The Portland daily press., 1877-05-19
The Kemper County Massacre.

Inc latest murder Chat is, the latest of
which news has been received) by the 'Mis-
sissippi plan' in the state where that method
OF governing by assassination had its origin,
is sickening illustration of the barbarous
condition of society in the South. The VIC
tins IN this case were not Northern "carpet-
baggers" nor Ignorant negroes whose whole
life had been struggle against law, but ma
tive whites, men who had done service to the
state in the days before the war, and women
of high social position, who had become Re-
publicans from profound conviction and who
cherished the courage of their opinions in
community where the reward of free opinion
is death. 1t will be well for the people of
this country to turn their attention from
atrocities committed on the Danube by
bafbsrous and foreign race to atrocities COM
naitses os. the Mississippi bys'southern gem
tlemen," and to reserve little of the indig-
nation they express at the outrages commit
ted by Bashi'Bazouks in a province of Tur-
key, for the outrages committed By cotton
planters in state of the American Union.
Kemper County, Mississippi, is, or was be-
fore Republicanism was crushed out,
strong Republican county. A majority of its
people are negroes, and one of their most
trusted leaders was Judge Chisolm, a Mis-
sippi gentleman who was judge'of probate in
the days of the Confederacy. During the
reconstruction era he became pronounced
Republican and in consequence an object of
the deadly hatred of all urrepentant Conted-
crates. That hatred found its qualification
in April last. One day that month John W.
Gully, an old personal enemy of Judge CHS
ohm, was found dead in the road, shot
through the head. 1t was at once claimed by
Gully's friends that Chisolm was an accom-
plice in the murder. OF the truth of this ac-
cusation there was never any evidence.
But no evidence seems to have been
required. A warrant was at once issued
for Chisolm. On hearing of this he delivered
himself into the custody of the sheriff. A
crowd of armed men surrounded the sherff's
house, and demanded that the prisoner
should be taken to Jail. He was taken
there, and was followed by his family con
sisting of his wife, daughter eighteen years
old, son sixteen years old and two younge
sons. The mob made short halt, but Ion
enough to hang two of the Judges negro
servants just to extort confessions from
them which was not done because there
were no confessions to extort-then started
for the Jail. The rest of the story is told in
the words of the Chicago Iribune:
The Jail was surrounded. The guns belong
ing to the guards had been unloaded, and
there was no powder or shot at hand. Judge
Chisholms daughter-a girl of Is years. whose
name must be enrolled in the list of martyrs
forced her. way back through the mob to her
fathers house under the preteXt of getting
something to eat, but returned with powder
and shot concealed in her garments. The
awhile mustered up sufficient courage to attack
family they supposed to be defenseless. But
one guard was true to his post, and he was
shot dead. Forcing their way inside the jail,
the fiends killed a son of Judge Chisholm s,-a
brave boy of 13, who was clinging to his father
FIRST wounding him, then numbering him in
cold blsod. The daughter by this time had
succeeded in getting loaded gun to her father.
He fred at the crowd, and killed one man in
the advance. AT this the cowardly pack gave
way and rushed back kinto the street. There
they began to howl for setting fire to the JAIL
and one devil, more ingenious than the others,
cried out that the Jail was burning. The build
his family, resolved to face the mob that dared
not face him. The firing began as soon as the
hunted family appeared in the hall below.
Mrs. Chsolm fired off both barrels of the shot
gun which she held in the hope of checking the
assault. The Judges daughter clung around
her fathers neck with one arm, and with the
other pushed away the guns leveled at him.
Had there been spark of manhood among
this herd of wild BEASTS, the heroism and devo-
tion of that daughter would have averted the
SlanOhtlr. Honf fnrino
wounded the poor girl in two places and the
Judge in eleven, then left them for dead When
the family were carrying the wounded man to
MS house, short distance away, few of the
Bashi-Bazouks returned, and were only ap.
peased by the brave daughter, bleeding from
the wounds they had inflicted, who assured
them her father had died in her arms.
This was not all of it. Mrs Chisolm had to
secure permit from the mob to bury her boy
whom they had murdered. She wrote a pitful
letter addressed to Gov. Stone, asking sufficient
protection to enable her to take what remained
of her family out of the county,-the Bashi-
Bazouks having sworn that Judge Chisolm
should not escape alive. Capt, Shaugnessy, a
state official of neighboring county, took this
letter to the Governor at Natchez and offered
to raise company of volunteers to protect the
family in the effort to get away from the neigh
borhood. This Gov. Stone refused to authorize,
and merely replied that he would return to the
Capital as soon as possible-that is, as soon as
he got through with his Masonic celebration at
Natchez meanwhile leaving the Chisolns to
take care of themselves as best they could.
This is where the case rests now. Judge
Chisolm and his heroic daughter are both
dead and no step has been taken by the au-
thorities to arrest their murderers. If the
people of Mississippi permit these assassina-
tions to pass without effort to bring their per-
petrators to justice, they deserve outlawry by
the civilized would far more than does any
Bashi-Bazouk who scours the plains of Bull