Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-01
A pathetic story spojycd.

man, aged 65, nearly blind, crippled by rheuma-
tsm, feeble, heart broken, hopeless. His name
is Samuel e. Brown. He is citizen Of York
county, South Carolina, and he is a sign of
Judge Bonds vengeance, having been fraudu-
lently convicted, upon spurious testimony, of
completely with the kubluX, and sentenced by
that enlightened and humane judge to an i'm
prisonment of five years and a fine of $1,000.
To satisfy this fine, his plantation has been
seized upon and sold, and his innocent wife and
children turned out of doors. The actual deed
proved against Mr.. Brown was that he attended
upon kukluX meeting on a certain occasion,
on an errand of humanity, to save negro from
being hung. His real crime is that he is dem
ocrat.- Washington Star.
We propose to demoiSh this pathetic story
about which the democratic editors have been
snVeling for some time, by plain, unyarnished
statement Of the facts in the case of Mr.. Samuel
G. Brown, or, as he is better known, Squire
Brown of York county, South Carolina. Squire
Brown was indicted, with number of his dem
ocratic neighbors, for organizing kukluX klans,
and numbering and intimdating negroes who
voted the republican ticket. Squire Brown was
chief of the Khan, and on his written order his
daughter delivered to the United States authori-
ties the constitution and bylaws of the khan
which were concealed under lock and key in his
private desk. (See testimony of Lieut.. Godfrey,
p. 165, Of the report of the kukluX trials at
Columbia, S. c., printed from government
copy.
Kirkland L. Gum, a member of the kuklux,
testified Up. 1861 that he heard Wesley Smith
and Samuel 6. Brown discussing the plans of
the order, and that Brown said, 81 can kill and
whip more damned niggers with my khan than
all the rest Of York county" 1t was also proven
that Brown had attended the meetings of the
order (p. 1922 The history of the doings of his
Khan shows that he did not underestimate its
capacity, for in all history there is nothing
more atrocious and brutal than the barbarous
outrages perpetrated by them. They are too
shocking to repeat in the columns of newspa-
per, and we shall simply quote from the speech
OF the Hon. Reverdy johnson, made in defence
OF Samuel q. Brown and his conlederates, to
show how the evidence impressed him. Adj
dressing the jury, Mr.. Johnson said
81 have listened with unmiXed horror to some
of the testimony which has been brought before
you. The outrages proved are shocking to hui
mainly; they admit of neither excuse nor jus
LITIGATION; they violate every obligation which
law and nature impose upon man; they show
that the parties engaged were brutes nsenslble
to the obligations of humanity and religion.
The day will come, however, lift has not already
arrived, when they will deeply lament it, Even
if Justice shall not overtake them, there is one
tribunal from which there is no escape. 1t is
their own iudgment-that tribunal which sits
in the breast Of every living man-that small,
still voice that thrills through the heart, the
soul of the mind, and, as it speaks, gives
happiness or torture-the voice of con-
not already spoken to them, in tones which have
startled them to the eIormity of their conduct,
] trust in the memory of heaven that that voice
will speak before they shall be called above to
account for the transactions of this world; that
it will so speak as to make them penitent; and
that, trusting in the dispensations Of heaven,
whose justice is dispensed with mercy, when
they shall be brought before the bar of their
great tribunal, so to speak, that incomprehensi-
Bile tribunal, there will be found, in the fact OF
their penitence, or in their previous lives, some
grounds upon which God may say, Pardon r
(See pages 419, 400
We have read Mr.. Johnson's speech with care,
as it was accurately reported, and he nowhere
argues that his clients are not proven guilty of
the fiendish barbarity he SO graphically de-
scribes. The enormity of Samuel G.. Browns
guilt is aggravated by the fact that he had held
the office of magistrate in his county and was
popular and influential man, and through his
instrumentality many young men were encour-
aged to unite with the khan of which he was the
boosted chief. If he has become heart broken
and hopeless" since his confinement in the
penitentiary, it only goes to verify the prediction
of Reverdy Johnson, that dreadful day Of ret
ributon would come to the miscreantS who set
on foot the hellish schemes of murder and
outrage that were perpetrated by Squire
Browns khan, which, as he boosted to the wit.
ness, could "kill and whip more damned mig
gers than all the rest of York county," Let the
sympathetic editors Of the Washington Patriot
and the Louisville CourierJournal wipe their
eyes and noses, put their hankerchefs in their
pockets, and save their spivelling for some more
deserving object than the unhung miscreant
Squire Samuel G. Brown, of York county,
South Carolina, whose mild sentence of five
years in the Albany penitentiary and $1,000 fine
is slight punishment for his crimes. The
Patriot says Browns "real crime is that he is a
democrat" What the south needs is that the
entire breed of such democrats as Brown shall
be eXtirpatcd.- Louis DemOcrat