorn and subsection Of the
people TO military bondage. How they /
should love the AUG20ncheg
I
ALBANY. NEW YORK.