The Democratic advocate., 1878-07-06
Political Notes.

/
For while Agnes has the advantage Of
white complexion, good looks, French ac-
cent and quick wit, Eliza, black as she
was, told story that touched the sympa-
thy of the whole country, until it was dis
proved, and set the whole of great party
to weeping tears which not even yet have
been fully wiped away. Her role was the
piece de resistance of the great tragedy of
intimidation with which Sherman and the
other visiting statesmen of his set thought
to engage the attention of the whole coun-
try while the Returning Board, under his
patronage, did its dirty work. The game
was well played. On one day in Decem-
Der Eliza Pinkston was scarcely known
beyond limited circle of friends and ac-
quaintanees in back-country parish in
Louisiana save to the little group of States
men in Parlor z, at the ST. Charles Hotel.
On the next her name was upon the lips
OF every newspaper reader in the land, and
able editors dipped their pens in blood to
write the story of her wrongs Lying on
a sofa in the presence Of the returning
board and the visiting statesmen, trem-
bling with nervous excitement, almost too
weak to speak above whisper, and stop
ping now and then to bury her eyes in
her handkerchief, she told how her hns-
band had been brutally murdered and mu-
tilated before her eyes by the Democrats;
how her toothless babe had suffered the
same fate at the hands of the Democrats;
how she had been beaten, cut and shot by
Democrats; how the Democrats were still
seeking her hearts blood, and all because
her husband was Republican.
1t was enough to FIRE the Northern
heart. No wonder it made the people for
a time forget the dark deeds the Return.
ing Board had in hand. Denial came
swiftly, simultaneously, but little weight
has denial by the side of such story
Not until now, after it has been made the
text of thousands of speeches and the topic
of thousand editorials, have we had the
woman's own confession Of its falsity.
Eliza Pinkston, having ceased to mourn
the murdered Henry, is now the wife of
WaymaR Pritchard, at Canton, Mississippi
In sworn statement before justice of
the peace, she relates that the whole story
OF the Democratic outrage upon her hus-
band, her child and herself was the fabri-
cation of two Republicans, o. FL. Brew
ster and j. Fl. Dinkgrave, the one Hayes
elector and the other the United States
Commissioner who ran Kellogg's outrage
mill. She goes on to say in much detail
that she received for her testimony and
the part she acted before the Returning
Board and visiting statesmen five hundred
dollars, taking fifty dollars, and giving the
remainder to Brewster for safe-keeping,
and in his hands it still rests; that her
husband never took part as a Republican
in politics, and was killed, not by the white
persons whom she named in her testimony
before the Returning Board, but by a col
ored man with whom he had quarreled;
and that she was brought by the Republi-
cans from her home to New Orleans and
instructed by them to pretend that she
was more seriously hurt than she was, and
to lay the killing and assault on the Dem
ocrats. In pursuance of these instructions
she feigned inability to walk into the pres
enee of her examiners, whereas she had
promenaded about the city all that day
and had actually walked up stairs to lie
down on the sofa provided for her accom-
modation In confirmation of this con-
fession her present husband deposes that
it is identical with the one that she has
made to him again and again, and other
witnesses depOse to the same effect. A
quickened conscience and indignation in
view of Brewster's holding on to the bal
ance of that $500, have combined with
the enterprise Of New York Herald cor
respondent to elicit the truth at this late
day.
1t is worth while to remind those who
may be surprised at this denouement that
the story as now told by Eliza Pinkston
does not vary in single particular from
that given in these columns on the day after
the lying strumpet took the stand under
the auspices of Sherman and Stoughton
In fact, this coincidence Of statements is
the best assurance of the truth of the con-
fession. Having private information that
Mr. Sherman had Eliza rehearsing for a
great dramatic sensation the staff CORES
pondent Of the Times at New Orleans in
stituted an investigation of the Pinkston
murder on his own account and the true
story of the outrage, showing that it was
in no sense political, was placed before the
readers of this journal, together with the
perjured and purchased version, as soon as
Mr.. Sherman raised the curtain on the sofa
scene. This journal was therefore the
only one in the country which on the very
next day pronounced the thing fraud and
showed how and why it was fraud Weeks
afterward Judge Kelley, in the midst ofa
speech in congress, raised his handkerchief
to his eyes and wiped away tear at the
thought of Eliza Pinkston' toothless babe,
and months afterward Mr. Sherman dared
to parade the lying jade before the United
States Senate as victim of Democratic
persecution. How long will it be ere
Agnes jerks shall follow suit with Eliza
Pinkston and shall eat her own words in
the same way? Perjury is always treach-
erous rock of defense, and it is doubly so
when the perjurer is a woman.-I'hiladet-
phid Times.
The testimony of Emile Weber, taken
Tuesday before the Potter Committee is
the most direct and explicit yet adduced
as to the authorship of the Sherman letter.
The witness corroborates Anderson in all
the essential points of his testimony, es-
pecially as to the Weber Anderson con-
tract, and the fact that the letter was in
Sherman's own handwriting. The story
of the frivolous and hysterical Mrs. jerks
is entirely disposed of unless she can show
that the person who wrote the letter at
her dictation was John Sherman. The
letter even in type looks like Sherman
every line is characteristic of him. Sher.
man himself on the stand could not deny
it and feared that the original would be
produced. Now Weber who knew of all
the transactions, swears that he burnt the
letter and that it was in John Shermans
handwriting, This external and internal
evidence concur to fix tho authorship of
that document on Sherman. Mrs jerks
alone is on the other side, and her evidence
was exceedingly aliunde.-Bdlto Gazette
PsHAw The editor of Harper's
Weekly, declaring that son all great ques-
tions the great parties are broken up"
and that "they cohere only by force of the
rart,, narna I'D fraI;t;ons - ,.oE Erl, ~