The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-19

! as a message to their brethren, and that "by the
| gods this white mans country, and the
| white men should rule or the rivers should run
| blood" The above is no idle statement, but a
! quotation from Bourbon speeches heard by tens
| of thousands of Flrginians under circumstances
| of excitement, accompanied by floods OF false
hood pretending to sustain the appeal, and Cir
| culated too late to be contradcted before cleo
| tiOn day.
| Contemporaneous with these appeals, sensa.
| tiOnal circulars from DanvIle, Cumberland, and
elsewhere ffeG with false statements of wrongs
and outrages committed bv Blacks, cartoons de-
plcting negroes, punishing white children; pic
| lures OF negro men with white chlld on one
| knee and q black child on the other; Infamous
peTJures, as to the utterances Of our public
speakers, and lies, great and small, calculated to
inl1ame race prejudice, were spread broadcast
throughout the white districts of the State,
| backed by corruption money without stint, while
they were studiously suppressed in the black
| districts and their absence supplied by doubled
| funds of money to 'buy or bully" the blacks.
AS the excitement thus begotten became more
| lntense-as the buying Qf blacks became more
and more apparently impracticable-the violent
policy became the more necessary to intimdate
/ blacks and inflame whites. Arms began to pour
into the soutbside regions, the supply of small
arms in our larger cities was exhausted, and the
| demand extended as far as Baltimore, until one
Democratic headquarters within twenty miles
| OF Richmond had forty stand of muskets and the
| Danville region was a walking arsenal. The
| cry that ''whte men should rule or de- the an
nonncement that war or races was upon us,
swelled in volume and ferocity. Threats of the
| lives of our leaders became more common than
any other argument.
THE DANvILLE MASSACRE
| Murder in cold blood began in Madison county.
Days before it was repeated IN Danville rumors
of the shipment of arms filed the arr aud dur
| ing the fair week vt Richm ond-long before any
| outbreak 0ccurred-the knowing ones were
heard to whisper and my steriously predict what
might be expected at the proper time.
| In due time it came. With what premeditation
and design it came, let any impartial man who
read the Bourbon press and heard the prepara-
tons for it judge for it himself. Who provoked i'll
Who perpetrated It'll Let the Bourbon journals
themselves testify. With what purpose it was
perpetrated let the thousands of false circulars
turning it to political account spread broadcast
by the BourbOns almost before it occurred, and
the effect they produced, speak as no argument
can.
The massacre in Danville is dignified by Bour-
bOnism with the name of riot. The facts, as
gathered from all sources, are that upon Satur-
day evening preceding the election, Just after the
Danville negroes had received their weekly pay
and were buying their Sunday supplies in a
crowded market place, white man appeared,
had an alteration with a negro, and whipped
him. The fight ended, and no other
negroes came to the rescue of the punished man.
But the programme was not interrupted by this
circumstance. An armed gathering OF the "beSt
people" of the "best and bravest" was GOnven-
tently near, and in moment murderous
throng poured ont of the building where they
were assembled, opening a deadly fire upon the
unarmed, defenseless aud flying negroes
How many We're killed DO one knows, and no
ton of things still in Danville is such that the
truth cannot be learned. That they were shot
in the backs like dogs while running away; that
no pistol shot was fired by black man; that no
white man was injured, save by his own friends;
that for days the poor victims were found dead
in alleys, in warehouses, and under houses like
poisoned rats that had crawled away to die;
that the negroes fled to the woods to the State
of North Carolina, to the four winds OF heaven;
these are few OF The facts of this blOOdy,whOle-
sale murder, which was telegraphed far and
near by BourbOns an insolent uprising of the
blacks against the whites.
simultaneously with these occurrences the
crack of the Bourbon weapon engaged in politi-
cal murder resounded, and the Bourbon knife
sank deep in the counties of Charles CtV. Hall
fax, Hanover, Floyd Augusta, Lee, and else
where, mingling with Sabbath day sympathiss
from the Bourbon capital, and the race cry was
shouted with brutal feroety intense enough
to make Virginia the rival of any Southern State
in her record of blOodshed and lawlessnes.
These, fellow-citizens, were the means resorted
to. The effects were all that the bulldOzers
could have hoped for.
GATHERING THE FRUITS OF THE MURDERS.
Murders, deliberately planned and executed
with remorseless maignity, were presented to
the remote and ignorant whites of the valley and
southwest as the unavoidable sef-defense of
these wolves against their lamb assailanrs.
Without the means of informing themselves of
the baseness of these falsehoods, thousands of
our party, deluded and deceived, yielded to an
impulse of generosity SO fouy played upon, and
in the region where these felonies were permit
ted, the murderers themselves paraded the
streets, armed to the teeth, under the pretense
of preserving order, until, In the city of Dan
Vile, where Cameron received, in 1881, votes
numbering 789, and Wise, in 1882, received 841
votes, and where 1879 Readius:er votes were
enrolled, but twenty-six votes were Cast for the
coalition candidate, whose life was threatened,
and whose coffin, il is said, had been actually
made ana paid for by che party of honor and in
tel!igence.
In the counties O. Faifax and Charlotte adj
jacent to Pittsylvania, the policy of purchase,
as well as rioting prevailed. and while the
methods were little less violent, thev were
none the less corrupt. Thus it was that Halifax,
with a colOrec voting population of 1914
against 3,054 whites, after giving John s. Wise
548 majority in 1882, gave the Bourbons $50
majority in 1888. And Charlotte, with a black
voting population OF 2,O55, and a white popu-
lation of 1893, after giving John 8. Wise 1852
majority in 1882. gave a Bourbon majority of
300 in 1888. That these majorities were honest
sane man will imagine. How they were
brought about Will IN due time be made appar
ent
The above are only samples of the methods re-
sorted to by the Bourbons. Bribery and corrup-
tiOn appear tO have been The order of proceed
ings generally y>thrOughout the State.
In the history OF politics in this State the re-
cent campaign is, thank God, without prece-
dent and TO the forebearance and long suffering
of the Readjusters, and to this alone is due the
fact that this State is not now bathed in blood.
To me, as Vrginian, former slave-owner
ana an ex-confederate, the saddest feature OF
this reign of terror is the suffering it has infct
ed upon the negroes here This unfortunate
people have had a fate as black as their skins
They were originally torn from their home and
country and enslaved by whites; they were then
freed from bondage, botn without any agency
of their own; and now when they act on their
rights voluntarily accorded to them, they are
shot down like dogs for party purposes by the
beneticiaries of their toll for Centuries I'm
less such outrages are punished, and their per-
petrators branded as they deserve, we may
we'll despair of the maintenance of State or popu-
lar rights, for both have been violated and de-
graded.
The result of these Outrages has been to add
the crime of murder to the already long list OF
Bourbon Offenses. The responsibility for the
crime rests upon the leaders of that faction who,
by incepdiary appeals, intiamed the brutal per-
petratOrs to commit these deeds.
REACTION SURE TO COME
That the reaction will come, and that swiftly
and completely, is not matter of doubt. IL is
true that Bourbopism has gained o triumph