The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-02-01
MISSING AN OPPORTUNITY.

| John Sherman and the Returning |
Board missed an opportunity to give |
the country @ bloody sensation as
startling and terrible as the Eliza
plnkston affair, and of thus securing |
| the Inauguration OF Hayes. The
Shreveport Times of recent date gives |
| the horrible details Of murder which |
occurred In Caddo parish In October
last. Ike Thomas, q colored man, Re-
publican and patriot, residing on the
| Crowder plantation, murdered his wife
on the eth OF the month mentioned, by
cutting her throat from ear to ear.
/ The woman was In the field pick
| ing cotton by herself, when Ike,
with the nephew Of the woman, another
colored citizen patriot and Republican,
went out into the field where she was
at work. The nephew, Taylor Swan, to
prevent the negroes at work, in another
part Of the field, from hearing his
aunt's screams, or from suspecting that
anything unsual was going on. began
dancing and singing in the widest and
merriest manner, while Ike proceeded
with butcher knife to cut the woman's
throat.
| The job completed, the two worthless
left their victim lying in the field and
made of. They were subsequently cap
tured, and Ike confessed the crime,
saving that he did 1t because he was
jealous.
/ Now, this Is the tale the Shreveport
Times tells. But John Sherman must
know that the Shreveport Times 10 a
, Democratic sheet; bulldozing paper,
representing the white murderers and
. savages OF Caddo, and that its business
is to defend all the murders and
outrages the white ruffians perpe-
: trate upon the mild, innocent and
! prosecuted blacks. We know some
! thing about the leaders of the
Caddo Radicals. and Mr.. Sherman
and the Returning Board would not
have had the slightest difficulty In
Q showing that the whole story, as told
by the Times, was false, and that Mr..
VIM. Wise, the Democratic candidate
for State Senator from Caddo, for the
purpose of intimidating negro Repub'
: lican voters, cut the woman's throat,
. and that Messrs. Foster, Burcket and
: Mays, the Democratic candidates for
: Representatives, were the blood-thirsty
I wretches who danced and sang while
r the murder was being perpetrated.
fIC. w. Heating, whom Judge Lynch
: from the bench denounced as swim
Q dler; A. B. Levisee, who said he was
t offered hundred thousand dollars to
4 vote for Tilden, and who is the biggest
" liar In North Louisiana, and Geo. l..
| | Smith" honest George" we believe,
I they call him-who got up that neat
5 little job In the arrangement Of the De
d Soto returns, are all shining lights in the
: Radical party in Caddo, and IL John Sher-
+ man, or Packard, or Pitkin had only
y told them to do 1t, they could have got
d four or five hundred affidavits to prove
/ that Ike's wife was butchered by the
i Democrats. Indeed Heating, Smith and
Q Levisee would have got up as fine a
r sensation on this case as Ludeling
9 Brewster and Morey did in the Pinkstor
j. case. OF course the body Of the muir
o dered woman could not have beer
d brought before the Returning Board tc
9 cause Clerical Error Stoughton's hair tt
Q stand on end and the whole country t.
shudder; but neither was the body O.
q the murdered Pinkston brought there
(, Eliza, only, the widow, who the lyine
e Democrats say murdered Pinkston, was
70 there, and she was made a heroine Of
q In the absence OF the body of Ike's wife
J. Ike himself could have been brough
70 before the board in black coat and ha
draped with Grape; tears and lamenta
tions could have been shed over tn
L woes Of the afflicted husband, an'
whole columns of dispatches sent fortl
IA to arouse and excite the country. Ant
|. as Eliza came so near carrying the cleo
8. ton for Hayes, there is little doubt tina
ct Eliza and Ike together would have com
sr pleted the enterprise; then Eliza AM
g Ike-sweet, gentle lambs, martyrs O
es liberty--could have married ant
be drowned their woes in new felicities
t. and John Sherman and Clerical Erro
10 Stoughton could have entertained then
IN in Washington, introduced them int
Or their families, and all other aristocrati
es Republican families; everything woul
i. have been lovely, and the political mil
- lennium would have dawned upon tn
Republic.
NJ In overlooking this case Sherman an
"a the Returning Board committed fata
il and objectionable error, lost Hayes tn
70 Presidency and wrecked the God an
Morality party, of which they and Nor
no ton are the saints.
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