Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-03-06
COpiah County Speaks for Itself.

/ talked not wisely but too well. When
one ef them said, IF you should send
your biggest man, General Grant, dowr
into our county to organize the negroes
he would be killed at once" the crowd
of Democratic sympathizer, in the com,
mittse room applauded. These reckless
brutes did not stop to think that thai
burst of applause would be heard in
every part of the Union.
Rarely, if ever, has such complete
exposure been made of the intolerance
which is typical of the Southern Dem
ocracy as in this hearing, and OF neces
sity the men were entirely unconscious
of the impression they produced upon
hearers from the North, where, though
politics is bitter and stormy enough, d
mans right to his own opinion and his
own life is respected. The committee
had before them Meade, the editor Of the
Copian paper, who led the mob, and was
and is chairman Of the Democratic COM
mittee, and presided at the meeting
which adopted the famous resolutions
Hargraves, the sheriff, " no should have
exercised the powers of the law against
the murderers; Dodds, a young lawyer,
who rewrote the resolutions before their
adoption. and others. The "Eigh-toneG
and elegant" citizens of Cnpiah, as one
Of the witnessed said they were, were
thus officially represented, so to speak,
in the matter of the murder Of Matthews
and others.
The tone of all these witnesses was
the reverse of apologetic. Meade did not
deem it his duty" to make any allusion
to the Matthews murder or the outrages.
1t never occurred" to hirs to do so. The
mob was made up of "taxrayers' and
good men, He thought it would have
been better if the resolution warning
Matthews not to vote had not been
passed-"better for Matthews" He
calmly admitted that he approved the
resolutions adopted at the meeting after
Matthews murder, and when asked if
he approved of the action of the mob
also, said that depended entirely upon
circumstances"
MI. DOdds gave the committee to un-
derstand that it was only through his
efforts that the enlightened and elegant"
citizens of Copiah were restrained from
electing Wheeler, the murderer of Mat
thews, to be Mayor, and he even depre-
Gated his being made Marshal, which
Was the honor finally bestowed upon a
man the blood upon whose hands WAS
hardly dry. (lt is already a matter of
history that Wheeler failed of the DEM
Ocratic nomination for Mayor by only
thr6e vOtes.) Dodds struck out of the
resolutions one ordering the Matthews
family to leave the county, but suffered
the rest TO stand, including the follow
ing which he thought unfair:
WHEREAS, Certain rumors are current
that the relatives of the late j. T. Mat
thews have threatened the peace Of So
ciety in order to avenge his death, by
killing Democrats and destroying their
property; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, BY the people of Copah
County in mass meeting assembled this
day at the Court House of said county,
that if any person shall be injured, or
attempted to be injured, either in person
or property in any manner by said rela-
tiYes or friends of said j. p Matthews,
that we hereby declare that We will hold
his said relatives or friends who partici-
pate accountable for the same, and that
we hereby regard them without the pale
and protection of the law, and common
enemies of society, and that We will visit
upon them certain and swift retributioB.
We have thought it worth while to
reprodu this resolution TO show what
leading Copiah County Democrat
thought, under the circumstances, to be
unfair" But the policy of complete
immunity for Democratic murderers-
certain and swift retribution" for the
avengers of murder, seems to have suited
everybody else, and may be set down as
the Democratic code of morals in COpiah
County. Mr.. Dodd'S testimony further
showed how correctly the meeting which
passed those resolutions represented
popular sentiment. One of them warned
any persons who attempted to organize
hn hot IL
their peril. This witness declared that
he approved this most emphatically,"
that General Grant would be killed if he
should try it, and that they would have
taken human life, if it had been neccs-
sary, in order to get rid of the Inde-
pendents. He would not admit that the
resolutions were 'disgraceful,o but
thought it was "bad policy" to pass them.
There is nothing in all this inconsist-
ent with the practices Of the Democratic
party in the, South. The showing need
surprise none but those who continually
insist that manifestations like these SIM
ply illustrate the low tone of Southern
civilization without regard to party. in
spite of the fact that they are to be seen
in one party only.-N. Y. Tribune.
The Importance of manufactures in
increasing the value of farm lands and
products, and the wages Of farm labor
ers, is well indicated in the report of
MIR. j. r. Dodge, the statistician of the
Agricultural Department. In the man
utacturing States farm laborers receive
an average of S45S per annum, while in
the agricultural! States the average is
Sl6O In the former States the average
value OF farming land is SIT "a per acre
as compared with $50 81 in States where
there is comparatively little manufactu-
ring. The value of farm products is
similarly enhanced by the presence of
manufactures. This is one of the manv
proofs that a protective policy pays far