The Forrest City times., 1888-07-21
THE CRlTTEyDEy ClrSTY TROUBLE.

| IHE tkIItENDEA tuta1i IhOtnLE.
 The Advocate, . colored newspaper of this city, intimated in the last issue that the race trouble in Crittender county was perhaps "a political trick. We desire to give the facts, as near as we can get them, and if there is 8 polit ical trick it can be plainly seen that thu republicans are the tricksters, and de sire to create the impression through the North that they are being intimida ted, etc. We quote from the Memphis Avalanche, which had it's representa- tive at the seat of the trouble
 "The negro population of Crittenden outnpmbers the white ten to one, and for years the affairs of the county have been administered by it's most ignorant element. Negro officials exhibit their incapacity and insolent disregard for the law on every side. Eighteen of the twenty magistrates are negroes who know no more about law than bull frog. The chairman, judge and clerk of the county court and the representa- tive in the legislature belong to the dominant race. The docket of the crim- inal court is filled, page after page, with the record of the corruption and crimes that grand jury after grand jury have laid to the charge of this delectable body of administrators on the afflicted body politic."
 At the last October term of the circuit court, D. w. Lewis, the colaped county judge, and David Ferguson, the clerk of the county court, were indicted for habitual drunkenness. It is supposed that this was one cause for the cQmmo- tion among their race.
 They are so accustomed to carrying on their miserable farce of government unrestricted, that they resent any inter- fereDce as an infringement upon their vested rights of plumber and debauch- cry. It has also been given out that the present grand jury will present in dictments against other negro officials and this report has had the effect of stirring up the whole dusky gaug to a desperate effort in their own behalf be- fore the law can take hold of them. Anothef cause of trouble was furnished toward the latter part of last month by a row between white saloon-keeper and negro at Charlottesville. The negro vas put out of the saloon and re- turned with gun, accompanied by sev- eral armed friends, and shot at the white man. The saloon- keeper in the meanti time had fixed himself. and in the end the negroes were driven away. When the report got abroad, the ne- groes of the vicinity got their guns and assumed threatening attitude. The whites followed suit, and since that time, while no actual collision has oc- cured, bloodshed has been expected at any moment. This trouble, in connec- tion with that resulting from the in- dictments already found and in pros. pect, has rapidly spread among the ne- groes of the county until they are ready for any desperate enterprise into which their interruptions leaders may beguile them. Within the last ten days num- Der of we'll known citizens, including Sheriff Werner, have received letters ordering them to leave the county, with threats of assassination if they remain. In addition to these warnings, more than one white man has been told by his colQred servants that the negroes were preparing for campaign of mur- der, but the faithful ones were afraid to give the names of those engaged in the conspiracy, for fear of being killed by them. Any one who knows how po- tent is the terrorism exercised by negro organizations over individuals of their own race will appreciate the risk run by these honest fellows in warning their employers of their danger. Yesterday the postmaster at Marion found in the office large package of letters written in disguised hand. Among those to whom they were addre ssed were A. II. Ferguson, an old resident of that place, l.. F. Berry and R. F. Crittenden, prom inent lawyers, Tom Mosby and Sheriff Werner. The letters were as follows :
 Tuesday. July 10, 1858. ''Sir-lf you do not leave Marion in five days from date, your life will pay the forfeit.
 THIS IS OUR
 LEAST WARNING '"
 No signature was attached. The number of such threats distributed through the mails is estimated at not less than 500, and the persistence with which they have been sent in the last week has convinced even the most skep- ticai among the whites that the negroes mean mischief.
 The whites at once armed themselves and prepared for the worst.
 They remember only too well the time when Powell Clayton's brutal mi- litia harried the county from one end to the other, and when murdered men and outraged women marked their pathway. They are determined, once for all, to settle the question whether white people shall be permitted to live secure on the soil that be- longs to them. It behooves them to as- sert themselves in an unmjstakable manner. It was evident from inter- views with a number of colored men. that the notices to leave did not grow out of any widespread differences be- tween the whites and blacks, there be- ing no feeling whatever of i'll will to- wards the whites among the c0lored masses. It was evidently due. if not to the causes above mentioned, to at least the machinations of very few negro politicians. In this connection 1t may be noted that Dave Ferguson had recently returned from the Chicago convention, and it would be no violent presumption to assume that the affair was coneocted there or instigated by designing politicians in that quarter.
 The citizens at their meeting resolved that the host way to secure order was to make the authors of the disorder leave the county and state. The reso- lution was unanimous that the male factors must go, and that they must stay away.
 Accordingly nineteen of these lawless