Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-12-11

this county recently was that of negro,
Phil. Page, at the hands of white grog-
shop keeper, John Hall. Phil. Page, the
negro killed, was a Democrat, and had vo-
ted with the Democrats for four years.
john Hall was also Democrat. tits plain
that politics had no connection with the
| crime.
! T. Leo.
I've homicides, without political siQni-
feAncs or any influences whatsoever on the
election, occurred In this county. Zach.
Yeary, Coalitionist, was killed by Charles
Willoughby, Democrat, ON the day afte,
the election. They were disputing about
the merits of the respective parties, and got
! to blows, in the course of which Yeary
drew pistol and shot Willoughby in the
breast. Thereupon Willoughby, in self
defence, shot and killed Yeary. Willough-
by's act has been recognized as one Of self
defence by three justices of the peace-one
a prominent Coalitionist- were unan
imously in favor of his acquittal
Carter, who was killed at Turkey Cove,
was accidentally shot by man whose pis-
tol was discharged during struggle to pre-
vent fight between two other men. Car
ter had ncquarrel with either Of the men,
and was standing at some distance from
| them.
8. Town of Danville.
The public has already read the temper
ate and convincing statement made by a
committee of forty citizens of Danville, OF
| which Major W. T. Southerlin was chair
man, after examining under oath thirty
| seven witnesses of the street fight of the Sd
Of November, who were personally known
30 fba
men present. 1t is therefore only necessary
briefly to recapitulate the testimony ac-
companying this report, the whole current
of which negatives the idea of any precon-
certed plan on the part of the whites to at
tack the blacks, or to provoke an attack
from the blacks. The white people of Dan
vile, on the contrary, will be found to have
displayed the utmost forbearance and self
control under the,most trying circumstances
This, coupled with the absence of any
reasonable motive to bring on aibloody con-
fliet in the midst of their wives and chill
dren, ought to predispose every fairminded
man to that rejection of so unnatural a
charge to which he will surely be led by the
irresistible logic of the facts.
Let these undisputed facts speak.
1t must be promised that since the cleo
ton of May, 1882, Danville has been under
negro government, with negro policemen,
and that belief had grown up in the
minds of the negroes that, as against white
men, they would, in every case, receive the
support and protection Of the municipal
government. In consequence, they had be-
come rude and insulting to the whites, and
bad feeling had been mutually brought about.
This tendency to race excitement had been
aggravated by the heated canvass of the
last few months, and had been specially in
| tensifed on the night of the I'd of Novem-
Der by an incendiary speech delivered by a
Coalition leader (Sims) to an audience of
500 negroes. In this fevered state of feel
ing, on the Sd of November, between 3 and
3 o'clock, a fst-fght-the second of that
day-between white man (NoelD and a
negro Nawson) struck the spark which
kindled a violent but brief explosion.
| And here it is important to observe that
both Of these fist-fghts were brought on by
insults first proceeding from the negro
Lawson and his companion, and the negro
Lawson is the same who had on 1st Of No
| vember offered an unprovoked insult to a
white man (Taylor) who was quietly pass
ing through crowd of colored people.
A little after midday on the Sd of No
vember NOEL, passing down the street, had,
| without any provocation been, insulted by
Lawson and his colored companion. This
| NOEL resented with blows, and passing on
determined to let the matter drop and go
into the country, expressing his determi-
nation to keep out of further trouble on &C
count Of the prevailing excitement. But
afterwards, rs he was driving along in a
buggy, he was, without provocation on his
part, three times defiantly jeered at by his
late assailant Dawson, who followed him
with crowd of negroes Not able to brook
these insults, NOEL rapidly called to his
side, to secure fair play, his friends Lea and
| Taylor, white men, to whom he declared be
would strike Lawson only with his fists, and
again got to blows with the negro.
| A great crowd of blacks were now press
ing around, and Lea and Taylor bade them
stand off, as it was fair fight and the two
men should be left to fight 1t out. To en-
| force this Lea and Taylor drew their pis-
| tolls.
Shortly afterwards, as the testimony OF
B. F. Williamson shows, negro nam ed
Adams ran up behind Lea aud attempted
to snatch his pistol from him. In the scuf-
fle which followed the pistol was discharg-
ed. This pistol-shot, for which the negro
George Adams, as the aggressor, is dis
tinctly responsible, seems, to have wrought
up the crowd of 100 to 150-some say 300
negroes to an uncomfortable pitch of excite
ment; and though the colored policemen
Withers and his white comrade and Booth,
Oliver, and other white citizens, entreated
the colored people to disperse and keep the
peace cries were now heard from tho ne
groes-outnumbering the whites by GER
tatnly five, and probably ten, to one-that
''they might as well have it out there as
anywhere" firmly answered by the little
band of whites, "We are ready for you. If
you won't disperse, we'll settle it." Then
negro jumped up in the crowd and, hold
ing up pistol, shouted, Oh you,
come on At that moment firing began
from which side cannot be ascertained-
and was kept up from both sides, though
the negro policemen (Withers) testifes that
sat first the white people shot up in the air
as if to scare the people away, and then the
firing seemed to be On both sides at each
other.'
What seems certain is that if ten or fif-
teen brave white men, standing there and
facing that angry crowd so enormously OUT
numbering them, had finched for an in
stant, or retreated one foot from the ground
they occupied, they themselves would have
been butchered, and the town would have
been at the mercy of an infuriated mob.
That there was predisposition on the part
of the negroes and their Coalition leaders
to bring on disturbance is shown by the
unprovoked insult offered to Taylor on the
1st of November, and twice repeated on the
Sd to Noell; by the declaration of Epp
Barksdale, an active white Coalitionist, on
the night of November Cd: eve have got
the negroes solid against you, and I'll be
damned if we can't turn them loose on you
in Eve seconds; by the statement of Ar
rington (colored) that he heard Taliaferro,
leader of the negroes, say about 12 o'clock
on the Sd of November, "There will be a
difficulty here today; and, lastly, by the
infammatory speech Of Sims on the night OF
the I'd.
During the fight all the leading! white
men of Danv1lle were gathered in public
meeting in the Opera-house. A few of them
reached the scene of the conflict towards its
conclusion, and by their aid peace and or
der were Immediately restored by the local
authorities, so that on election-day there
was not a quieter town in the country than