The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-06-16
LG.-Gov. Davis Charged with Nnri-
berry


he had the example of his distinguished |
chief, and they were both culpable In
the highest degree. Numerous were the
instances in which persons who had been
convicted of crime and sentenced to the
Penitentiary, had been turned loose on
society, licensed to renew their evil ways.
But it never entered into our thoughts
that these pardons were due to anything
else bat an over-indulgence of charitable
feeling or probably to partizan favorit-
ism by those high officials, knowing that
the recipients of their mercy in nine
cases out of ten, we're members of their
own political party.
But the Columbus Index has startled
us with what it alleges to be well-founded
allegations of bribery against the Lieu
tenant Governor, in pardoning criminal
Of the name of Thomas Barrentine, for
the murder of widow lady, Mrs.
Thomas, in Lowndes county. The facts
are thus stated by the Index:
A $3.50 CHECK.
For week or more there has been
current in the city number of rumors
seriously affecting the character of Lieu
ant-Governor Davis. We have not
been able to definitely substantiate these
reports, but we are in possession of facts
that tend to prove that the Lieutenant
Governor has been guilty of an act which
should cause his impeachment and expul-
sion from the high office which he holds.
( Briefly, the rumors are to the effect that
during last month he was paid $3.50 for
/ pardoning Thos. Barrentine, the MUIR
! derer of Mrs. Thomas.
! That the people abroad may understand
how viIlainous was the act pardoning
Barrentine, we will briefly state the facts
of the murder: Some time last year,
Barrentine and an accomplice went at
night to the residence of Mrs. Thomas, a
widow woman living near Caledonia, in
this county There, in the presence OF
her little children who were begging pit
eously for her life, they dragged the
shrieking woman from her house, and
as she prayed for mercy, one of the men
held her while the other, Barrentine,
deliberately fired several shots from his
revolver into her breast Was there ever
a more sickening murder?
On the 2lst day of May, while Gov
ernor Ames was on the gulf-coast, Lieu
tenant-Governor Davis, who for week
or more had been waiting in jackson fol
the Governors departure, issued a par
don to Barrentine. This is fact, not q
rumor, which in itself is sufficient tc
damn the Lieutenant-Govern This
was not definitely known until Sheriff
Lewis, of this county, having i'll his pos
session information as to Darlington
whereabouts in another State, went tt
jackson to obtain requisition for Bar
rentine's arrest.
In regard to the bribery of the Lieu
tenant Governor, it is almost impossible
to obtain the facts, except by judicia
process; but we have heard of a mystic
rious check for S1250, which rumol
states was the price paid for the pardon
The names of some prominent gentlemen
of this city are connected with the mat
ter, and from them a legislative commit
tee might obtain important evidence.
Yesterday, June Z, an Index reporter
looked for Lieut. Gov. Davis to hear hi
statement of the affair, but was Informed
that he had gone TO Jackson. When h,
returns we hope to give our readers wha
he has to say.
To this charge the Lieutenant Govern
or makes the following answer. Like the
accusation, the reply deals too much il
generalities and explosives but the de
NAL is sufficiently distinct and pointed tC
render it necessary for the Index to state
with precision and minuteness the facts
on which the accusation is based. The
charge of bribery against high public
official is the worst that can be made,
and when brought, it ought to be attend.
ed with all the facts, circumstances and
names connected with it. 1t is too serious
a matter for vague intimations
JACKSON, June 10, 1875.
Editor Columbus hader:
In your paper of the 9Th instant you
make grave charges, founded upon ru-
NOR, of my exercise of the pardoning
power while filling the Executive office.
| owe it, no less to myself than to my
friends and my official position, to de-
mand from you, definitely, by what au.
thority and by what state of facts YOU
can justify yourself in making the col
umns of your paper the medium to malign
my character by charges which, if you
do not know to be false and slanderous, it
is because you have not troubled yourself
I to make an investigation which was within
your easy reach. Ii true, you can estab-
( lish them in manner to make them
indisputable as historical facts. Do this,
1 and you will receive the thanks of the
| public at large, that justly demands that
crime and corruption shall be sought out
and punished in high PLACES, even more
/ rigidly than among the m6anest. Grimm
| ais. Fail to do it-fail to establish a
charge so damaging, when you could do
/ it so easily if there were a semblance of
/ truth in lt-then a generous and a Just
people will justify me in laying aside, for
time, the dignity of the position / hold,
/ to denounce you as a calumniator and a
slandsrer, A. K. DAVIS.
An investigation should be Immediately
made. Why await the slow aud uncer-
tain process of a legislative inquiry {?
Where is the Grand Jury of Lowndes
county? Surely, if as many persons are
eognizant of the crime as iRtimated by
the Index, there will be no difficulty in
getting at the facts. The public will
await anxiously to hear further from our
Columbus contemporary.
THE "cruel story related by Mr..
Charles Nordhef. secondhand from a
Radical official, in his Mississippi CORES
pondence to the New York Herald, the