New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-28
Foreign Markets.
Lawlessness in Alabama.

The following extract from a private let
ter gives a picture Of the political condition
of Western Alabama. One hundred Repub-
Iicans are said to have been assassinated in
a single county since the war, and an &C
count is given Of the recent mysterious
murder Of Walter 2. Billings, a rising
Republican politician:
The isolated position of Sumter county,
with its dense forests and swamps, the e
norant and tyrannicai condition OF the
Shareholders, AID the abject condition OF
the coloced people, enabled the whites to
organize to perfection the Oath-bound gang
of murderers known as the ku-klux Khan,
all the more dangerous from their well
preserved secrecy, the death penalty oeilg
the sure punishment for the revelatlon OF
any of the secrets of the order, or even tor
the recognition Of a brother member In
public. In Sumter, as well as in the other
counties. it was made q part. OF the OOllga-
ton of each member of the Khan to swear
an alibi if anv one of the Khan was arrested,
or, if that failed to clear the culprit. then
to musteri in sufficient force and break open
any jail in the State where a member was
confined for Obeying any order OF the Alan,
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 assasslnatiOnS OF both white
and colored Republicans ave taken place
in this one county since the close OF the
war, and not a single man has been pun
ished for it.
The i'll feeling toward Mr.. Billings began
Immediately after the fourth of July con-
~yention, and was caused by the Union men
placing him at the head of the Republican
delegation to the State Convention, also in
the Congressional delegation, and after
ward electing him as chairman of the Exec
utive Committee of the Republican party
of Sumter. Immediately after his election
as chairman Of the Executive Committee
Mr.. Billings came to me to consult upon a
general plan of operation which would re-
suit in bringing out the full vote OF the
county, and also d plan whereby free
speech might be secured for all parties, and
to make an effort to nave the public schOols
reopened so that the colOred children might
be taught.
Here 1 ought to inform you that the pro-
slavery D irty of Alabama, enormously call
cd Democracy, are deadly opposed to hav-
ing the negroes educated, and in many in
stances refuses to furnish provisions to the
negro while he is making his crop, if he
sends his children to school. As the farm
hands only get paid once a year, this had
the effect of starving them into ignorance.
Outrages Of this and a similar description
were openly condemned by MIR. Billings,
who had been brought up in New York
State. and he promised the cOlored people
that he would do his best to help them1 lnd
make known the true condition of their
deplorable situation 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 attending the lis
teenth congressional district convention at
Uniontown. We left Selma together and
met the other members of the delegation on
the twenty-ninth 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 Ion
ger. 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
return he was accompanied by several gen.
tlemen, whom he left at Livingston, the
county seat of Sumter county. On Satur-
day, August %, the day of the assassina- !
ton, he left Livingston to attend a Repub-
lican meeting at a plantation called the
Parkers' Place. After making a speech he
mounted his horse and rode toward his
home, entirely unarmed, and nothing more
was heard Of him until the following morn |
ing, when he was found lying dead, with |
fifteen buckshot in him, on one side of the
road, and lis horse completely riddled with
shot on the other side of the road, about a
quarter OF a mile from his house. About
dark (S 2. NJ on the previous evening five
reports OF shOtguns were distinctly heard
at his house. fred in rapid succession, a |
wall and a shot, but it was supposed that
some hunters had come upon some game
and we're firing at it. The ~pro-slavery |
party advanced the theory that the murder l
was committed for the sake of robbery,
but that is centradicted by the fact that his
pocketbOOk was left untouched, and it was |
known that he never carried large sums
with him; only one thing was missing, and |
that was his hat. / will here state 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 to take the hat to show to
the "Cyclops' that the deed is done.-New
York Tribune.