The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-09-24
THE KEMPER TRIAL.
A Full and Impartial Statement

ScoOba Herald.
On last Monday morning, Sept. 1st., the
Court house was filled to its utmost capacity
with people drawn there for the purpose of
hearing the testimony in the case of the
State as H. j. Gully. The newspaper re-
porters occupied prominent places at the
Clerk desk, the bar was crowded with law
yers and the old citizens of the county, who
were interested in the fate of their once
highly esteemed citizen. The witnesses were
all put under the rule, and remanded to a
room below the Court room with the usual
instructions from the Court. Every person
present was whispering, "who will they ex-
anime first"
The anxiety of the crowd was soon reliev-
ed by Judge Morris requesting the Clerk to
swear Mrs. Chisolm she stood up erect,
and in q detinate manner received the oath ;;
a chair was furnished her and she began her
story in a tone of voice scarcely audible all
effort by counsel for the State to make her
speak louder was fruitless until she reached
the place in her testimony where she thought
it would do well to emphazize; she recOun-
ted the events of the 18th of April, 1877
from the beginning to the end, from the time
her husband was arrested until he was car
ried home filled with deadly wounds; as
she passed along she made it convenient to
occasionally remind the jury of the part she
played in the affair of the Doth of April
and we must say that the author of Home
Rule" has failed to do her justice; in his ad-
miration of Miss Cornlia, he forgets the brave
woman and wife, who amidst the hail of lead
was first, beseeching the crowd g by the God
who made them, the mother who bore them,
and the wife and children they loved to de-
sist in their work of blood - and who at an
other time forgetful of her admonitiOn of
peace, was firing like wild into the mob,
oil bn in her IN al
many as possible, at another, was attending,
unaided and alone, the dead body of her lit
tie boy, but who throughout all these scenes,
never lost sight of Henry Gully. We would
not say that Mrs. Chisolm swore falsely for
we do not believe it was her intention so to
do, but il strikes us as impossible for 4 wo-
man, or even man, to pass through the
scenes of that day and say who did the fatal
firing: Mrs. Chisom's own friends, even to
Gen. Woodford, say they cannot believe
that Henry Gully would willingly kill an
unarmed, harmless girl, yet she swore that
he turned his gun from her husband to Cor
nelia and fired. Any one who knows Henry
Gully is satisfied that such was not and
could not be the case.
Mrs. Chisolm stood her cross-examination
better than we expected, though Capt.
Woods was unusually tender with her she
swooned away once, but it failed to create
again.
The theory of the State was to establish
q conspiracy to take the life of Chisofm,
Gilmer and ROsenbaum, and they were
anxious to show that the Cfulleys' were the
chief conspirators; we suppose with this
object in view they next introduced Chas
R6senbaum, who testified to the killing of
Gilmer as he was on his way to Jail, by
Virgil Gully, and that the prisoner was
). L
The next witness called was the young
hopeful - H. c. Chisolm, Gov Hoyt's pet
he proceeded to give his version of the
tragedy, and the impression made upon us
from his testimony was, that he IS the
greatest coward in the world; he said he
was present at the Jail on the 29th of April,
and he was conspicuous for his attention to
the dead boy, he left his father to the care
of his brave sister and skunk into a side
room of the Jail and there remained until
the shooting was all over; the fear of having
his precious "carcass" pierced with bullets
overcame his affection for his parents, and
he left them to take care of themselves,
while he adopted as his motto:
"He who fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day"
The other witnesses introduced by the
State were brought on for the purpose of
establishing conspiracy, but in this they
failed, it Is true the State stumbled upon a
meeting of the friends and relatives of
John W. Gully, held Saturday night after
the burial Of Gully, and it is equally true
that the witnesses all swore that the meet
ing was held for the purpose of devising
means TO find out the assassin of John w.
Gully, no organization was perfected or
attempted at this meeting to kill Chisolm,
Gilmer and Rosenbaum, but on the other
hand all counseled peace and submiss ion
to the law.
The defense introduced testimony to
show that Henry Gully never fred a gun on
the 29th of April, nor did he have one in
his hand; men who were with him nearly
all day testified to this fact, and in the Jail
he did all he could to prevent Judge
Chisolm coming down stairs, assuring him
that if he did so he would be killed, but
the Judge took his life into his own hands
and entered into the midst of an angry mob,
which was crying for his guilty blood.
Mark the language, his guilty blood; for
that mob was composed of men who had
suffered untold wrongs at the hands of
Judge Chisolm, men who knew that his
hands had been dyed with the blood of their
kinsmen and fellowmen, men who for the mo-
ment forgot their duty as citizens and gave
way TO the pent up passions they could no
longer control, and it was at the hands of
this Infatuated mob that Judge Chisolm met
his fate, and while thus meeting that fate
which he often told US he expected, his
brave little boy and daughter were killed.
Henry Gully's friends and neighbors all tes-
titled that they had known him for years,
some of them from childhood, and he had
always born good character as peaceable
law-abiding citizen
On Thursday evening after the testimo-
ny was all in and the Court had given the
instructions to the jury, the argument was
opened in behalf of the State by Capt. T. s.
Ford; his speech was resume of the testi-
paony and an application Of the law - given