The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-08
OstIawry In tho south-Rob Roy in
North Carolina.

in the HERALD and another chapter of which
we print this morning, has attracted universal
attention. We can hardly realize that these
events occur in the United States, in our own
time and in Commonwealth as old and civilized
as that of North Carolina. The stories of obin
Hood and Rob Roy belong to rude civiliza-
ton; but the adventures of those merry old
foresters and cattle-thieves are tame and meek
compared with what we know of Henry Berry
Lowery and his band
The home of these outlaws is in the mysteri-
GUS region Of the Dismal Swamp. Since the
settlement of the Carolinas and Virginia this
swamp country has been the refuge of the out
law and the fugitive slave. Nature has made it
almost impossible to the pnrsuer. The
refugee has endless means Of subsistence and
concealment The natural obstacles will
enable an enterprising outlaw to successfully
hold the region against large forces It is
practically as impossible to execute q warrant
or pursue an offender as it was to serve the
Kings process in the Highlands In the seven
teenth century. In the days Of slavery the
fugitive regarded the swamps as his first step
|
Moore as we'll as the prose of Harriet Beecher
Stowe have told the weird, pitiful legends to
wondering world. During the war our
poor soldiers, escaping from the rebel prisons,
found safety in the swamp. Our romancers
have preferred to give their heroes a home on
the Plains or in the Mississippi, or to make
them rangers in Texas or pirates on the
| Spanish Main. But no romancer has, as yet,
told us story as interesting as this history
of these merciless bandits, now first printed
| in the HERALD.
Henry Berry Lowery is said to be q light mu-
latto, with Indian blood in his veins. By his
white ancestry he is Scotch, as his name would
indicate, and among his companions aud
townsmen we find names as suggestive of out
lawry as those of Macgregor and Campbell.
AS son Of the Highlander his rowing pro-
pensities are natural; as descendant of the
Indian we can comprehend his cunning and
| fortitude as we'll as his skill as o woodsman.
AS descendant Of the negro we can appre-
ciate the docility and ferocity so strangely
united 10 his character. His band, as far
as we can comprehend the story, are
| men of his race and class, numbering
perhaps, a dozen. Originally civil enough
and peacable, and earning honest wages
as carpenter, Henry Berry Lowery first
accepted life of lawlessness when he
saw his father taken from his home and killed
in cold blood for supposed sympathy with the
North. This event is said to have taken place
nine years ago. Lowery took to the swamps,
and with his band holds mastery over the
region, robbing whomsoever he pleases, taking
life when prompted by self-defence or revenge,
or, what he calls his ''honor;" protecting" the
railway track, defylng the authorities and
holding friendly relations with the poorer
classes, especially the negroes. He knows
the Swamp as well as the eagle knows his
eyrie; and as every cabin is his home and
every poor man his friend, and the law can
not menace him without his receiving warn
ing, it will be easily seen how he has been
able for these many years to do his rude will
upon society and hold the law at bay.
The unsettled condition of the South has
given every opportunity to Lowery. And,
indeed, it is as an illustration of the unhappy
condition of the South that we study his
career with 30 much interest. With the
romance of his story we have no SYM
pathy. There was never a robber who
died at Tyburn tree in whose life there
were not some sympathetic and romantic fea-
lures. Jack Sheppard could climb like cat
Dick Turpin could ride like an Arabian
Robin Hood would send fat buck to poor
family; Rob Roy never robbed the poor
Henry Berry Lowery will play the banjo all
night to circle of chanting and skipping
lawlessness and crime and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The crimes that one man like this may
commit, even with his band, are tri6ing
compared with the evil example they pro-
duce upon the country. If Lowery can live
nine years an avowed robber and murderer,
warning upon society, bis pride gratified by
the consideration and immunity he receives
at the hands of the people of his district; if
he can not only defy law, but transcend it, and
assume the power of life and death over all
who offend him, there is an inducement and
an invitation to thousand others of as easy
moral nature to initiate his example and
make robbery an honorable calling So
long as the law stands powerless, and con-
fessedly powerless, to hunt down Lowery and
destroy him, any attempt to punish the most
abandoned criminal in Carolina is simple
cowardice. The very essence of law is secu-
rity, and Lowery's reign makes the security
that we suppose TO be guaranteed by law i'm
possible.
The sad condition of the Southern States
is painfully seen in the career of Lowery. We
see the widespread misery and unhappiness of
Ireland by the occasional asrarian outrages,
the shooting of constable or a landlord, and
the appalling fact that the public opinion of