The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-09-17

man or colored man who would dare to make
Republican speech in the county would be shot
down like mad dog in one of our public
thoroughfares. There are hundreds of negroes
in this county who have never voted, who are
worse slaves than when the chains and the
handouts were the insignia of their condition,
and the sharp lash of a brutal slave-driver was
the reward of day of toll. They have heard
of freedom and liberty, but never tasted its
sweets. Untouched by the cvlizing influences
OF railroads and rivers, they are still living and
and working for old masters upon their
secluded plantations. 'No niger schoolhouse
adorns our county is the boast of one of it's
prominent men, The condition of the black
race in this county is heartrending and terrible
in the extreme. Outrages in this county are
the rule, yet, from the terrorism existing in
that locality, only an occasional murder leaks
out. l cite two cases. In Carrolton, Pckens
county, four colored men, who were supposed
to be ''emissaries," sent TO post the negroes on
their rights, were taken the third week in
August from their cabins, and hung by the
roadside. This deed was perpetrated in open
daylight by a body of unmasked white men.
On the 10th of August, 1874, the bodies of
three men, two colored and one white, were
discovered floating down the Tombigbee river,
dashed to some logs. When found, the bodies
were badly decomposed, and their personal
identity to this day remains undiscovered. The
white man had placard pinned to his neck,
saying, "This is the way we treat Dutch Mig
gers evidently alluding to the nativity of the
man, who seemed to be German. The other
two were placarded, '"To Mobile, with the
compliments of Plckens county,
In Hale county negro benevolent societies
have been broken up, Republican speakers
warned away, and colored men killed.
In Russell county, August 9th, negro
church and school house were burned, and the
negroes cruelty beaten and whipped.
In Macon county Republicans have been
obliged to flee for their lives, and Democratic
newspapers have approved of such action.
In Coffee county, at Clintonville, a colored
Sunday School meeting was fired into, and two
men killed and six wounded.
In Choctaw county party of whites am
pushed party of negroes returning from
church, killed ten and wounded thirteen. w.
A. Lscomb Republican, was found dead,
shot through the head, few days after. An
attempt was made on the Sd inst. to assassinate
q. S. Marshal Thomas.
1t should be borne in mind that all these out
RACES are in one state, the state of Alabama
Mr.. Hay draws a terrible picture of the condi-
ton of that state terrible because of its truth
and simplicity. He concludes in the following
words:
These, my dea- sir, are few of the troubles
in Alabama, for the suppression of which |, in
company with others, have asked the interven-
| ton of the federal government. No one regl cts
that such action has been deemed necessary
more than myself. Born, educated and living
all my life in the South, thought knew the
feelings and the passions of our people. be-
lieved they would quietly accept that destiny
which the fiat of disastrous war so emphatical-
ly placed upon them. No outbreak against the
soldiers of the army need be apprehended now,
but to thoie OF us who are standing in the
breach for the maintenance of the Constitution
and the Union-for the liberty and freedom of
all men-be we white or black, the hour is in
deed trying. We see our comrades swept away
like chaff before the wind. Every midnight
breeze brings to US the dying groans of some
man who has fallen in the cause of right and
| liberty. Up to this time not single white
Democrat has been murdered, outraged or 9TH
erwise maltreated in any way in the state of
Alabama. The killing has all been on one SIDE
The reports even Of our own suffering have
been held back and kept back from the people
of the North. Thesagents of the Southern as
ISOLATED press alone furnish news to your pa
pers. Every agent of this association in Ala
bama land in the South generality is rebel
and Democrat. Our views, speeches, plat
forms, writings and actions generally are garb-
led and missent to deceive the people of the
North, and convince them that the South is be-
ing plundered by adventurers; that corruption
and infamy stalk forth with monstrous iniquity
in all Our public places, and that every man
who dares to raise his voice for the princ pies
of republication is felon, and unworthy to
walk the earth on which he lives All these
things, and more too, have we borne in silence
The faithful old slaves, who fell upon their
knees at New Years dawn 1868, and from their
lonely huts and novels of poverty and slavery
sent forth prayers and thanks to Heaven for
Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation, are
now begging and imploring to be put back into
slavery to protect themselves and their little
ones from murder and destruction. Many,
many of my old slaves have come TO me and
begged me- take them hack and save them from
the reign of the drunken desper ado and the