Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-11-23
A FOrecast,

At Hazlehurst, Copiah county, Miss, on
the late election day, one j. P. Matthews,
mail contractor, was shot dead Just as he had
voted and was turning away from the polls.
The murder occurred in an election beat"
or district, which had been carried by the Re-
publicans at a former election, but which the
Democrats we're bent on carrying this year.
Matthews was a Republican, and was known
as an active worker for his party. On the
day before the election an armed mob, head.
ed by the chairman of the Democratic execu-
tive committee, came into town and gave
Matthews orders to keep away from the polls,
threatening to kill him if he did not. But
Matthews had the audacity to ignore these
threats and was shot down like dog The
brother of Matthews, who is postmaster at
Hazlehurst, recites these facts in letter ad-
dressed to the Second Assistant Postmaster
General at Washington, and adds: II will
further state that our Congressman, Barks-
dale, addressed this mob the day before cleo.
ton and advised them to carry the election,
if they had to do it at the muzzle of their
shot-guns. And this is not all of their hell
ish work. They had before this killed sever
al colored men and one colored lady, and
crippled and whipped almost to death II mum
Der of Others" This brother of the murder.
ed man and other relatives in the county
threatened to invoke the law, whereupon a
mass meeting of the best citizens" of Copiah
county was called and the following resolu-
tions were adopted;
That if any person shall be injured or an attempt
made to injure him either in person or property in
any manner by the relatives and friends Of j. p Mat
thews we declare that we will hold his said relatives
aud friends who participate accountable for the same
and that will regard them as without the pale and
protection Of the law and common enemies of society
aud that we viii visit upon them certain, swift retr-
button.
That long the friends and relatives Of the said
j. p Matthews obey the law and become good citizens
we hereby pledge them the protection Of the law.
That from henceforth no men or set Of men shall
organize the negro race against the whites in tbis
county, and If it shall be attempted in the future ~
hereby give notice that it shall be at the pe;i OF the
person or persons attempting so to do
That we do hereby pledge ourselves one to the 9TH
er, our lives and fortunes and our sacred honor that
We will all and individually henceforth hold ourselves
in readiness to enforce the foregoing resolutions and
to meet at any time upon the call Of the chairman
That committee of twenty-four from each supe r
visors district be appointed by the chair to present
these resolutions TO the brothers and of the late
]. p. Matthews.
The same meeting by vote awarded the ban
ner honors of Copiah county to this same
'beat No. 3" in which the murder was COM
mitted.
Small comment is needed, beyond this bare
recital of facts, to show what, must be the
state of things in community where such
proceedings are possible. The significant and
deplorable thing is not that a man has been
shot for political reasons. II is that whole
community justifes the murder, approves of
its object, and holds public meeting to hon.
or its perpetrators and to warn the friends of
the murdered man that they must quietly sub
init to the outrage or it will be the worse for
them.
Still further than this, the deplorabe fact
is that this occurrence, with numerous others
which have taken place in several southern
states within few weeks, indicate q deter
mination to give the country solid South
at the muzzle of the shotgun, and this
means, inevitably, solid North based on a
revival of the old race issue-an issue which
We all hoped was dead or dying. The pros
pect is not pleasant one. On the contrary it
is discouraging, disheartening. We have
been told from time to time by Northern OBJ
servers of the progress which the South is max
ing in education, in manufactures, in agrioul.
ture-of its improved social condition, of its
better feeling toward the North. We are
bound to believe that these reports are true,
and the fact probably is that events like this
in Mississippi and like that in Danvie, Va,
only show how slow and painful, and through
how much individual wrong and snherino
must be the process of Southern emancipa-
ton and uplifting. But all the same it is
true that if the Southern Bourbons finding
themselves in minority, try to keep their
supremacy by murder, buldozing, and here
and there Wholesale slaughter of the blacks,
the North will show them solid front in an.
swer' These things ought not 80 to be. There