Daily Republican., 1884-02-19
PISTOL AND LASH.
MISSISSIPPI RED WITH CRIME
UNITED STATES SENATORS
IMPLICATED.

New ORLEANS, Feb. Ex-senator
H0ar's committee still further estab
lished to-day that the murders in MIS-
sissippi last fall were purely political.
A Copiah County lawyer appeared at
Senator Sausbury's side to assist him
in examining theRepublican witnesses.
He was one of the active sympathlZers
with the mob The colored witnesses
who came down to-day did not dare TO
take the cars at HaZlehurst, and so
walked several miles to another station.
They were intelligent people most of
them could read and write.
| Dave Bell, chairman of the Republic
can County Committee, testified that he
was whipped before election and RepuG-
ican tickets taken away from him. He
recognized his assailants, but did not
think it prudent to name them. Tom
Wallace's widow, her arm still in shng,
told how her husband was killed be-
fore her eyes, as the mob said, Be-
cause he was Republican" She, with
nearly all the colored people, lived in
the woods Tor a month. One son, Josh,
stayed at home and voted, but at the
peril of his life.
Handy Fortner a good-looking col
ored man, described minutely how he
was taken out at night and whipped by
a gang of twenty. They told him if he
voted the Republican ticket they would
blow his brains out. He did so, and
then hid in the woods for over two
months. Half dozen other colored
men testified to similar experience,
and that at night, for long time, very
few negroes dared to sleep in their
houses.
j. IT. Bouderant, young white man,
whose father was in the rebel army,
gave description Of what he called a
perfect reign of terror. He heard Con-
gresham Barksdale's campaign speech
in the Hazlehurst court house. Over a
hundred men, with rifles belonging to
the State of Mississippi, were present.
Addressing them, Barksdale said he
was glad to see fixed determination to
carry the election, no matter what the
issue. Barksdale advised them to hang
f. M. Buck, the Republican supervi.
sor of election, SO high that the birds
Of prey could not bury their beaks in
his body.
Mead, chairman of the Democratic
Committee, was excused from speaking
because he had been so long in the
saddle and wanted twenty armed men
| to be in readiness to 60 any place on
election day where he might choose to
send them. The leader of the mob said
that no negroes would vote, as they
were all in the woods, and moved to
appoint committee to bury the Inde-
pendent dead. All this in a public ro-
| litiCal meeting
Hamilton, the Democratic clerk of
the election, testified that Wheeler
killed Matthews, as tie latter was
voting, without provocation. Both
| were ChalIengers on their sides, but
there had been no anger between them.
Wheeer was the only man in the
Courthouse at the time who was armed,
but his son.in-law stOod at the door
with gun, and was the first man who
| entered When murdered Matthews
was the only Republican in the Court
house, and he was The only man who
had voted During the rest OF the day
the Republicans ha no challenges.
| r. NJ. Matthews, another brother of
the murdered uan, told how all his ten
ants had heen Obliged to leave him since
the eleckiOn. Some of them he had
gi ven tickets to Kansas. He las never
been attacked, bat has been warned
never to take any more part in politics.
His fathers cotton gin was burned re-
Gently, and the grand jury ignored it.
His father owns two large farms, and
he has nearly 700 acres Of land. He
went to man named Sexton after his
brothers death, and asked him if there
was any prospect for Republican to
live in Copiah County and be allowed
to vote.
Sexton said he would do all he could
for him, but the prospect was not very
good. Sexton told him that he had
received letters from Senators Lamar
and George and Congressman Barks-
dale urging him to get up meeting
to disavow the murder of Matthews
and the resolutions passed thereon by
the Democratic mass meeting. He had
looked around and found the mob |
would not allow it. They did not pro-
pose to let their leaders thus get rid of
a crime for which all shared the re-
spOnsibility.