American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-05-14
Exit Dawes.

| Dawes is not such an utter donkey
rs he seems to be. He knew what he
was about when he declined to give the
name of the person who had informed
him of the persecution of Southern Re-
publicans for Republicanism' sake.
1t would really have been better for
Dawes to let this terrible story of the
| burning of factories" and the 6 muir
der of /" employees in Mississippi go
after he had once told it, without en-
deavoring to hitch it on the tale of
Heath in Louisiana. In that case it is
true that everybody would have sup
posed that Dawes invented the whole
| story for temporary use in the Senate
debate. But that supposition would
have been considerably less discredita-
BILE to Dawes intellect and not less
creditable to Dawes morality than the
truth hsit is now coming out with the as
sistance of the clue unwisely furnished by
Dawes himself. When Dawes, frightened
by the exposure in Boston, transferred
the venue of his outrage from Mississippi
to Louisiana, and gave up Heath as his
informant, Senator Jonas promptly
telegraphed to the Judge of the District
in which the plantation of this victim of
an unreconstructed community was
situated to learn the facts of the case.
These facts have been made public; and
everybody who reads the report of them
and compares them with the tale told by
Dawes in the Senate will see that
Dawes exaggeratfon, garbling and
absolute fiction amounted in the gen
eral result to sheer invention, or, as
Horace Greeley would have said, to "a
naked lie." If Dawes had been COM
posing professed fiction, and any body
had produced these facts as the basis of
his romance, it would have been uni
versallv conceded that the facts did not
in the least affect the validity of
Dawes claim as an inventor. The
"plantation'' with all it's factories"
and the 1900 or 400 men with their
families of Dawes romance come
down to farm of $50 acres, which.
with all the buildings upon it, was as
sessed at 800, although Dawes
victim of intolerance had contrived to
get~it mortgaged to the extent of some
thing over 81 200. Nobody had been
murdered" A mill had in fact been
burnt, but the belief of the neighbors
of the owner and mortgagor is that he
set it on fire himself in order to collect
the insurance which he had succeeded
in effecting for more than its market
value. The insurance was $4,000.
The appraisers estimate of the value
of the mill was 81, 400. So general
was this belief that the Grand
Jury was only restrained by a
lack of positive evidence from indicting
the victim of Dawes outrage for
arson. The Judge of the Court was of
the opinion that the evidence would
have justified an Indictment. and it is
expected that an indictment will be
found at the next session of the Grand
Jury. What Dawes will do under the
exposure remains to be seen. 1t is of
more Importance to know what the
people of Massachusetts, will do about
it. If they like to be represented in
the Senate by man who is capable of
conyer,ing the burning of a mill by a
man who has insured it for more than
its value into political outrage and
the incendiary into a martyr to the
principles of the Republican party,
and of basing on these fabrications an
abusive indictment of an American
State, there is no more to be said about
them. But Dawes reputation in the
Senate and in the country is estab-
lished. No statement pretending to
be statement of fact and supported
only by the tetimony of Dawes will
hence eorth have the least weight upon
the opinion of that body or upon public
opinion.-M y World.