Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-09-03
.EKHTSSARIES AMONG THE
COLORED PEOPLE."

The crv of "land agents. and ''emis-
sariesn among the colored people, seek
ing to entice them to Kansas and other
northern States, has been kept up
with persistency by the southern press
The following vouchcd for statements
from Yazoo, Miss, illustrate who these
agents and emissaries are:
Yazoo county, Miss, is an over
whelmingly Republican county But
the shotgun policy of the Democracy
made it go largely Democratic in late
elections As the time approaches
for the fall election for members of the
Legislature and county Offices, both
parties are ralIying their forces. This
time it is the Democratic party against
what is called the Independent party.
The latter is composed of the old Re
publican party and conservative Dem
oerats who are willing to cooperate
with the Republicans, colored and
white, to secure victory.
On the 25th Of July Captain III. NJ
Dixon, independent candidate for sheriff
in Yazoo county, was waited on by a
committee representing a mob of some
four hundred bulldozers, who had
gathered in the town of YaZoo, and
informed that he must either leave the
county or take the consequences"
After some parleying the representa-
tives of the bulldozers agreed to mod
ify the demand, so as to allow him to
remain in the county if he withdrew
from the canvass. Importuned by his
wife and children not to put his life
in jeopardy, Captain Dixon finally
consented to give up his candidacy
and signed card to that effect Sub
sequently he was prevailed upon by
his white supporters to repudiate an
agreement signed under duress and to
announce that he was still a candidate
for sheriff
On the 18th of August Capt. Dixon
was shot down in the streets of Gazoo
by a brutal bulldozer named Barksdale,
and died on the same day. The shot
gun did its work quickly and effect
lively. When the bulldozing commit
tee told Capt. Dixon that he must
withdraw from the canvass or ''take
the consequences, he knew exactly
what was meant by 'the conse-
quences." He had been an active and
enterprising bulldozer himself, and was
perfectly familiar with the import of
the phrase. The bulldozers now say
that in the bloody campaign of 1873
he instigated the killing of several
Republicans, while they credit him
with one murder committed with his
own hands There is nothing to re-
gret in the death of such a man, ex-
cept that if his life had been spared
he might have done something toward
breaking down the cruel political des-
potism which he helped to build up.
When the chief bulldozer of 1875
turned against his fellow-murderers
and conspirators there was hope that
his courage and his familiarity with
the shotgun tactics might be put to
! good account in securing fair election
in Yazoo county; but this expectation
has been cut short by his assassina-
ton
We can recall dozen of murders
committed by Mississippi bulldozers
during the campaign Of 1875 which
were far more atrocious than the kill
ing of Capt. Dixon, but the Southern
agents of the Associated Press, by
constant, willful and persistent lying,
kept up an impression that these homi-
cides resulted from personal difficult
ties" and ''famiy feuds." 1t was DIFF
ficult for the Northern people to be-
lieve that in every county in Missis-
sippi there was body of armed con-
spirators, whose business it was to kill
every Republican who refused to leave
the State after being warned to go ''or
take the consequences" but such was
the fact. The murder of Senator Cald-
well by mob was a far more cruel
and cowardly crime than the assassi-
nation Of Capt. Dixon, and yet if any
one will take the trouble to turn back
to the account of this affair, which
was telegraphed over the country and
published in all the daily newspapers,
he will see Caldwell represented as a
most boodthirsty and vicious man,
whom the good people of his county
were obliged to kill in selt-defense.
1t was during this period 0S75)
that the coarse and brutal phrase
"bloody shirt" was invented and
while the Mississippi rufiians were
busily engaged in hunting down al
the Republican politicians with shot
guns, sympathizing Northern editors
kept up a lively fusilade of ridiculous
epithets, aimed at those who com
planned of this method of conducting
political campaign. Capt. Dixon
rendered such conspicuous service tc
the Democratic party with his shol
gun that, after the campaign was ovel
and the so-called victory" had beer
won, his admiring fellow-citizens pre-
sented him with a silver pitcher, on
which was engraved the inscription:
To
The Bravest of the Brave,
Captain Henry NJ. Dixon.
; Presented to him by his Democratic fellow
citizens of Yazoo county, an humble testi
monial of their high appreciation of his bril-
liant services in the redemption of the count,
from Radical rule in 1875.
1t is one of the peculiar characters
ties of the average Southerner that h'
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