Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-08-26


MATED IN ONE COUNTY-MURDER
OF W p BILLINGS.
The truth in regard to the deeds of the
white mans party in the South finds its
way slowly and in fragments to the North.
With the telegraph, the post offices and
nearly all the newspapers in their control,
the democrats have all the public chan
ncls of intelligence largely in their hands,
so that it is only from private sources the
| republicans can communicate safely with
their friends in the North. Republicans
in southern States who dare to send to the
| North for publication such communlca-
tons as the one we publish below do so
at the peril of their lives
In the New York Tribune of the 9th
we find the following extract of private
letter giving picture Of the political con-
diton of Western Alabama In single
county one hundred republicans have
been assassinatcd since the war, says the
writer, and not single man has been
punished for it. Within a few weeks
Walter p. Billings, a rising republican pol
itician. was riddled with buck shot and
killed on his way home form the district
congressional convention. He had be-
come marked man by his activity as a
republican, and consequently he was MUIR
dered. Color could not be charged
against him as an offence, for he was a
white man. His politics and not his race
led to his assassination. Is there no duty
devolving upon northern republicans in
view of these things at the South? The
letter is as follows. We hope no repub-
lican will neglect to read it.
The isolated position of Sumter County,
with its dense forests and swamps, the ignor-
ant and tyrannical condition of the slave
holders, and the abject condition of the coll
ored people, enabled the whites to organize
to perfection the oath-bound gang of murder
ers known as the Ku-Klux Khan. all the more
dangerous from their well preserved secrecy,
the death penalty being the sure punishment
for the revelation Of any of the secrets of the
order, or even for the recognition of brother
member in public In Sumter, as well as in
ti'e OtHeT counties, IL was mate u part OF the
obligation of each member of the Khan to
swear an abb if any one of the Khan was ar
rested, or, if that failed to clear the culprit,
then to muster in sufficient force and break
open any Jail in the State where a member
was confined for obeying any order of the
Khan, and set him at liberty. How well these
obligations have protected the individuals of
the Khan may be judged by the fact that more
than 100 assassinations Of both white and col
orcd Republicans have taken place in this one
county since the close of the war, and not
single man has been punished for it.
The i'll feeling toward Mr.. Billings began
Immediately after the 4th of July Convention,
and was caused by the Union men placing
him at the head of the Republican delegation
to the State Convention, also in the Con-
gressional delegation, and afterward eecting
him as Chairman of the Executive Commit
tee Of the Republican party of Sumter. I'm.
mediately after his election as Chairman of
the Executive Committee, Mr.. Billings came
to me to consult upon general plan of oper-
alton which would result in bringing out the
full vote Of the county, and also a plan
whereby free speech might be secured for all
parties, and to make an effort to have the
public schools reopened so that the colored
children might be taught.
Here / ought to inform you that the pro-
Slavery party of Alabama, enormously called
Democracy, are deadly opposed to having the
negroes educated, and in many instances re-
fuse to furnish provisions to the negro while
he is making his crop, if he sends his chill
dren to school. AS the farm hands only get
paid once year, this had the effect of starv
ing them into ignorance
Outrages of this and a similar description
were openly condemned by Mr.. Billings, who
had been brought up in New York State, and
he promised the colored people that he would
do his best to help them, and make known
the true condition of their deplorable situa-
ton to the people of the North. This was
| the condition of affairs prior to the murder.
Five days before he was killed, Mr.. Billings
| came to Selma to meet ii. j. Greata his law
partner and myself, for the purpose of attend
| ing the lVth District Congre ssional Conven-
ton at Uniontown. We left Selma together,
and met the other members of the delegation
on the Goth day of July, at Uniontown; and
one intelligent colored man told Mr.. Billings
that the Democrats had said that he would
not be alive three weeks longer. He laughed
at the threat, and paid but little attention to
it, and left me, agreeing to meet me two days
prior to the State Convention. On his re-
turn he was accompanied by several gentle
men whom he left at Livingston, the county
seat of Sumter County. On Saturday, Aug.
%, the day of the assassination, he left Liv-
ingston to attend Republican meeting at
plantation called the Parkers' Place After
making a speech he mounted his horse and
rode toward his home, entirely nnarmed, and
nothing more was heard of him until the fol-
lowing morning, when he was found lying
dead with Is buckshot in him, on one side of
the road, and his horse completely riddled
with shot on the other side of the road, about
quarter of mile from his house. About
dark g p. m. on the previous evening, five
reports of shot guns were distinctly heard at
his house, fred in rapid succession, a wall
and shot, but it was supposed that some
hunters had come upon some game and were
firing at it. The proSavery party advanced
the theory that the murder was committed
for the sake of robbery, but that is contra
dicted by the fact that his pocket book was
lett untouched, and it was known that he
never carried large sums with him; only one
thing was missing, and that was his hat. !
whl here state that as it is the custom of the
red indian to take the scalp of his victim
to display, so it is the ku-klux
custom 10 take the hat to show to the "Cy-
clops" that the deed is done.