National Republican., 1884-02-28
Tho pInIket Linz OF Ercn,lnni.

armed nlnselI ana toOk Tetuge III tnat gentleman
shop, where little handful ofhs coorcd friends
gathered about him When attacked, this little
band opened fire on their Assailants killing three
and wounding two more whoreupon the white men
dispersed for the night. This heroic little band
of ofcolored men then gavo themselves up TO the
sworn officers Of the law, and "put themselves
upon the country save one, John James,
who made his escape to the woods, where he was
sfterward found by the best citizens and shot like
a wild rabbit. Five days afterward band Of
armed, mounted, and unmasked "bcst citizens"
OF Yazoo City aud vicinity rode deliberately, by
the light Of the sun, to the jail, where James's
friends were confined, surrounded II, shook
hands with each other, laughed, cracked Jokes,
sang ribald songs, and, congratulatlng themselves
that theirs was a white mans government" and
that It was not yet dark, proceeded on their ca
rousal.
The three men hung were negroes The other
was a negro, too, but his hands had been left un-
tied, and when this band OF Jolly revelers entered
his cell he knocked one OF them down. Then he
fell, shot all TO pieces, bis brains bespatterng the
surrounding walls and the garments Of these
best citizens, who, one after another placed their
pistols to the head OF their PROSTATE victim and
emptied them
1t matters not that this was an ofilcer of the
ner's jury, 81 after hearing all the evidence" rem
dered verdict, upon their oaths, that these citl
zens came to their deaths cat the hands OF per.
sons to the jury unknown" Even since the in.
surrecton Of 1875, when the state was taken forci
BILE possession of by Missssippis "best and most
virtuous citizen s. led by J. z. George, Ethel
Barksdale, L, @. G. Lamar Otto r. Single.
ton. and others and Yazoo was declared
the Banner County OF the State"
colored men of that county have been whipped,
hunted by hounds. and killed, while their
mothers, wives. daughters, and sweethearts have
been reviled, seduced, raped and Yazoo law gave
them no redress.
At last the survivors like bleeding stags at bay,
have turned upon their pursuers aud rended
them. There was time in the history Of recon-
struction when the southern opponents Of 1t ex-
cused and justified the acts Of their kuklux assas-
sins on the ground that the congressional plan
while enfranehising the slaves, disfranchised
their masters.
Then universal amnesty was proclaimed. AZ
terward these same opposers justified their in
discriminate slaughter of freedmen and white re-
publicans Of the south on the ground that the
former were barbarlans the latter carpet-baggers,
and all were thieves.
Take your bayonets from our throats and al
low 10 get rid of the carpet-bagger" they said,
land We will become loyal citizens, good and
true" Then, one after another, the reconstructed
state governments were given over to their wrath.
Afterward, brave southerners born and bred,
grown weary Of government set up with the
shotgun, and maintained by fraud aud the ropes
of the mob, rebelled, declared that two parties
were essential TO government in free state, and
became independents" Up to that time Yazoo
county had not been made quite solid. At each
election there were from two to seven opposing
votes.
The last of these independent white leaders
surrendered when Henry n. Dixon, very Saul
OF Tarsus, was killed, and bis slayer, Barksdale,
elected to the legislature. Then Yazoo was solid
But one leader remained-W II. Foote. a negro
and he was killed, when the brains Of that United
States internal revenue collector bespattered the
walls Of that Yazoo jail and the garments Of
Yazoo's best citizens.
Ever since that day no information relating to
the political social status OF YaZoo county has
been allowed to escape from her borders without
the approval Of o sef-constituted committee of
her most discreet "best citizens" Then the sun
went behind the clouds hanging over Yazoo, and
ever since has refused to shine there.
Two brothers, Charles +. and Albert r. Morgan,
born in New York but reared at Fox Lake, Wis,
ono about to graduate the other just entering col
loge, upon receipt of the news OF the firing Fort
Sumter put down their books and went south
with the grand army to help recover the property
and the territory of the United States They served
at tho front to the end
When the war closed, Charles was captain of a
company of oberlin (Ohio) volunteers. The other
was in command of regiment, and guarded the
captured headquarters trains of the rebel General
Ice, from AppomRttox to tho Petersburg railroad.
He was then 81 years old, had been wounded In
the battles of the first and second Bull Run, Get
tysburg, the Wilderness, the Yellow House, and
Hatchers Run.
In the fall OF 1866, when the we'll worn phrase
60 west, young man." had been changed by the
substitution Of south" for "west," these broth
ers in company with an Illinois manufacturer,
migrated to Yazoo county, where they rented for
term Of three years a plantation OF 900 acres
open cotton land, a large cypress timber brake,
put up a sawmill which, with fixtures, cost them
Sl1 600, and, after expending about $4,000, they
were robbed and rooted out by malice and Chi
chanery.
The brothers attributed this feeling to the fact
that they had opened school on their plantation
for the children of their laborers, who numbered
more than hundred About this time, in spite
of tho vetoes of Johnson, the reconstruction acts
of congress went into effect in Mississippi, and A
t. Morgan was elected delegate to the constitu-
tional convention OF 1868. He was afterward
elected to the senate four years, and afterward
In 1873. by majority of 1924 of his
white and black fellow citizens, was made
sheriff aud tax collector for the county, which Of
fee he held when the country, in 1874 all un'
willingly, sent a blazing pine knot through the
south by the election of n national democratic
house of representatives, and up TO the insurrec'
tion of 1875, which followed. Since that date this
sheriff, robbed OF his office and his savings By
Yazoos "best citizens" has resided in this city,
refugee from his home aud friends Upon receipt
of tho particulars OF the late cruel massacres
when the light all went out in Yazoo, he begar
the task of writing, "Yazoo or on the Picket Line
OF Freedom in the South" The manuscript
which will make volume OF about 400 pages, IL
now ready for the printers, and will be issued
about the first of April.
Itisa personal narrative, in which the autho
confines his statements of facts, with two or three
exceptions. 10 the personal experiences OF hi
brother and himself, in company with the i" littl
garrison of the Yankee stronghold Of Iazoo," c
which he is now the only survivor. II begin
with their arrival in Vicksburg Q865) explain
how they came to go 10 Yazoo the same year, hoy
they came to be known as "polecats," then O
"doophies" Cdogs) then as "scalawags" then a
carpet baggers" and thence in the progress of re
construction, through all the gradatlons Of title
from distinguished gentlemen" to "murderers
and refugees" 1t explains and illustrates a"negr