Nevada County picayune., 1889-02-27
The Plummerviile Murderers.

The St. Louis Republic of the goth inst, in commenting on city exchanges charge that Democrats murdered Jno. NJ. Clayton, used the following strong and aggressive Ian guage:
 The assassination of John NJ. Clay ton is only one of the fonl crimes that have been committed at Plum merville. When the Republican party controlled Arkansas, and when Powell Clayton controlled the Re- lpublican party i'll Arkan. as. Demo- crat after Democrat was murdered at and near Plnmmervillc. by men cln- ployed by Powell Clayton, paia hy Powell Clayton with money robbed from the tax payers of Arkansas, aud by Powell Clayton shielded from the consequences of their crines-not indirectly. but directly, by act of his infamous carpet-bag and African Legislature.
 It was Powell Clayton who main tained in Arkansas standing army of negroes with bayonet9 to prevent the Democratic vote of the State from being cast and counted. IL was Powell Clayton who sent negro des- peradoes with State authority as State militia to the same town of Plummerville, as to many other towns where their crimes were as great. But Plummerville is the text. now and we will not depart from It. It was at Plummerville that Hooper was arrested by Powell Clayton's negro agents and by them riddled with bull lets. His body was found within POO yards of the spot where, by a crime not less internal, John NJ. Clay ton was assassinated. And it was by these same agents of Powell Clayton and the Republican party that, in this same county, Casey was shot and burned in his own house.
 When under the Republican reign of terror, robbery and murder were the usual methods of Republicanism in Arkansas, when such atrocities were committed and tile most abau- doned criminals shielded by legisla- tive enactment, it is almost q miracle that Arkansas should be what it has become since it was rescued from anarchy-a peaceful State, whose people have set their faces away from the past, and forgiven as far as it is possible to forgive the men who were the canker worms to destroy what the locusts of war had left. There is no one in Arkansas who does not know the Clayton record; yet for twenty years the Claytons have re- mained secure in the State while or phans who were infants in arms when their fathers were murdered were growing to manhood. It may re- quire courage for Powell Clayton to go and come in Arkansas at his pleasure as if he had no record there, but it has required higher and bet ter courage for the people of the State to leave vengeance against him and his to Providence, if it so be that by his conduct he should con- tinue to challenge it.
 Out of the ruins of war, and the worse ruins left by Republican rapine, the people of the State have been erecting for themselves new prosperity. They had resolved to ignore the past, and they arc unwil- ling to have it thrust on them now lest the old crimes should beget new. Not responsible for Clayton's crimes or for the crimes of Republication in Arkansas as he made Arkansas Republicamsm, they have been con- tent to leave them unpuhished and to wreak no vengeance on their per petrators. They have done we'll in this. They have only done ill in what they learned from Clayton, his kith and his kind.
 There was a time in Arkansas when anyone might have killed a Clayton and thought he was doing God service, but it has long passed. The people of the State would not remember the crimes of the Clayton epoch if they were not forced on their recollection by the spectacle of Powell Clayton using his brothers corpse for political capital for his party "a party by which, in spite of the infamies of its party record, the Clay ton record in Arkansas has been felt as a shameand n disgrace.
 It would have been better to leave the past alone, but as that has been rendered impossible, it remains to be said in recalling it that if John NJ. Clayton had been what he was not --the vilest of his name, the people of Arkansas would never have shield ed his murderer on account of IL. They are doing their duty without respect to persons and they will pun ish this crime against the State as all such crimes should be punished, whether a Republican is the victim or the instigator.