Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-09-02
HE OIL D, OLD STORY.

We publish elsewhere the story Of a
reliable citizen of SOmerville, of the |
barbarOus riot that resulted in the kill |
ling of nearly all of the Reeves family.
They have been prominent, honorable,
unhinching Union men and they were
shot down in cold blood because of
their loyalty to the Government.
There is no use of concealing the fact,
that the few late Democratic successes
at the ballot box and the baser pas
sions let loose by low appeals to race
prejudice have turned wild the pas
sions of the lawless elements of the
Democratic party in West and Middle
Tennessee and other sections Of the
South, 50 that Union men and color
ed men, who dare vote their senti-
ments must again hunt their retreats
as they did in the worst days
of the war or during the reign Of the
kukluX. a private letter has been re-
ceived in this city from Mrs. Reeves,
in which she says her husband is im-
proving, but that they will have to
leave there as soon rs he il well
enough. There Is no protection for
them there. The story to which we
invite attention, Shows that he was
shot down in the discharge of his duty.
Union men Of East Tennessee can see
how the party that appeals to their
prejudices to gain their votes makes
use Of their victories. The calander of
murders and mobs and wholesale
butcheries perpetrated since the cleo
ton is long, bloody and startling.
The victims are all on one side. They
are all radicals" and as it has been
heretofore the murderers will go un-
punished. 1t is the old, old story.
THE story that the two fiends who
murdered the colored school teacher
near Huntsville last Saturday, went
there with the sole view of outraging
her person is highly improbable. If
that was their purpose they could have
accomplished il, and could have graft
fled their hellish lusts. They were
armed, and resistance against them
was pOwerless. IL is more probable
that they were ignorant rufliaus,
thirsting for the blood of colored men
and women under the excitement pro-
duced by Incorporate appeals to their
preiudices They decided that negro
schools were an unmitigated evil, and
that the best way to get rid Of them
was to kill the teacher, The sequel
was the cowardly murder Of Julia
Hayden.
/ THE LETTER from Union county is a
specimen of private letters sent to us
from other counties in the district.
Thornburgh's exposure of Houk's leg
! islative record has been acrushing blow
/ to him. 1t is useless for the Judge to
talk about Wester and Eckle, and Beals
and Richards, and other good men who
favored the Funding Bill. Many good
men favored it. We favored funding
the past due bonds and coupons. But
the Judge is the only one we know of
who prepared a speech against it and
| then voted for it. He stands alone in
his sudden and, as yet, unexplained
change. Then he voted for the Assess
ment Law, admitting that he did not
/ know what was in it, All this makes
it bad for the Judge, but not for those
who consistently and on principle al
ways favored funding.
JUDGE HOUK makes strong point
against rings, and especially Knox
vile rings. We remember that in
1872, the Judge got up ring" here
to control the Criminal Docket of the
United States Court. He drew up q
strong statement in which he repre-.
scented there were fifteen hundred cases
on the docket and sent it to the At
torney General, asking that they all
be continued. There were about one
third that number, The tive first