Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1876-04-27
A Rather Neat Outrage.

es his Centennial speech on
Mississippi outrages he should
consult his friend Spencer as to
how those things are gotten up.
Spencer knows all about it
One of his Albanian hench-
men has told the whole story
Spencer appointed one of his
most efficient tools in 1872 to
be Collector of Internal Reve-
nue., and then ordered troops to
be placed at this mans (May-
er's) service, fer the alleged
purpose of protecting the Fed
eral revenue officers in the per-
formance of their duties. "This
was the ostensible object"
! lswears a witness, an assistant
assessor and deputy United
States marshal, who was a lead
ing actor at that business,) but
the "real o0Ject was to parade
the troops Through the coun-
try with United States mar
shals having pretended warrants
and exhibiting them, for the
purpose of intimidating the
people and driving persons from
the country. These warrants
were taken by the marshals in
to neighboraoods and exhibi-
ted to persons who would in
form the parties that the mar
shals were after them. They
would then leave the country
or get out of the way. The
warrants were simply papers
folded, with no writing on the
inside, but names were on the
outside on the folds" Spencer
put the troops at Mayors con-
troll, Mayer informed his depu-
ty, and the ingenious deputy,
having prepared his blank war
rants made requisition for
troops and set out upon his
march. He confesses that there
was no outrage upon which the
requisition was based, and no
real necessity for sending the
troops to protect the officials
He admits, however, that there
was pretended outrage, of his
own concocting, and it is to
this bit of artistic manufacture
that we wish especially to call |
the Indiana Senator's attention. |
The Assistant Assessor and |
Deputy Marshal says: II shot |
a hole through my own hat with
my own pistol, and wrote to
Mayer that. 1 had been set upon
by men in ambush and X. XXX, |
which he perfectly understood |
was not the case by a previous |
understanding. l had the troops
with me at the time. / was in
advance and out Of sight when
| shot the hole in my hat. |
ran back and deployed them as
skirmishers, and we advanced
upon the supposed X. K. KS,
with an intrepidity that refec-
ted credit upon the troops, who
knew no better than that there
was real foe before them."-
This was done, the deputy said,
to satisfy the department at
Washington that the presence
of the troops was needed. The
outrage was duly reported, and
full details of it were published
in all the Northern papers. ''In
whose interest were you act
ing?" the deputy was asked
'1n George E, Spencer's; to
secure at all hazards a Legisla-
ture that would elect him to
tie United States Senate. He
was acquainted with our plan
of operations and was instru-
in having troops placed
at our disposal to carry out the
One can very we'll inn
agine what deferred the great
War Governor Morton from
making his recently contempla-
ted health trip to the tropics,
when his portfolio is stocked
with reports of ghastly outra-
ges of this sort. Morton is a
brave man, but he is not q sol
dier, and his legs are too weak
for him to deploy effectively, no
matter how intrepid he might
be. Hence, he deems it wisest
to lombard the enemy from the
safe ofing of his seat in the !
Senate, and, as his stock of am
munition is necessarily in ex-
haustible. he will probably be
fighting on that line all sum-
mer.