Nevada County picayune., 1889-08-07
"sCROPs OF HISTORY"

Here follows few ''Scrops of hls- tory" of the reign of Powell1. 9th CTS will come as the ''clouds roll by From the St. Louis Republic we ex- tract the following:
 Special Correspondence to the Republic.
 LITTLE ROCK, ARK, July lO.-lt 1 is strange that there is not some con nected printed narrative extant of the operations of the old Clayton militia of this state. The only work of that kind ever written may now be said to be extinct, as only traditional and visionary copy of it still said to be in existence is often heard of but never seen, although there are doubt less copies of it still in existence, buried away in homes of remote in terior counties of the State and treas ured as evidence against the Danton of that modern reign of terror.
 The book was issued by democrat ic members of the Arkansas legisla- ture, after the Clayton militia had been disbanded and dispersed. It includes not only record of the op- erations of the armed forces of the then Governor, but in addition, the full text of the articles of impeach ment presented against him by the Democrats of the legislature, which, while defeated by the Republican majority, served the purpose Of ar raigning him and his crimes before the enlightened judgment and con science of the world.
 WHERE THE RECORD IS.
 The record of all these crimes and all the legislative and judicial acts by which they were defended by Ar kansas Republicans, at the time of their commission and afterward, is, however. ac,2. .sible. The records of the Republican legislature of that era, where not purposely mutllated or erased, show parts of 1t. Two parts are strikingly shown by two separate legislative acts, one ot which authorized the payment, out of the impoverished United States treasury, of all wages due the militiamen and all expenses accruing from their mounting, armament, equipment and maintenance. Another is the bill granting amnesty and pardon to all members of the militia guilty of crimes against the State. This Is, perhaps, the most remarkable act oi any legislative body which ever had an existence as the law-making pow CT of community. The spectacle of the legislative branch of a govern, ment adopting sweeping statutes which usurped the executive func- ton of the same government, in or der to defeat and forestall the action of the judicial arm of it, was never equalled before or since.
 Itwas taken to save, from retribu' tive justice, a number of the murder CTS of the Clayton gang who had been indicted by grand juries in va rious counties of the State, and oi whose guilt there was such over whelming proof that the Judiciary could not be trusted to effect theil release. They were accordingly re moved from the control of the civi authorities and the operation of the criminal statutes by general am nestv law. There was no precedent for such action, but Clayton had just | Ouc ItStillbluuCt lO ANaI'oiNoh hN could make a precedent wherever he wanted one.
 After the Democrats first took control of the legislature, in 1874, they appropriated money to defray the necessary expenses of collecting all the facts and statistics, covering the organization and equipment oi the Clayton militia, the elements composing it, it's crimes against life and property, and the manner i'll which it and its illegal acts had been sustained and its members protected from punishment by the Republican party then in power.
 This record was prepared. IL was very full and exhaustive. Col. Fishback, then as now prominent III the politics of the State, was the chairman of the committee which prepared it. It was forwarded to Hon. A. II. Garland, then United States Senator from Arkansas, to be used by him in defending the State against the charges then being made by Clayton, supported and sustained by the national Republican