Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-10-09
"Kemper's Best Citizens"

| The best citizens OF hemper county
Miss, have been acquitted. They killed
a man, shot his helpless daughter, mur
dered his baby boy, and still the law has
no terrors for them. They are still the
"best citizens of Kemper County"
The testimony of the wife, who vain
| " tried with rare courage and good
sense to save the murdered man, is told
to-day in these columns, as she left it
for The Tribune, in case she should not
live to tell it under oath. That she is a
woman of more than ordinary intelli
gence her testimony shows, and the
events of which she speaks are so tragic
and terrible that no one can imagine
that she erred from lack of memory.
What loving woman would not remem-
Der to her death every detail of such a
horrid scene? 1t was told with simplic-
ity but with earneStneSs, and Kemper'S S
best citizens, seated in the jury box,
heard it without a shadow of disbelief.
They voted to acquit the murderer, nev-
ertheleSs; but that was "tO save the
party"
The testimony of Mrs. Chisolm, it
should be said at the outset, diSpOses of
all the stories which were set afoOt as
excuses by the men who murdered her
husband. She testifies with great pre-
cision of detail as to the presence of
Mr.. ChisOlm at home, at the time John
Gully was killed, and proves that he had
no connection with the killing. She
shows, too, that an attempt had preyi-
ously been made to take her husbands
life, and that the very men who after
ward murdered him admitted to her
that the stories upon which the false
arrest was made were utterly unfOunded
and unworthy of belief. The names of
witnesses were falsely affixed to the af-
fidavits upon which the arrest was
based, and the arrest itself, it is only too
evident, was merely the preparation for
most cruel and infamous massacre.
Said one of the witnesses, Henry Gully
was in command that day, and whomev-
er he said kill would be killed" A great
many shots were fired, for the "best citi-
Zens of Kemper" were such contempti-
bic towards that they could not even
commit dastardly murder without
shooting some women and children by
the way; but the mob did as Henry
Gully ordered, and he has been triumph
antly acquitted by "Kemper's best citi-
Zens."
1t is not easy to speak calmly of the
scene which occurred i'll the Jail of
Kemper County. Men and women who
want to understand the Solid South
should read the testimony for them
selves, carefully, thoughtfully and pa
tiently. 1t will bring tears, if a reader
has not heart of stone; but members
nf hn oh Nayhn thnu 1Ista
ed to it, and then went out and voted to
acquit the murderer, because it would
hurt the Democratic party to have him
convicted. There are not many coun-
ties, let US hope, in which exactly such
a scene would have been possible. The
Sheriff was the mere tool of the mob.
The guards, chosen by the victim him
self, in the hope that some lingering hui
man feeling might prompt them to do
their duty, kept their guns loaded until
they could empty them into the prisoner
they had undertaken to defend. Men
who had eaten bread with Judge CHS
dim, and who had lived upon his bounty,
were foremost among his murderers.
Said his heart-broken wife, "An Arab of
the desert would refuse to stab a man
whose salt he had tasted" But these
were not Arabs of the desert. They
were the "best citizens of Kemper
County"
In some countries men are considered
below the beasts if they are guilty of
cruelty to an innocent woman. If she
is helpless, what man would not defend
her? But the "best citizens of Kemper
County" not only emptied their guns in
to the arms and then into the body of
the brave little boy who tried vainly to
defend his father; they not only emptied
their shot into the sweet face and soft
arms of the loving daughter who tried
to plead for her father i'll vain; but after
that father was murdered, "the best citi-
Zens of Kemper County" still had loads
in their guns, and emptied them into the
limbs of the helpless and fainting
daughter as she lay 10y the body of her
dying father.
This is chiyalry. Yes, men OF the
North, this is the Solid SOuthl Look at
it. The spectacle is not a pleasant one.
But it is high time that human beings
and hyenas should not meet ut the bal
lOt-box without knowing each other. If
we are to share the Government of this
country with the creatures who call
themselves "the best citizens Of Kemper
County," it is worth while at least to
know enough of them to vote against
them. If there is a chance-even the
faintest chance-that creatures like
these, who can he found in every coun-
ty of the Solid South, are to become
rulers of this country, is it not time for
civilized and decent men to vote them
down, or to get out of the country as one
would flee from jungle infested by IT,
gers? The comparison is unjust. Ii
gers never lived in Indian jungle so
cruel, so beastly and Sc brutal as 'the
best citizens of Kemper County.-[N. Y.
Tribune.