Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-08-13
MEMPHIS EXCITED.
Justice Thought to Have Been Out
ragged in the King Case.
The Prisoner Spirited Away 10 the Custody
OF u Onc-I eggcd SheriH-Ilis Pos
sible Escape Avengers ON
the Trail.

intense excitement was caused here
when the announcement that Governor
Buchanan had committed the sentence
of II. Clay King, who was to have been
hanged Friday for the murder Of D. II.
Poston The feeling OF the people was
further intensified by the bitter COM
ments of the newspapers on the eXecu-
tive's action and u mass meeting
was held, at which Gov. Buchanan
was to have been hung in efigy. This
was not done at this meeting, however,
as many prominent citizens counseled
moderate action. Later an efiigy OF the
states executive was burned by few
enraged citizens.
The feeling over the governors &C
ton is very bitter indeed and last even
ing it was given out that the Jail would
be attacked and the notorious prisoner
lynched. So great was the anxiety that
the criminal court judge, j. j. Dubose,
issued the following order late yester-
day evening:
at appearing to the court that there
is now undue excitement in the public
mind because of the Communication OF
sentence of Ii. Clay King, who was by
the supreme court sentenced to hang
on August IL, 1892, and it further APP
pearing, that because of threatened mob
violence, it is not safe to longer keep
said King in the county Jail OF Shelby
county: it is therefore ordered by the
court that the sheriff of Shelby county
without delay, take said King and de-
liver him to the keeper of the peni-
Tertiary at Nashville, in pursuance
to the order as made by the governor
committing his sentence to life impris-
onment in the penitentiary OF the
state"
King was spirited away last evening
and may escape mob violence. The
whole country is aroused. kilograms
from Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennes-
see are pouring in protesting with fiery
indignation against the action OF the
governor
Sheriff McLendon took Col. H. Clay
King from the Jail last evening and out
of the city on the Chesapeake Il Ohio
railroad, en- route to Nashville. The
sheriff is one legged and unaccompanied
by deputies Kings son is with Tho
party and there are some fears OF an
attempted escape. The Louisville IL
Nashville train leaves at 1859 and con-
meets with the train carrying the pris-
oner at Mckenzie at 3 o'clock. 1t is
currently rumored that forty friends of
.....ol Nth lVinnLncfarS f0nl-
this train and will try to overtake the
prisoner and if they do there will doubt
less be lynching.
A severe rainstorm, which began at
10 o'clock, had subsidized as a crowd OF
people assembled at the corner OF Main
and Madison streets, the most central
point in the city, and after hanging an
effigy of Gov. Buchanan to q telegraph
pole set the dummy on fire and watched
it burn. No speaking was INDUCED in.
This mornings Appeal Avalanche in
discussing the subject said: 1.-The gov
ernor's power in the matter is absolute
and exclusive. The responsibility is his
alone. He is not required to give reas-
.ons. He may yield to any passing ca
price to appeal to his sympathies, to
prejudice, and yet his authority remains
indisputable and supreme. II his deter
mination of the King case is to be taken
as a precedent then we see no reason why
any other criminal should ever be
hanged in Tennessee. King, in cold
blood, after careful deliberation, shot
down David H. Poston, unarmed and
unsuspecting 1t was highway as
,sassination, in which the victim was
given no chance to defend himself
There could not have been a murder
more heinous. When the trial was had
the murderer himself, with the most
extraordinary assurance, protested
against the introduction of the insanity
plea"
The Evening Scimeter vehemently de-
nounces the governor in q sensational
editorial Astounding in such sentences
as these: "He has spit upon the courts
of the state and nation and held out his
hand to save an assassin In whose per-
son was conferred, and upon whose fate
depended, the question whether money
and influence in the south was sufficient
to make distinction between persons
convicted of cold blooded murder.
"The rescue of H. Clay King from the
Qallows, to which all the courts of the
country, after careful review OF the
evidence, had condemned him. was q
crime more damnable even than the
murder of Poston.
Buchanan has risen above all law, all
rights, all justice. What King did as
citizen, he has done as the chief execu-
tive of the state. He has taken the law
into his hands He has justified the
murder of Poston. He has saved the
assassin. He has taken the smoking
pistol from Kings hand, stepped into
his shoes, dipped his hands in the blood
of his victim, and trampled upon the
- l.. o1ad law He EAe turnPd