, 1872-10-26
The Philosophy of Violence
Gains Commonwealth.
The State Between 1910 and l672---
Diary Of Its Public Life
Concluded,
Railway Reading for the Cairo 8
Fulton Road.

seet;np to restore link in Commonwealth
histories never forged, have taken up Arkan-
Eas.
That State might cry, with more sense 4han
Job.-yhoee expression, under tho circum-
stances, always seemed to me- Irrelevant in
deed amodeEn Interpolation On Jobs period, -
so that mine enemy would write book y To
write d book on Arkansas. and continue afec-
lionate toward it, is indeed difficult. The bloody
trail southweEtward has led acroEa that State
Eince La Sale WAS waylaid in the grasses Of Tex
az The new Territory was consecrated at Little
Rock, nearly forty-fye gears ago, by the blood
of it's godfather, Henry II. Conway, shot dead in
q duel, with half Aclsnaas looking On and near
Iy every year has addeda victim to 81 Thermometer
practice" Assassination and dueling, twin
demons went together in this wild State, where
there have probably been moro people Ehot,
stabbed, and lynchcd without authority Of law,
than have fallen in open battle.
TEE STOCK.
This state of society was not q paroxysra. Tt
syas the euperl1tive extension Of backwoods
ruorals on the Carolina parallel
Arkansas was the grandchild of Carolina and
the Ishmael of Tennessee. a swarthy mixture OF
Gallo, Scotch-IriEh, and Gallo stock oyercame
the Saxon composition, and the history OF the
Leyiers Originally Xavier Fiench) followed
from wild Western Carolina to Arkansas, where
oae of the family moulded the politics Of the
early State,-is an index Of its civilization
With his one negro behind him, and the Creek,
Chickasaw, or Usage Indian before, the ArEan-
cas- borderer differed from the emigrating
Cherokee mainly in his want Of sensibility
and clemency. They crossed The mississippi
together md we're neighbors for years. Chero-
lee law became Arkansas Law, and he who took
life owed his own to the rest Of the victims FAM
9ly. Dueling Was rather 8 fine afectation, I'M
ported for Kentucky, and the Bowie-knife was
altogether more to tile liking of the Arkansas
traveller.
THE ARKANSAS p11aRrM FATHER.
AS Tennessee organized and Strengthened out
her civilization, she shook from her 9Elnges
many a desperado who found do1eful sanctu-
ary in the bayouE of Arkansas. Anew creature
arose on the basis of man, aptly described as
<half horse and half alligator" which hated q
clean shirt, aud accepted al habltual itch as a
healthy and gentle stimulant- BY the riverside,
the freeman robbed dat-boats and travellers,
and passed counterfeit money. In the interior,
he was absorbed in = waylaying feud with the
best family, and in whipping his one nigger.
Farther west, he lived With q squaw and Jump
ed a claim. In politics, he forced his
opponent to DO murder or retire, devised banks
TO rob foreign and public credu!ity, slendered
The heads OF the opposite faction till all the ig-
norant constituency hungered for bloodshed,
and then he led them off to Texas, on mission
Of glorious liberty, driving their slaves before
them.
Still, necessity and tradition, even in Arkan-
zas, required some human institutions. Amongst
these was punishment, which was nine parts OF
Justice. Society, therefore, yindicated itself
through the indiscriminate Offices Of Judge
Lynch; and this enables me to resume the diary
of Arkansas, to which have already devoted q
couple Of letters. ..
NOTHING ExTENUATEi
My motive in these letters is supply informa-
cry <s1 Of the faet that tie Whole problem Of the
Eouthern States lies in the two wlckedneeses OF
Of public dishonesty and private violence: Inc
politicians rob, and the people kill. Neither
The rulers nor the governed acknowledge the
law or enforce it. And yet every assassin-
ation committed in Arkansas turns the head Of
column OF immigration. Every duel forces in
smother direction q score OF bright lnteHects,
who could assist to inspire and correct pub
lie opinion. And every dollar Of prodgh debt
added to the public burden affecto every material
interest Of the State to certain degree.
TIE BLOODY ADMINISTRATION.
The long period OF dishonesty and direction,
vicor and violence. which had marked the
career of the Jackson Van Buren party was replac-
ed in 1910 by log-cabin and raw-oyste Admins
tration. The raw-oyster survived the log-cabln,
and John Tyler fused with bis domineerlng
party for an entire term, while civilization WAS
neglected. at this era, when the public con-
science Was adrift, there being no party to run
the Government ths Southwest became . pun
demonium. Texas led of with war between
the Regulators and the ModeEators. In the In
dian Territory, civil war broke out between the
parties Of Ross and Ridge. Along the frontier
line of Arkansas Vigilance Committee WAS
organized Of 400 men, with IN Executive Com
rnittee OF 80, chiefly preachers Of the gospel
and these held . Court at Boonsborough, in
Northwest Arkansas, and compelled everybody
to prove an dlibi, or be hanged. Five innocent
men were then put to death a: one time, while b,
the real murderers were delivered up by the
Cherokecs two years subsequently.
RIVER PIRACY.
In 1871, the young town Of Helena dlstin-
guished itself by setting up scheme 70 oessros
Tiver-thieyea. One Barney Bedford TOOK
steamer there With band Of armed men, and
as the boat dropped down the river, and thu
honest counteEfeiters came aboard to buy pro
duce with their "queer," they were seized ant
held till the boat got to the mouth OF the river
There at Island No. 60, the sheriff of the op
posite county. in Mississippi, gave up the pr1s
oners to mob Of butchers, who tied q AMI
drowned them, and many others we're whipped
4 war broke out along the Arkansas shore q
once, between Hugh Tully,s band OF counter
teiters and society; from so to IS folks wer'
shot, and the Judges and neighbors wer'
warned.
The mouth of White River WAS always hor
rible place. There Was settlement here, calles
n1ontgomery's Point, where robbers we're made
welcome and quite q toyn grew up on the pro
ceeds of murder and counterfeiting. The pro
prietor died fow years before the War, and hae
q large and mourning funeral.
THE SECRET EMPIRE OF MURRELL.
Society falling to organize with spirit, spirit, crime
grew comprehensive. AS early as 1908, Q bant
of robbers, SO strong, made their rendezvous q
the mouth OF the Arkansas and at Stack Island 81 =,
former place. In 1911, the boatmen assembled
and stormed Claly.se settlement, whipped i him in,
and sent him to jail at Natchcz. But Stack Isl
and was robbers nest for years, as we'll 81
Point Chicot.
John 4. nfurrell. tho most famous robber o
the Mississippi Valley, made Arsansas - stamp
ipg-ground 81 while it was Territory and roamet
at viii from Little Rock to the Post OF Arkansas
and from Nashville to New Orleans. His pro
fesgional ayocation WAS to sell and resell negroes
whom be seduced to run away and submit t.
sale again. They were the only original bounty
jumpers. When his stock gave out, Murrcl