The Van Buren press., 1872-07-30
THE POPE COUNTY AFFAIR.
The Stupenduous Farce-The Aidicu'
lous Mockery.
from pardanelle Tri-weekly Transcript, July -

lOuS mUChOi
from Dardanelle Triweekly Transcript, July 81
On Yesterday. w. n. May. Of this place
proceeded to open court IN RusseliVllie.
There were present in attendance for the ue-
PENDANTS in the murder eases, cN-Judge WI
shire. and Attorney General CAN'T. OF Little
Rock besides L. NJ. Gibson OF tins place.
There were present for the prosecutions, Col.
Whipple, of little Rock, and Col. j, h. GRAY.
ems OF tlarksville, with II. NJ. Jacoway, OF
this place. Thomas A. Hanks. of Blunton
was appointed sheriff pro tem. Twenty-four
of the posse who are charged with the MUIR
der of the prisoners, were in attendance with
Dodson the sheriff; Stuart, the school super
intendent. llickox, the county clerk, ana
John Williams the deputy sheriff. Sutp9Rds
were issued for witnesses. The first incident
of note, was Hanks, the acting sheriff. re-
marking that he would have to consult Dod-
son the culprit. as to whom he would send out
to serve the subppnds. The second was the
selecting of deputy sheriff Williams, the ring
leader Of the criminals, as chief of the guard
to keep the prisoners. The next was APP
pointing the following persons to compose
the Williams guard, to-wit: Luther Clona-
ger, a brother of the greatest desperate of all
the culprits; also John A. Bowden, "A relative
of one of the posse; also Solomon Aired. the
father of one of them, together with I. /.
htnQflck, Il relative OF lnc Criminals, lH'S''
with Green A. Barnes, Joseph Reid. Daniel
Lewallen, Dow Finley and Jack Ratcley,
compose the guard. Judge May selected the
guard. All This being done, Judge May ad-
iourned the court to meet to-day, at 9o'clock,
a. m. The reason why Judge Nav postponed
holding the court last week, is now evident
TO all, as the prisoners. although dlSbanded
as militia, by Gov. lIadlcy when up here ten
or twelve davs ago, (or when he pretended to
Il ba nd thpun have. sinpp all hppn we'll j.
ed with the most approved and improved
muskets. On last Saturday, two cases ofarms
were sent out from Little Rock on the + ).
& l. X. X. Il to Perrys station, the terminus
of the road. Col. I. NJ. Gibson was on the
ears at the time, having gone to Little Rock
for some purpose which we suppose he ac-
complshed, as the arms came up as he did
Dodson, in the open face OF day, sent wagon
and took charge of said arms. The arms are
said to have been consigned to deputy sheriff
| Williams though Dodson took charge ofthem
| as above. Thus we see how Governor Had
Icy disbanded this militia, who had killed two
| harmless prisoners, and afterward took q
great deal Of valuable property from Col
Potts and others. We see these dreadful
wretchcs thus armed by the State authorities
We see Judge MAY selecting friends and rela-
tives of the present pretended prisoners foi
the purpose of guarding (they pretend) these
prisoners. We see Judge May. also, appoint
| ing in the first place, c. a. Brown, of this
place. sheriff pro tenn, and giving to him in
structions to arrest all the posse bat Dodsol
| Hckox. Stuart and illiams. thus excepting
the ring g-leaders, and we find these rlng-lead'
erS claiming the right to 90 on the bond o.
each of the prisoners claiming that they had
a private understanding with Judge May, al
/ lowing them to run ut large and to make ont
| bonds for their accOmplices in crime. These
men claim to have entered into contract (as
they called iD with Judge May as stated
| above.
This much of the ridiculous FARCE has al
| ready been acted out, To-day another act il
| the farce will be played What that will be
any body with half al. eye can see. The farce
/ will end with the acquittal Of Williams, Dod'
| son and the posse they had with them. Al
| know or can now see, that an honorable ac'
quittal was cut and dried before Fitch, the
evil genius of this State and people, carried
the state-house rings orders around to thest
| criminals. Seeing that the whole thing wa;
| concocted at Little Rock and carried ou
| through the officers of the law in ell anC
Pope counties we are led to wonder why
Genl CAN'T and ex-Judge Wiltshire SHOULD
| put themselves to the trouble this hot wealth
| er of coming all the way from Little Rock tC
/ Russelyille to take Fart in this miserable
mockcry and stupendous farce, Farce die
we say? yes worse than any farce, for the
/ NT.l SCepc~NaS tIdSi' III tuc eAticHlc iol Il
-s.s god that was wantoniy. shed
~ ~ ,,qaacuu NJ syaA 55'W Wz,.a.hircy rry :, :,
nL5e' AND w,n -,ne ri,SiiSSE and VIII,
Fneop'O O..,ho oN.IN into his mouth, here defend
ing these men in the way of a solemn mock
cry. We find Judge May too. arranging hi
court in such manner, As to defeat the ends o
justice and that too against the innocCn
! blood Of his neghbors and brethren. This is
we think carrying party spirit and rank, rot,
ten radicalism into the very precincts of hcl
itself and Judge May although he has only
acted out the first scene in the drama is al
ready covered with a load of eternal infamy
No less however has the chiefeXecutive OF
this State done the same thing. God save
our down trodden people. In making the
above statement Of facts, we give them us they
cry thing They are believed by our people
a sense of finsecuritv peryades every bosom
in consequence. We are informed that most
of the best citizens of Pope have lel t,ne coun-
ty-that the friends of the IIaes and Mr.
Tucker Will not appear as witnesses against
the sheriff and his posse. We see no reason
why the prosecution should proceed any fur
ther A. it Will result only in expense TO the
state and country. We would wash our
hands of the whole thing If we were the
prosecutors In the case. We think 1t waste
oftime and breath on the part of these gentle
men and that they had better return to their
homes, Let the trial 90 on without them.
Let the solemn mockery proceed without our
people taking any hand in it. We would still
advise the citizens Of Pope to be calm and
hw-abidlng. .-