The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-09-23
TINE GULLY MURDER.

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The trial Of Henry o.. Gully for the murder
Of Judge Chisholm has terminated in . YER
dict of acqulttal, and taking this verdict as .
text the ~demagogue politicians Of the rad cal
school, and the no less d~enagogue dispatches
Of the associated press, are RECALLING the world
with homihes more touching than true.
Every word uttered in the testimony calca-
lated to give the murderer, Chisholm, the air
of a political martyr is carefully reproduced.
Indeed, very much that is not submitted as
evidence, is reported for our benefit, as wit
ness the dispatch in our news columns to-day,
where some anonymous swe'' weeps croco-
die tears over the pitiful condition in which
the recent trial has shown Southern morals,
or rather Southern Democratic morals to be.
But while the one side is there reported with
an over fullness of detail, not a word of the
defence, not so much as a syllable of the
other side Of the story is sent over the wire.
We are plenteously treatedt to the eloquence of
gentlemen who pause at III sacrifice Of truth
in their effort to make it appear that the
murder Of Chisholm was due TO the fact of
his being a Republican but not, a word is
there to show that his assassination was the
result Of an old and long standing feud, or
that it was in revenge for another murder
committed a short time previously, and in
which Chisholm was strongly suspected of
having a hand. " -DTrFgtf--
The facts connected with Lhe assassination
Of Chisholm are briefly as follows: Between
Chisholm and his party on the one side and
John w. Gully and his friends on the other
there had long existed a personal family and
political feud, after the manner of the South,
where, as we know, family ~yendettas are
cherished with a rancOr7 unknown i'm the
North. This feud had already led to several
outbreaks Of lawless violence, on the part Of
one or the other of the opposing factions, I'M
til at length in April 1877, j. w. Gully the
leader of his party was ambushed on the
public highway, and murdered by, some per-
son or persons unknown. No one witnessed
the crime but the hclrcumstantial evi,ie ice
against Chisholm'an and certain of his friends
was so strong that they We're arrested, and
thrown INTO prison. Subsequent proceedings
may have been due to want Of confidence by
the people i'll the operation of the law, or to
the fact that tn" evi 6eiee Was insufficient to
secure culvicli.H 1t tie person ml.om they
knew to he author of the crime in question.
Or they may have resulted from an unpre-
meditated outbreak Of iawlessness among the
%s.,,l, 1f fla r,,,,ln,nl ,n>,x, L,t - n
events the Jail was attacked by a mob; when
Chisholm, his SON., his eldest daughter and
some of the guards were killed. This is how
Chish, I'm met his death. At the hands of a
mob, a crime that was universally condemned
by the Southern press, and for whose investi-
CATION a special term of the District Court
was ordered.
To attempt to hold the Democratic party
responsible for this outbreak of mob violence
is much less reasonable than it would be to
charge Republicanism with the crimes of the
Molly Maguires, because Pennsylvania is as un-
doubleday Republican as Mississippi is Demo-
cratic but political Capital at the expense of
the South must be manufactured no matter
on What pretext. The scene of the crime is
so distant, the sentiment of the peop'e SO
little known to US tliat any distortion Of fact,
any parody of truth is presented us with
confidence that 1t will be accepted.
A parallel to the ~tictions based upon the
De Kalb outrage would be furnished in
Montana if the people Of Gallatin, or any
other agricultural county, were to charge the
people of Deer Lodge, as miners, with the
numerous crimes Of violence committed here
last spring. At the next session Of legislature
if an act affecting the mining interest is
adv coated by Deer Lodge aid opposed by
Gallatin, and if the people of the latter
county appeal to public opinion in dlscrip-
items ofthe Deer Lodge miners as set of
,nurderous barbarians, citing the crimes
committed here in evidence of their charge,
then we shall have a very fair repetition, in
another field, Of the course taken by un-
principled politicians and newspapers in
making political capital out of southern
crime.