The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-12-22


collects the coanty revenue. But No matter
for this. Crosby failed to give
THE REQUIRED BOND.
The board or supervisors, whose duty it is
to see that officials give good bonds, were
inclined to let Crosby go ahead with his de-
ficient bond. This board, it is necessary to
say, is composed of four negroes and one
white man. A pleasant state of affairs all
around. Crosby, failing from all these
causes TO give a good and sufficient bond,
was waited upon second time by 500 or coo
armed taxpayers and made to sign his resig- |
nation. He had to do it. IL was not at the
pistols mouth exactly, but it might well
have been. There were plenty of pistols |
around. He.signed. and the offended tax
payers thought they were through with him.
But the negro would no. so readily give up
an Office worth $4,000 year. He went to
Jackson. There someb0dy-supposed to be
COrdoZo, but Cordozo denies it-wrote him a
| laundering address, calling the cOlored peo-
pie TO arms to vindicste the majesty of an
/ outraged law, and all that sort of thing.
/ Crosby states, in this address, that he had
been forced TO sign his resignation by an
armed mob, etc. The address has been pup-
lished In the Cdmmercial.] Thousands of
these were printed, and Crosby sent runners
| through the country to distribute them, and
summon the negrOes, in his name, to come
to the rescue. It'was Sunday, and the col
ored people were easily reached at their
country churches. The appeal was read
from the pulpit. Crosby himself went to
the country and summoned all he could
| reach. OF course the negroes knew he was
sheriff, and that they had to obey when he
called for posse, as indeed they had under
the ordinary rules governing such cases.
They gathered what rude arms they could,
and started by several roads to the city TO
"ENFoRCE THE LAW"
at tho sheriTs command. Like sheep they
marched TO the slaughter. Just outside the
city they were met by the white men of
Vicksburg and killed. Some made feeble
show of fight, but they were without Off
GERS, leaders or discipline, and had not
white man among them to direct them.
Those who were fortunate enough to escape
did it by sheer leg power. They ran like
deer, and many were shot down by the in
furiated whites as they ran. Thus it was
that over hundred of them were killed,
and only two or three white men. 1t is
ever so. To attempt to pit the poor, ig-
nOTant country negroes, without an idea
above cotton row, against the white
men of Nicksburg Is as great q folly
, as would be the attempted organization
of posse of sheep to go TO India and capture
, live tigers. There is as much sense in one as
the other. Meantime, the poor dupes
| were Delng SnOL DOWN IN Tue outskirts OF the
, city lthey were in the hOllows and ravines,
not having sense enough to take positions on
the hiils,) the sheriff, Crosby, was held a
, prisoner in the court house; and it
J required drawn and cooked pistols in
t the hands of halt dozen in
! shot down then and there. To save his life,
3 he asked to be sent to Jail, where he now is.
! He is not held by any legal process, but is
3 there because he could not come out and
: walk two squares without being shot down.
. TO say nothing of the whites, the country
blacks are infuriated at him tor getting them
into that bloody scrape, when he had no
possible hope OF success. Yet to-day this
J, man in Jail is as legally the sheriff as Grant
g is president. To be sure he has re-
. signed three or four times, and would
resign again if anybody would come al
, him with pistol and paper. but we know
Il in law what we call designations signed un-
Q der duress are not binding. But he can
: never be sheriff of this county. His life
: would pay the penalty instantly if he should
@ attempt it. He knows this, and, to say
r nothing of the other imprisoned and
r stampeded officials, with Crosby it is 8
n question ofgetting out of the scrape without
s losing his lie. L said in the first part o.
!. this letter that the Emitted States govern
h ment had the physical power to put him
: back into office. They have, but the state
d has not. The white men of Vicksburg are
) more powerful than
g THE WHOLE NEGRO GOVERNMENT
!, . of the state, and they can and will overthrow
1 it, Ames and all, if the issue should unfor
o tunately he made between them. Tn
9 UNITED States have the physical power t,
+ reinstate Crosby, but the whole governmen
V can not prevent his being killed, and kille,
+ he will be if the atteEapt is made. He know
. this, and he told me ip Jail last night, whel
s / went to see him and the other prisoners
y that he did not want to be sheriff
n longer, and that he could not b
!, under the existing state of feeling
,r He wants to escape with his life; tina
IA is what concerns him most now. Were tn,
, doors of the jail thrown open he would b
70 the last man TO come out. Those grim wall
,e and iron bolts and barred windows are hi
l. protectors. What a predicament for tn
70 legal sheriff OF the wealthiest county of Mis-
le sissippi. What commentary on 81 negr
is rule" 1t is my opinion that this is the be
.O ginning OF an Irresistible conflict between
= the white element and the black element @
n Mississippi, which win not end until tn
Or whites are on top, as they are in Georgia
" No matter by what means, they are boun
re to be the governing power. Withdraw fed
N eral troops, and promise not TO interfere
81 and "negro ruler will be wiped out in thi
= state in forty-eight hours, just as it has beel
n in Nicksburg. L speak of things as the
" are, and use plain language. There is reall'
il no such thing as republican and democrati
parties here now. ft il a white party and
negro party. With such division tn
blacks will surely go down unless prou-e,
y, mp by federal bayonets. In county wher
g. they outnumber the whites four to on
- tkey could not hold their ground tbre
hours when the actual test came. In tn
Oh state at large, instead Of having a naaiorit,
t. of four hundred per cent. as here
" they only nave anl excess over tn
whites OF about twenty per cent
y He with half eye and a thimble ful
y, of brains knows what the result will be whe,
~ the struggle comes, and come it will. soone
"a or later. The most dangerous fruits l.
81 American liberty ever grown on the soil ar
~ - now ripening in the South. Suppose tn