The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-11
MEMPHIS IN A PASSION.
vr.e,s ESCAPE sTIRs Up A STORM
OF INDIGNATION.

p#gv-Talk of Lynchiug the Pris-
oner.
cr rou1s. Mo-, Aug. 10.-A special to
cha Post Dispatch from Memphis, Tenn,
We. "The official letter Of Gov. Buchanan
conmuting the sentence of Col Fl. Clay
INC from death to imprisonment for life,
-. - racsived bv Sheriff McLendon to-day,
wa wa to-morrow King will be taken to the
%ssbville penitentiary to serve out his life
sentence"
THE GOVERNOR DENOUNCED.
MEMPHIS, TENN, Aug. 10.-The city was
thrown into state of intense excite
mant when the announcement appeared
- this mornings papers that Gov.
buchanan had commuted the sentence OF
Col r Clay King, who was to have been
hanged on Aug. 12, for the murder OF Col.
navid H. Poston. This mornings Appeal
Jr1i1ache said: "If the governors power
In tho matter is absolute and conclusive, the
rasnonsibility is his alone. He is not re-
cnired to give reasons. He may yield TO
aDy passing caprice, to any appeal to his
sympathies, to prejudice and yet his au-
tbority remains undisputed and supreme.
r. his discrimination of the King case
ia to be taken as q precedent, then
we see LO IbhoOA "bJ oAJ ObhOA
should ever be hanged in Tennessee. King,
in cold blood, after careful delibera-
tiop. shot down David Fl. Poston unarmed
and unsuspecting. 1t was a highway assas-
snation in which the victim was given no
chance to defend himself. There could not
have been murder more heinous. When
the trial was had the murderer himself,
with most extraordinary assurance, pro-
tested against the insanity plea" Discuss
inz the review of the case by the supreme
court, the AppedL-AvdlGnche continues:
"The opinion was welcomed by ell lovers
Of law and order. Its effect was not con-
throughout the whole United States
that the supreme court of
Tennessee was entitled to enduring honor
for advancing civilization to that degree.
The court did not overlook any phase of the
case; il considered the excuses King made
for his act. But the governor has brought
all this to naught. Having greater power
to save, he has met the courts power to CON-
denim and has whistled the latter's judg-
ment down the wind. With a stroke of his
pen be has given hope to every murderer In
jury and made light Of the states highest
tribunal of justice. 1t were infinitely bet
ter if the jury Of the trial court
had bade King to 60 free. We
now wish sincerely that it had
done so. 1t were even better if the gov
srnor had granted an absolute pardon. He
has acted without the support Of the trial
jduge, jury or prosecutor, usually an essen
tial prerequisite in gubernatorial olemenoy,
and it now remains for Kf1gB attorney TO
solve the question of his freedom"
ANOTHER VEHEMENT DENUNCIATIoN.
The Erening Scimitdr vehemently de-
lnAsk
rial sbounding in such sentences as these:
"He has spit on the courts Of the state and
nation and held out bis hand to save an as
sassin, in whose person was centered and
upon whose fate depended the question
whether wealth and influence in the south
weS sufficient to make distinction between
persons convicted of cold blooded murder"
The rescue of II. Clay King from the
galows, TO which all the courts of the ooun-
try, after a careful review Of the evidence,
had condemned him, was a crime more
damnable even than the murder of Poston.
He has risen above all law, all right and
all justice. What King did as a citizen he
has done as the chief executive of the state.
he has taken the law in bis own hands; he
has justified the murder of Poston; he has
saved the assassin; he has taken the smok-
ing pistol from Kings hands, stepped
INTO his shoes, dipped his
hands in the blood OF his victim and
trampled upon the already outraged law;
he has turned deaf ear to the pleadings of
the victims family for justice; he has made
The governor Of the state the champion of
murderersn
The governors conduct tears the band>
age from the eyes of justice. It pulls down
the pillars of the temple. IL paralyzes the
bTong arm OF the law; it STILES the cry of
tle widow aud orphan, makes of courts a
saam. 1t shakes the very foundation Of So
sefn
II Gov Buchanan should be shot; down
from behind pillar on the portico of the
capitol to-day, il King should be slain on
u. ns way to the penitentiary, who shall say
'nSt tne gallows would bear fruitm
TALK OF LYNCHING.
these publications aroused intense feel
lnG Amass meeting was arranged for to-
nlsht at which Gov Buchanan was
nung In ethgy. 1t was given out that
que jail would be attacked and that the
notorious prisoner would be lynched. So
great was the anxiety that Criminal Court
Judge J. J. Dubose issued the following
oraer late this evening:
MD ~ appearing to the court that there is now
~ ogtue .T excitement in the public mind because
n R sne commutaton of the sentence Of H. Clay
to 'TS bs, VINO was by the supreme court sentenced
W. ~ Iang on Aug. r. 1892 and IL further appear
iaSSoo 1uaI because Of threatened mob vio-
SotGe' IL is not safe to longer keep
Sbor King in the county jail OF
ITioy coT. county, it is therefore ordered by the
ont ~ Snat the sheriff of Shelby county, with
~ ~ GeSy, take the said King and deliver him to
Aeeper OF the penitentiary at Nashville, in
Issuance NJ, to the order as made by the COVER
rnart iI nanutlng his sentence to life imprison-
'-' IL 'he pententiary Of the state.
AyIest; JAMES F. HUNTER.
M Mng was spirited away this evening and
cow. escape mob violence. The whole
sisc;IpIy Is aroused. kilograms from Mis-
inc nPJpi, Arkansas and Tennessee are pour
agsinl ~ protesting with fiery indignation
~''usV the action OF Gov. Buchanan.
M- LOOKS LIKE LOOSE WORK.
Sbar;espF MS, TENN, Aug. 10, 1l:10 P. M
t,i to.n;at NC ciendenen took King from jail
naoL Lsuv and out of the city on the Chesa-
vIIa Hnu ~, ONO railway en- route to Nash
conro.i me sheriff is one-legged and unac-
and tpeu' Kings son Is with the party
ESQ., mere are some fears of an attempted
Ioape. The Louisville and NashyilIe train
neo.5 az az IO:5O o'clock Tonight and cons
AZ 0to -, With the train carrying the prisoner
rrr,,a1-1 -ucAenzie at 3 o'clock a. m. II ia
tbis re. 81 toat friends OF Poston will take
tbsv ram "a and overtake the prisoner. s,pd il
tro1,io 40 there will doubtless be another
rs,S ~ AT 10 o'clock tonight a severe
'aIu storm prevailed.
cro1r T. ~ O'Clock, after the rain subsfdad a
NJ OF people assembled at the cornar az
NOM 40 luu Madison streets, the most central
6gy an IN the city, and after hanging ir, az.
tbs 5,,oSV. buchanan TO a telegraph poleT set
speaL1tIIlu on IRE and watched it burn. No