The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-10-17
Can mon MIA. II. norton
DALLAS. Texas, October IL, 1857

tshment, the report OF your sPo'o" "
ana. as rsr rted in the Wabash Plain Dealer
Q republi paper. We cannot conceive II
poesible l. you, our neighbor, and so long
our fellow citizen, always respected in this
Democrat, community, and showed to the
front in every reunion non-partzan in char
acter-in fact pet among democrats, on
every possible occasion, simply because they
esteemed you as an honest republican,
and not carpet bag theft.
This, in brief, is the estimation
In which you have been held among your
reighbors, tn people of the town and coun-
ty of Dallas, and this, A. B. Norton, you
know to DO the truth.
When in 1876 you were charged with
making such speeches as now charged to you,
We your Democratic neighbors aud fllow-
townsmeD, rallied as one man TO your de-
fence and said the telegraph and the
newspapers lied, and declared on the streets
and the highways that A. B. Norton could
not and would not so debase himself as thus
toslander whole people.
You came home and said tho papers had
lied upon you and we believed 1t, simply be-
cause we believed you were II man Of truth.
But now Mr.. Norton, we are driven to the
necessity Of asking you certain questions,
and beg specific answers, because We intend
to send this article and your answers to the
leading newspapers of both parties in Indiana
and Ohio. Our light is not under n bushel
but we place it up on top of the mountain
aud ask all men to look and read. And,
firstly, Mr. Norton, you say, in your Indiana
speech:
"The Texas democrats allow no freedom
of sentiment in the south that is not demo-
cratic. They have made the term carpet
Dagger most obnoxious one, yet here in
Indiana, not two out OF ten of the older men
but have moved in from the other states, yet
woe unto you if you are II republican snd
move into any state of the south. lspeak OF
what know, and shall prove every state
ment."
Mr.. Norton, did you not canvass in peace
and quiet the whole State Of Texas as the
Republican nominee for Governor Of the
State, and did not two.thirds Of your party
under the lead Of the ex Republican governor
of this State, turn their backs upon
you and vote for the Greenbacb
candidate for that otlic@? la all that can
T.. yass were you ever mOltsted or treated with
indeoorug On the contrary, did not your
old Don cratic friends throughout Texas
treatyou IS gentleman and personal friend?
Please a swor this question, Mr.. Norton,
over your own name.
Further on you say: Later they called on
me TO resign my seat in the Legislature be-
cause was Union man. Now, Mr.. Nor
ton, please say if the people who elected
you their representative did not think you
had forfeited the office by accepting that
of Adjutant General, roIoving to Austin,
buying home there and becoming part
owner and editor, Of a newspaper at that
place' State the facts, Mr. Norton,
and do not, we beg you, twenty years later.
try to revive the memories of thos- days,
when tho North and the South were excited
on those great questions which cost so much
precious ulOvd " UOIh sUutlons.
You tumble things awfully, rs reported
by a Republican paper, in your Indiana
speech. You know better, and rs n man OF
years, aged and experienced, the recipient OF
so many personal kininesses from the peo-
pie of Texas, ought to BIO the last man on earth
to make such speech rs is accredited to
you in lndiana. When some OF us talked to
you a few days since on our streets, you said
the Muncie Democratic Editor, MIR. James
Howe, by name, was liar and you never
made such II speech. But your own paper,
the Wabash Plain Dealer, says you did, and
processes to quote yonr language.
You say you were Judge under Hancock's
military order, No. 40, which turned loose
all the demons of He'll on the union men OF
Texas. Amt you, A. b. Norton, ashamed
to thus falsify the truth.
You say, yes, A. b. Norton, you say,
"After HancOcks order, mobs with bowie
knives and shot guns drove Ill before them.
They blew up my Office and fired into my
house, two bullets going through my wifes
dress. They shot down Union men in cold
blood. Three hundred and fifty Ku Klux
came 20 take me and hang me, and ombold-
ened by Hancock's Order NO. 40 they pub
lished paper called the Ultra Ku Klux
and here is copy Of n i (hOldins up a paper
and reading from it) The editor Of that paper
came with $50 cutthroats to kill mo and
fired int my house They burned Union
mems houses and shot them to death; cut of
their heads and hung them on the public
highway for their wives and children to look
at. They passed public resolutions to kill
all Union men. We asked Hancock for pro.
lection, but in vain. My neghbors were
daily shot down in cold blood by these hend.
ish Ku Klux Democrats, and Hsncock's
Order No. 40 allowed them TO do IL. You
men Of the North little know what this com.
ing election means to our homes and lives. "
Now, Mr.. A. b. Norton, our noghbor, our
fellow citizen, our guest for fifteen years
past, how can you, sir, swallow the double
distilled and unmitigated lies involved in the
foregoing quotation from your speech in the
Wabash (Ropubliean) Plain Dealer
Here you are every day on our streets
our United States Marshal, living in our
midst, our ex-postmaster, our guest,
at every patriotic reunion, always slob6ered
on by mon of the strictest old rebel regime.
and vet you have the hsrdihood, the
cheek and the unmtigated brass, to saw 10
the people of Indiana that your life and the
life OF union men is unsafe in Texas. A. b.
Norton, you, If correctly reported by the
Wabash Plain Dealer, prove yourself to be
the most ungrateful and slanderous wretch
that ever lived on this earth, If your speech
Is reported as you spoke II. You, Mr.. A. B.
Norton, know this TO be true
Now Mr. A. b. Norton, as reported in tina,
Indiana speech, you falsly indict the people
Of Texas in divers and sundry ways. You
sy.-
Remember that the records Of Texas
show that under Hancock's order No. 40, $50
union men were murdered in few weeks"