National Republican., 1888-05-14
NIX. NELLEY WRITES \ LETTER.
He Tells Some scorching Truths About
the Mobile Riot in 1866.
IIOrsE Or RErREsrNTATIyEs, z. 5.

uhNs from Tue CITY Is ple lGOm you WHICH
reads as follows
Hos. W, y. KELLEY, Washington, u. C.--Sir!
| hud In the Mobile DQRg register OF Wcdncs.
ncsday, 2lst instant, what purports to he
Washington dispatch from which extract as
Judge W. u. Kelley, well known as Pig
Iron Kelley looks fifteen years younger than
his age. lie seems to get thinner as he gets
older, but his color Is good and his hand
steady, his foot light, and his hair still holds
Yes am very we'll for a man who has been
| throughUs much us have, he said. I once
| was shot and once had more than sixty shots
| IN what is known as the Kelley riot in Mobile,
| Ala, In 1867, under Andy johnson, While
| speaking there was attacked under very
| on by cut throat whose name is now well
| known IN connection with patent car, lie
meant TO kill me, The platform was
| aud several men were slain by my side 1t
| was u fearful scene, and that villain was
| solely responsible for H. Last year when at
! and | scattered him every time by simply
moving toward him when he stopped. AS
soon as he saw me he whipped up aud took u
| very uncomfortable. fearing that might
| speak to him, or perhaps, that would expose
| him TO the crowd would not like to harbor
| in my breast that wretch's conscience.
| VIII you he so good as TO inform me II you
| are correctly quoted above or not, rs there
| can hc no question that ! am the person al
| luded to Respectfully, W. ID. MANN.
You are not mistaken IN supposing that
| you are the person to whom alluded In
| the course Of a conversation with Mr..
| CrOlrut, who is, / suppose, the author of
| the communication to which you refer.
| The facts touching the Mobile riot set forth
| In that communication, both as to the
danger in which was involved, the wound
| ing and killing Of others, and your response
| bilty fUl that riot, anil its terrible results
are substantially correct. | am, however,
not responsible for the language used by
| the reporter of the interview. | did not as
| hc represents, limit tile number of shots
| fired III me to sixty. They must have cx-
ceodcd hundred, and said that when the
military authorities on the next morning
examined the plastcrcd wall in front of
which was speaking, when your creatures
| opened fire on me they found siXty-fve
| distinct bullet marks and several
| Ublasions, which had, they believed,
been made by bullets. did
not apply the term cut throat and villain to
| YOU. as am not in the habit of using such
| elithets. But looking back through q vista
| Of nearly twenty-one years. and cOntcm-
| plating the Infamous means to which you
resortcd TO produce that riot, feel that if
| those epithets were ever deserved 10y a man,
might well have applied them to YOU.
| You have not been quick, Col Mann, to
|
charge you invited when, on the
approach 10 Mobile Of the late
Henry Wilson, Of Ma ,achuseits, anu
myself, not together, but Ov different routes
and ON successive days, neither knowing OF
the others intention 10 visit Mobile at the
time, you, in the columns Of the Mobile
Times, the Infamous sheet YOU owned, AMI
responsibility for whose utteranccs you
avOwod in my parlor at the Battle House In
the presence Of representatives of The NGw
| Yo,k Uodid, Philadelphia inJt'rrr. and
| the Cincinnati Commercial, anuOuuc ed that
| two northern agtators We're coming to Mo-
bile, and Immediately advised the people Of
that city to treat them with indifference
| hy ignoring them entirely. Those who
knew the character of your sheet and ite
readers interpreted this paragraph as an in
| vitatiOn to personal violence, and induced
Senator Wilson to leave Mobile without de
livering the address he had been invited to
make. lie left the city before | arrived,
aud as remained you determined 70 effect
my banishment or assassination, and in the
Times of the morning Of the day on which
| was to speak misrepresentcd my ma
| tivity, and the faith which had
characterized my ancestors from long
before the days when, in 1864, they sailed
up the Delaware and settled at Salem n. J.
In an infammatory paragraph you said
that, ''though was an apostate from my
/
OF Mobile would not serve me as the people
Of Boston had served an Irish Catholic
| deputy marshal, whom they had found in
the act Of executing an order of the United
States court by conducting slave TO its
owner, and who, in their wild fury, they
tore limb from limb on Boston common.n
Col. VIM. ID. Mann, you are mistaken in
supposng that the gentlemen who were in
my room when you visited me are dead
| Nearly twenty-one years have elapsed, but
| some of them live to bear witness that you
admitted the falsity Of the statement as to
| the Irish marshal; that you expressed re-
| gret that You had inserted the innamatory
article, and that you promised to issue an
| extra edition containing a letractiOn of the
statement and an expression of your regret
repeat that you are slow TO feel
the infamy OF this charge You have
lived quietly under II for more than twenty
| years, and now, for the first time, ask who
is responsible for making known your
| agency in fOmenting that murderous riot.
| On my way to Philadelphia, in accordance
with prc-eNisting engagements, spoke at
Montgomery, Ala: In Georgia, at several
| points in North Carolina, and at Danville
Va, without arousing any prejudice,
though the address was, in each case
substantially that which | was making
when your miniOns fired upon me,
| and the thousands Of people who
had assembled to hear me. Soon after my
| return home, my constituents and fellow
| citizens at large gathered by thousands,
! with music and banners and blazing fam
| beauS, and congratulated me on my seem
ingly miraculous escape from the murderous
mob you lad hisscd upon me. They came
on the evening of June Il, 1867. and what
said to them in response to their address of
congratulation was reported in the columns
| OF the Philadelphia Inquirer. The opening
| passage Of that address, as reported, read as
| follows:
Ny FHIENDs, NrIGnRoRS, ASD CONSTITUENTS:
| am profoundly grateful for this d0monstra
| tion of your afteetonate interest. never
Uusly uttered by Mr. Person, was until during
| ny recent absence from you when covering
| my body was shielded from them by those of
| two negroes, who periled their lives TO save
mine, realized how. dear were home, kin
| dred, and friends. | LEFT You at the in.
mayor Of New Orleans to visit that distant
| state and city, hoping that | might serve our
distracted country, and eager 10 view that
nearly one,hall of our country, FROM, which,
| by reason of my love OF personal liberty,
s ma been 80 l9ng e%elgSaed did not dream
man, but believing that the truths which for
the last eleven years have been in the habit
@Sf procaiming TO you would be, specially use,
gladly avalled myself Of me ' Opportunity iiHS'
| Of utterng them kindly aud courteously in
| their midst; and, my friends, throughout my
extended excursion ! was received with all
me Kindness and courtesy the people were
able TO bestow ON me save In one city. |
therefore beg You not to charge the murderous
spirit Of the Mobile nab 10 the southern
people NJ large. Applause That out.
rage was due more. largely to Andrew
johnson, the reGctiunaly President Of
the United States, than even 10 the muni.
clral authorities OF Mobile or the mob they
should have held in suhiection The chief
promoter of that murderous riot was Il
recreant nortlerner, who had been sent TO
that city by the President as assessor Of in.
ternal revenue, Col. Mann, formerly OF Mlchi.
gan. who owns tlp Mnbiln ywn..a fpi,nt ,,n,,n,,