Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-05-18
THE MISSISSIPPI IRA GEDY.
4 story of LswIes.ncss and savsgery,

SAVED ny PLUCKY DAUGHTER.
tE. V. smaiiey's letter to the New York Trbune.l
I heard of the Kemper county tragedy
while in New Orleans. Tie meager parllc
ulars given Ivy telegraph made it appear an
affair Of unusual atrocity, and raised q
strong suspicion that political feeling lay
at the bottom Of it. If party aninlosily
had b ad nothing TO do with the invasion o.
quiet village on Sunday by an armed
mob of 200 men, the murder Of three men
and a child, and the wounding Of heroic
girl defending her fathers life, then the &C
currence, thought, must have grown out
OF condition of society worth examining
on the spot. 1 stopped at Jackson on Tues
day to learn further details, and, finding
that the first accounts seemed in the main
to be verified by the later news, set out
for The scene of the outrage.
On the train 1 was pleased 10 find Gov.
Stone bound for the same destination. lie
had received no communication from the
sheriff of the county, but deemed it his du.
ty as chief executive of the State to make
personal investigation of the occurrence.
The governor is a conscientious, fair mind.
ed man of very conservative views, whose
administration has been marked by de-
termination on his part to preserve the
peace and enforce the laws without respect
to persons or parties. We reached Meri-
dan on Wednesday night, and starting at
daybreak this morning on a train going
northward, over the Mobile and Ohio rail-
road, fell in with a surgeon on second trip
TO De Kalb 10 dress the wounds of the two
surviving victims. Leaving the railroad at
Secobs, forty miles north of Meridian, we
succeeded with some difficulty in procur.
ing team to prosecute the journey. The
landlord of the village tavern furnished 4
mule and a wagon, and the editor of the To-
cal newspaper kindly contributed a horse
With the landlord as driver and the editor
mounted on a saddle horse as escort, we
made party of five, aud managed TO trav-
erse in four hours l3 miles OF detestable
road. In the whole distance we passed
but single vehicle and saw only one
mounted man. The road led through for
esis for most Of the way, and the few plan
tations it skirted seemed in dlapidated,
worn-out condition. The landlord said it
was a"mighty poor country"
De Kalb proved to be an unsightly little
hamlet standing on bill in the midst of
barren, sandy fields and patches of scrub
oak. Two rude, Imprinted churches, with
more than half the glass broken out of
th0ir windows, a miserable tumble-do down
frame courthouse, with neither paint With
out nor plaster within, bright new Jail of
white boards, and dozen one story stores
of the meanest and cheapest construction,
half OF them closed aud roltiug down, and
all much dilapidated, formed the promi-
nent features Of the place. Three or four
pretty cottages in the midst of blooming
gardens seemed strangely out of their nat
ural environment.
Half day spent in hearing the nara
tives of citizens of both political parties
who witnessed the doings of the mob on
Sunday, and Of the desperately wounded
judge and his heroic daughter, who were
among the victims, enables me 10 construct
an approximately correct account of the af-
fair. To give an idea of the state OF feeling
out OF which SO phe enomenal a crime grew,
l must preface it by reference to the per-
sonal feuds and bitter political animosilies
prevailing in the county. There is negro
majority in Kemper, and after reconstruct
tion it was controlled by small clique of
native white men the leader of which was
Judge Chisolm, a man of considerable abl-
ity and Of great personal courage. lie had
been judge of probate under the confed-
eracy, and when the civil government was
re-established he obtained the Office of
sheriff. In this position he virtually ruled
the county for seven years, until the polit-
ical revolution in 1875. The other offices
we're filled 10y the men he told the negroes
TO nominate. They were all natves-uo
carpet baggers coming into the county.
The republican local admi nistration was
intensely unpopular. Taxes were as high
one year as SS2 on $1,000, and a debt was
contracted of $4,000, proGessedly for the
building of school houses, which the DEM
ocrats say were not built, and for the sup
port of schemes which they allego were of
no account. Over 100000 acres of land
were seized for taxes, and are still held by
the State, no purchasers having been found.
When Judge Chisolm look Office he was,
according TO the report Of his enemies, too
poor to get credit for saddle horse, and
when he left it, they say he was worth $780,
900.
Among the active democrats of the coun-
ty were the numerous members of family
named Gully, the chief of which was John
w. Gully. There was i'll feeling between
Chisolm aud this man, but no personal en-
counter ever grew out of it. One of the
warm partisans of the judge, named Ben
jamin Rush, formerly clerk of the chan
Gerry court, had quarreled with Gully years
ago about business matter (lhey had been
in Partnership, aud in 1875 an impromptu
duel took place in the main street of De
Kalb. in which Samuel Gully, a brother of
John W., was killed, and Rush was severe
ly wounded. About the same time J. p.
Gilmer, another of Chisolm's adherents,
who kept a store at Secoba, and was state
senator, shot a democrat named Dawson.
His clerk fired at the same time, and be-
tween them both they killed him. AL
though it was shown that Dawson entered
the store with pistol in his hand for the
ayowed purpose of killing Gilmer, mob
Of democrats invaded the town one night,
and falling to find Gilmer, took his goods
out OF his store and made bonfire of them.
Arrests were made, but there we're no con-
yictions. The same year Benjamin Rush
was waylaid and shot and severely wound
ed by some person lurking behind a church
in De Kalb.
AS result of the campaign in 1875,
Judge Chisolm and his friends lost their
offices. In 1876 the judge ran for Congress
and was defeated. The campaign was a
heated one, and the democrats, banded to-
gether in well-disciplined clubs, broke up
some OF the republicans meetings by
marching to them in large bodies and hold