New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-11
Iron the Savannah Journal of July A.
tyranny, OpprcssiOn, Outrage.
slavery, Inhunlanliy, aud Defi.
nnce TO Law In Georgia

Mr.. EDITOR FL am driven, by stern ne
cessity, to intrude another letter upon YOU
columns, and though my remarks NAV b.
| harsh and positive, in order to express wha
will chill the blood of every man in the nation
l will relieve you Of their responsibility b,
signing my own name for the time has com,
IN our State when silence, on the part Of am
recognized friend Of the colored people, es
pecially when he himself is colored, is no
only wrong, but criminal and the man wht
can look on transpiring events with fisinter
estedness or pass them by in silence mus
either be iend or .lle and despicablt
coward. ttI 6-a els na3 "a. q
During the autumn of last year was sum
rloned, and 1 appeared and testified before the
ku-Khx Committee in regard to the horrii
treatment of the colored people and Loyal
whites in certain portions of the State, and q
few Democrats and one or two so-called Re.
publicans thought they could make them.
selves little notoriety and possibly little
popularity by swearing that had misrepre.
sented affairs and made haste to avail them.
selves of the specious opportunity. They
swore, with all their might, that things were,
and always had been, lovely and serene in
the State, and this they did while the blood
of vast numbers were crying to heaven for
retribution. But soon after Governor Smith
went into the Executive Chair, finding him.
less generous with the pardoning power than
Governors Bullock and COnley, and being a
Democrat, his clemency was not likely to be
extended very abundantly OIL the negro, the
negro-haters and opposers of the Government
concluded to change their tactics, and the
threat went abroad that these negro-leaders
must go to the penitentiary. Passing over
columns that might be written On the subject,
and how this threat has been reduced to a
practical system, I will proceed at once to call
the attention of the country to one or two
cases only.
Four years ago Hon. T. G.. Campbell, State
Senator from the Second District, married,
in Atlanta, Georgia, a colored man and a
woman, whom his prosecutors claim to be
white, he being a minister of the gospel,
which act, too, he performed before our Su-
preme Court made that hell-born decision
that curt constitution forbids marriage be-
tween white and cOlored. But, without
pausing to animadvert upon that abominable
decision and its more abominable deciders.
which has caused so much pain and anguish
IN our State, l will add that last Tuesday
Senator Campbell arrived in this city and was
Immediately arrested on warrant issued in
Atlanta, and was incarcerated in one of the
jail cells. His son went to the Jail tie see
him and asked if there was colored man in
there by the name of Mr.. Campbell. Some
one representing the Jail q know it was not
Mr.. RusselD replied: No; there is an old
Niger here by the name of Campbell"
"Well," said his son, she is my father, and
wish to see him." "Well," replied this
monstrosity of humanity, $" had you asked
for him right you might have seen him, but,
as you did not, now you shall not see him!"
My God, reader, pause moment! 1t is an
insult to white man in Georgia to "Mr." a
Senator. because he is colored, But i pro-
coed. Senator Campbell was kept in jail
three days. Colonel Bryant, who had not
been on the most intimate terms with the
Senator, buried his personal feelings, and, in
the majesty of conscious right, leads off in
procuring his bail. Bondsmen after bonds
men he presents, but they are all rejected,
and, just as he was about to offer such un-
doubted bond as would defy all techncality
and bubble, the Senator is handcutled and
as though he was a murderous
desperate, or a vile Ku-Klux, and hurried OF
to Atlanta or somewhere possibly beyond
the reach Of bail or living existence. And
what is it all for? Why manacle, shackle,
and gyve this Senator with such unusual
ferocity, savageness, or barbarism? Is is
because he simply married that couple four
years ago? No! For there arc white min
listers in the State and in this city who have
,
to get him out of the Senate and defeat his
re-election-they mean to put the colored
race lower than they were in slavery-they
mean to defy the laws Of the land and crush
Republicanism from the State.
The same day they ran OF with Mr.. Camp
bell, Hon. James NJ. Simins and Hon. u. l..
Houston were arraigned before q white Jury
and tried upon the pretended plea of rioting
in their own church, and, while 40 not be-
lieve the evidence adduced would have con-
victed the devil before jury Of angels, yet
they were convicted and would have been in
prison to-day, serving out sentence, but for
the fact that they have appealed for a new
trial. 80 .t..r. ... ......, ..
And another fact, that they were tried be-
fore packed jury, and can, for that and
other legal reasons, carry it into the United
States Court, where every case of colored
man should hereafter be carried and the State
Court relieved of her victims.
Colored men of Georgia, we must either
leave the State or the United States Govern
mem must provide a more speedy remedy.
And it is no time to hold your tongues.
Every colored man and every white man who
winks, or evades, or eQuivOcates at these and
other outrages ought to have his tongue blis-
tered. True, there are few places in the
State, like Macon and Thomasville, where
they have cOlored jures, by whom you may
get justice in the courts. But wherever this
right is denied they mean no justice to Re-
pubicans, nor do they ever give any. The
very fact of ruling the negro from the jury
means devilment of the deepest dye, and /
have noticed that it invariably follows.
AS a common thing, you might as well
argue to hungry snake, that he has no right
to swallow toad, as to argue before white,
prejudiced jury, that Radical negro is not
guilty Of any crime he may be charged with.
have known white jurymen, in ten minutes
after they had convicted q colored man, to
say he ought to have been cleared. White
Democrat lawyers have said to me, " Tur-
ner, do not blame you for wanting negroes
on the jury, your people will never have fair
showing till then" had leading Demo-
crat lawyer say to me, not year ago in
Atlanta, after pleading colored mans case,
Well, how did you like my defense in that
case" &c. Remarkably we'll, >" / replied /;
"do you think ho will get clear?" "Oh,
hell, no, the fellow is no more guilty than l
am, but Grant, Alexander & Co. want a
thousand coilvicts to build railroads. The
most we can do in pleading negro cases is to
learn the practice more thoroughly These
are the words of white Democrat lawyers.
Think, and act, We friends of Georgia, with
out regard to color or race, who wish TO re-
duce the present uncultivated waste of this
fertile State to a high degree of cultivation,
,iv;li1atiou and chris flo N; 40 f;o,, l,,t hafora