The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-10-19


made the officers and leaders of the Repub-
lican party, while honest men are TO be
frightened out of it?
l am credibly informed, that just after
Dawson was murdered, Gilmer-one of his
murderers-slapped his hand upon his pocket
and publicly declared, that ''he had your ,orit-
ten authority to kiH any Damned Democrat tcho
might cross his path that he held your pledge to
pardon htRl" l ask yov, Gov. Alcorn, If
Gilmer uttered the truth, when he made this
declaration! Had you made him any such
assurance of pardon in case he committed a
murder? member OF your own party has
so declared, and call on you to say whether
he told the truth? / cannot believe you
could do SO wicked a thing, yet it is proper
you should publicly deny it.
If no steps are taken to bring Davis and
Gilmer to a fair aud honest trial for the muir
der OF Dawson, and if they are to be protect
! ed and screened from such trial by CHS
holm, the public will be warranted in con-
Guiding that GIlmer had ample ground for
| his boast of IMMUNITY from punishment
1t is in your power to remove Chisholm, and
appoint an honest man in your place; con-
sequently your retention of him, will amount
1t is in your power also to cause Davis and
Gilmer to to be arrested and confined in a
secure jail until they are discharged by due
process of law; and your failure so to do
must satisfy the world that Gilmer was
really promised pardon before he killed
Hal Dawson, and that you were party to
the bloody crime. Will you cause the laws
to be enforced impartially?
wish to call your especial attention to
another phase of Chisholm's lawless and OF
pressive doings. He and Gilmer, backed by
a squad of Federal soldiers have gone to
Scooba, to arrest the citizens promiscuously,
and it is believed, this is done without war
rants, without the shadow of lawful author
ity, unless might has come to be right
These citizens are honest, clever, and law
abiding men, and are guilty of no crime
save that they consider Chisholm a scoun-
drel, and Gilmer murderer; were they as
sured of fair trial, they would have no
dread of an arrest, and would never escape,
but they are afraid of letters de cGchet-of
arrests made In violation of law-Of a trial
where corrupt knaves are to pack the juries
and subOrn witnesses. Nor can any sane
man at all blame them. There is but toe
much room for the apprehension they feel.
My God, Gov. Alcorn, can you look at this
picture without a thrill of horror? The
citizens of your State, flee because they can
not have fair trial? Are you in any way
responsible for this melancholy condition
of affairs? Have you employed all the
means in your power to avert, or correct
this evil? Have you removed all unfit Off
GERS, and substituted honest men in their
places?
guilty flee-that is the case, where justice is
neither sold, nor corrupted; but when such
creatures as Chisholm bear sway, none are
in any danger but the honest and the innO-
cent. single illustration will make my
meaning plain. Chisholm, as Sheriff, turns
Davis and Gilmer loose to go whittier they
please, although a coroner's jury has found
them guilty of murder, but the citizens of
Scooba, whom he has arrested for no crime
or for infinitely smaller crimes, are closely
confined. And 1 have heard that Mr..
Jackson. a one armed Confederate soldier,
has been put in irons, while Davis and Gill
mer, murderers, are at large. Is that JUS
tice?
Let me suggest to you, that Federal sol
diers were wholly unneeded to make arrests
in Kemper, and that it is very poor policy
to call them in as special constables. This
employment of Federal soldiers serves to
keep alive the animOsities kindled by the
late war, and to infuriate the white men
the old citizens against the Republican par
ty. 1t certainly furnishes them good ground
for charging that the Republican party is
kept in power by the bayonet and by
force. l know not how you feel on this
subject, but while l claim to be sincere
Republican,, want no government of the
bay onet, no never.
Will you interpose to shield the people OF
Kemper from the vexatious and causeless
expressions of Chisholm? Will you cause
Davis and Gilmer to be arrested and lodged
in Jail until the murder of Dawson is fairly
Investigated? L feel sure Chisholm and
Davis have already written you letters, base
ly defamatory of Dawson, and grossly mis-
representing his murder; they would stoop
to falsehood any time TO carry their point,
and were copies of their letters to you on
the subject, furnished me, l should be able
to prove all their statements base falsehoods
and ISLANDERS. A fair trial of Davis ana
Gilmer will suffice to show that he was
wantOnly and brutally murdered, and that
the bloody deed was deliberately planned by
Chisholm, Gilnser aud DoUis. The verdict of
the Coroner's jury should outweigh with
YOU any statements made by the murderers,
and that verdict was, that Dawson was muir
dered in cold blood
Dawson and Davis were strangers, and
had never had any previous personal diff
Guilty. On the morning of the homicide,
Gilmer purchased a double-barreled shot
gun, took it over to his store, loaded it with
buck shot and placed it behind the counter
and the door. Dawson had only taken three
steps into Gflmer's store, when Davis shot
him from behind the counter-before Daw-
son had spoken, and as Dawson entered the
store, Gilmer, who stood on the steps, was
observed to step out of the range of the
door. Davis had taken two large drawers
from under the counter and placed them on
the floor one upon top of the other, and shot
Dawson from this platform. Everything
showed generalization, art. and contriyance,
and Chisholm, the sheriff, was waiting two
miles out from Sceoba for his accomplices,
and remarked that he was not surprised at
it. OF course he was not, when he helped
to plan the fiendish deed and had come ex-
pressly to protect the assassins.
But one single circumstance viii demon
strate what cold blooded and miserable
scoundrel Gilmer is, and how hard run .
partv must be, to make hor0 out OF sucn
a coward. As Dawson stepped on the store
stems. Gilner said to him. HAL, old fellow,
YOU have nothing against me, have You :!
To which Dawson replfed-"No, nothing at