Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-09-16
LETTER FROM STEWART COUNTY

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about it the further do people ge
from the truth of the case.
AS disinterested party, and on,
living near the scene of the murder,
would like to- state the facts as the
now stand after the trial and convic
I tion of the two negroes, and especially
after seemingly interested account
by some very excitable, careless anc
unreliable writer in the Nashville
American of the 18th ult. He makes
number of important errors which ]
notice our county paper takes pains tc
correct; but our county paper does
not say that the best part of the citi-
zens of our town signed the petition to
have one of the negroes-Bill Mock
bee-respited for thirty days. Against
the eighteen or twenty men who signed
the petition, there are twice that num-
Der who resolved not to sign it, and
who are cool, intelligent and we'll
posted men. Men who have filled the
county Offices men who have had far
more experience in every form of bus.
mess and public life than any who
signed the petition men who are firm
~ convinced that Bill Mockbee is
guilty and deserves greater punish
ment than hanging, and who wish to
see the law have its course. without
any interference based upon himsy
pretexts.
That petition is based upon the
declarations of several parties in town,
who now state that Bill could not
have been at the scene of the murder,
as they saw him in town after others
say they saw McClish leave town. And
yet these same parties were all exam
ined as witnesses at the trial, and gave
no intimation of the all-important ev-
idence they now can testify to. Be-
sides, there are others in town who
are not signers of this petition, who
will swear that they saw McClish in
town as late as the interested parties
saw Bill Mockbee.
Some one evidently has an axe to
grind, and there are always eighteen
or twenty kind hearted men in every
community who believe hanging most
too severe, and who would sign rather
than say no to such an appeal. And
as for the confession of the other ne
gro-Jack Wilson-why no sensible
man attaches the least weight to it;
for Jack is shreWd enough to know
when to confess"
And if it should or could be shown
by some miracle that Bill was not
present at the time of the actual and
visible murder, there is not the faint
est shadow of doubt but what he was
the instigator of it and planned it
throughout, and that in his death at
the hands of the law he would receive
his just reward even more fully than
his newer and thicker-skulled COM
panion in blood.
I hope this will meet the eye of that
Uery just man who writes for the
American, so that he may know there
are two sides to this question, and that
he sometimes gets on the smaller as
well as thissp@ si2a.a and that minori-
ties may sometimes be in the wrong
and should not, therefore, always rule.
Since writing the last paragraph of
this comment on the new feature of
this murder case, | have had present
ed to me petition to sign, a petition
that has oyer a hundred names to it,
and will have many more, judging
ing from the way in which the citizens
crowd around to sign it, and which
has for its object a desire to see the
law enforced upon the two fends who
committed this infamous act.
I spoke ola petition to the Govern
or to grant respite of thirty days to
the negro Bill Mockbee, said to be
signed by twenty men. | know that
some of them were black, and any man
knows that if the negroes of this coun-
ty thought they could save the neck
of the other negro, Jack Wilson. by
so simple thing as signing petition
to the Governor they would gladly do
it. So much for the black names on
it; as for those of the white men, they
are Offset by so many more who have
signed petition to the contrary, that
it surely can deserve no attention.
In conclusion l would like to add
that nothing could be done by any
power of human agency that would
have so bad an effect as the pardon of
that negro. We have had in this
county in the past six years as many
as six cold -blooded murders, and sew
eral attempts at midnight assassina-
ton, and yet only one of these despe-
rate characters has ever been pun
ished, and that one was negro woman
sentenced to the penitentiary for two
years for shooting down boy on the
street.
Men begin to think the law mere
farce, and that great criminals are
much safer than small ones, for they
can escape without fine or imprison-
ment. Why. our lives here are held
as nothing. Any man of brutal incli-
nations can satisfy his appetite for
blood. or his lustful appetite, or his
craving for money, or his petty spite.
and yet the law justifes him. This is
not idle talk, there are many of our
best citizens who are heartily disgusted |
at the mock ceremony of great Grim
lnal trial in our county. Some row
say they fear Jack will get off on the
insanity dodge. just as like, Who |
knows?
PAIRS.
What the Democracy are Working For.
The issues upon us are not war is
sues, but peace issues. The practical
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