The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-15
THE VIRGINIA BoURRoNs.
Victory Achieved by Trampling Law and
Justice Under Foot.

state was bordering on a condition of war,
and the only wonder is that the Danville
massacre was the only wholesale one that oc-
CURED. The Bourbon faction exhausted the
supply of firearms everywhere, and how
many were brought into the State for the oc-
casion will never be known. A gentleman
of high character informed me to-day that
friend of his who was making purchase of
some sort in store in Baltimore a week be-
fore election, and therefore four days before
the bloody work at Danville, was told that
during the brief time he was in the store
seven orders for firearms were there received
from Danville. Another prominent citizen
told me that as early as July Funder told
him that his party intended to buy all the
votes they could and that when they had
exhausted that process they intended TO
bully enough to make the thing sure. An
other man was told boastinglv by a Bourbon
in October that on the 1st of November his
party would spring something on the Co.
alitonists that would beat them, and that
it would be too late for them to counter
act it,
1t is now evident that the mine thus to be
exploded was the race ISSUE and that the
iEstrumentality was to be the Danville cir
cular This is shown by the fact that these
precious documents were sent into counties
prior to Nov. 1, with directions to withhold
them from circulation until that day. The
circular was the chief burden of discussion
at Bourbon meetings between the 1st and
the 5th On election day dispatches were
sent from Danville saying that the white
men were standing in their doorways with
shot guns protecting their wives from vio-
lence at the hands of the negroes, and they
did not dare to leave their homes to go to
the polls These infamous roorbacks were
nrlOtpH and foil thick Hal-a
around the streets in remote towns of the
southwest The Bourbons in these localities
would take them, and holding them up to
conservative white Readjusters, would say;
Are you a white man? Well. if you are,
here is the evidence that the fight has come
down between the white race and its enemies.
Which side are you on|' Photographs we're
exhibited, one OF a colored teacher shaking
mis- fist at q delicate white child causing it
to cry, while another represented a black
school trustee holding white child on one
knee and black one on the other The
confident manner in which the BOurbons
declared that the whites of Danville were at
the mercy of the blacks, and the aggressive
tone in which they demanded that their
listeners should instantly decide which race
was entitled to their sympathy and support
overpowered the amazed and bewildered
communities where few blacks resided and
took them completely off their feet. The
widest panic was created by this bold and
infamous fraud, and there is no room for
doubt that the declaration that vote for the
coalition candidates would be q vote on the
side of the Danville negroes led to the nat
ural inference that to castsuch vote would
be to invite personal violence
STATEMENTS THAT CANNOT BE DIsPkoVED.
There was no way to disprove the asser-
tions as to the condition of affairs in Dan
vile, for the reign of terror there was such
~ i
take the risk of transmitting a truthful dis
patch if any one could have been found
so careless of his life as to frame one A
letter from that place says that the escape
of Sims from there was almost miraculous.
1t will be remembered that he was
the coalition candidate for the Sem
ate in the district in which Danville
is situated He spoke there on the dav
before the massacre, and exposed the cTcu-
lar, which till then had not been generally
seen by any but the BOurbons 1t was evil
IDENTIFY not intended for circulation at the
place where its absurd and grotesdue tales
could only excite derision. The whites of
Danville were in no more danger from the
blacks at any time than cats would have been
from an equal number of mice. 1t has been
the boast of the South that while her sons
We're at the front during the rebellion they
relied greatly on the fidelity with which the
women and children they had left behind
would be cared for by the gentle and aifec-
tionate negroes. A member of the military
company sent from Richmond to DlnVille to
preserve order, says that negroes kneeled at
their feet, and, clGsping them around the
knees pured out their thanks to God for the
arrival of protection. The number of the
bodies of the negroes found since the day of
the massacre is unknown but is believed to
be much greater than the public has yet
learned. The reign of terror still contin-
ues there, and committee OF forty is about
to make an investigation, under Bourbon
direction. The entire truth it will be
difficult 10 ascertain at any time, but
committee of the United States senate would
doubtless be able to obtain testimony
enough, which could not be controverted,
| to show that the Danvlle affair and many
| lesser deeds of violence elsewhere i'll the
Slate, together with the highly wrought con-
| dition of the public mind produced by the
lawless methods Of the Bourbons, prevented
anything like a free expression OF the popu-
lar will in the recent so-called election.
| From whatever portion OF the State men
come, all bring accounts of dongs fearful to
contemplate in Il country in which liberty
and law are said to exist give few speci-
mems winch | recall from conversations I
| have heard. Some time before the election
at the county seat OF Madison county. man
! demanded TO know OF TWO cuorcd servants
| how they would vote. They replied that
| they intended to vote the cOlittion ticket
| He said if they did they could no longer
work for him. They declined to give up
their right to vote rs they pleased, and left
The enraged employer followed them, and
wien near them drew his pistol on the one
! nearest him and exclaimed: ~ believe l