The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-18
THE FIGHTING ALSTONS.
GRIM STORIES or THE DUELLING
DAYS IN GEORGIA.

ONs
{From the Louisville Courler-Journal.l
Atlanta, Ga, March 21.-The great
problem of the future in Georgia win
be the disposition of the eonvicts of the
state, There are now over twenty-five
hundred persons under sentence. OF
these fewer than two hundred are
white.
The excitement attendant upon the
disposition Of the convict question has
been sharpened by an investigation
which was held by the governor into
the treatment of the convicts.
1t was during the military governor
ship of General Thomas H. Ruger in
1868 that the convicts of Georgia were
first farmed out. The leading lessee at
that time was Chief Justice Joseph e.
Brown, who had served four terms as
governor of Georgia and who after
ward served two terms in the United
States senate. 1t may we'll be mag
ined that the convict lease system,
placed upon the state by the military
arm of the United States, in which the
benefciaries We're leaders in the demo-
cratic party, was beyond the criticism
of ordinary people, and that it would
require a brave man to raise his voice
against it.
This man, however, came to the front
in the Georgia legislature of 1874 in the
person of Colonel Robert A. Aston,
who in his place charged upon the sys-
tenn the vilest of crimes and abuses
and raised such howl that it set the
NV ha
time to break up the entire system.
The enemies which Colonel Aston
made by this fierce denunciation fol-
lowed him until they brought him to
his death in a. manner as tragic as SEN
sational
One of the men who was strongly at
tached to General Gordon was Captain
Ed Cox. Cox was a bluff, hearty,
ready fingered man-one whose readi-
ness to lavenge an insult or to resent a
slight made him considered dangerous.
Between Colonel Aston and Cox there
arose a feud which the public never
understood at the time or since, There
came a day when both men met in At
lanta, armed to the teeth, and yet each
pursuing a diplomatic avoidance of the
other. They would pass on opposite
sides of the street, or perhaps enter the
same building by opposite doors, but so
evident was the danger of a tragedy
during the day that prominent citizens
became aware of it, and instead Of
placing the parties under arrest,
watched their proceedings with curious
interest.
1t was well toward evening when the
two men met suddenly in Governor
Colquitt's office in the State Capitol,
and without word pistols were raised
and the firing began, which resulted in
the death of Colonel Aston and the
supposed mortal wounding of Captain
Cox. The tragedy occurred in the very
presence of the governor, with all the
State House officers called to the spot
by the firing.
In time Captain Cox recovered, was
tried and convicted, with a recommen-
dalton to mercy, which saved his neck,
and gave him a life sentence in the
penitentiary. Gloomy indeed did his
future seem to be, for the governor
was the ardent friend of his victim, as
was also the late Henry w. Grady,
who was at the time swinging the in
iiuCliCCS WIkCA COllllollCA LIE pOlltlCS u
the state.
The unexpected entrance of Vice
President Alex. III. Stephens of the late
Southern Confederacy into the cam
paign for the governorship of the state
upset most of the alliances which had
hitherto controlled affairs, and his
election brought hope into the prison
of Captain Cox Governor Stephens
was very anxious to get the signature
of Mr.. Grady to the petition for Cox's
pardon. A local political leader UNDER
took to secure it, succeeding in obtain
ing 1t just as such signatures are usu-
ally added, for Mr.. Grady Immediately
sent word to Governor Stephens that
he had signed the paper through an ac-
commodation to his friend, and not
that he really wanted the pardon
granted. The message came too late,
however for Mr.. Stephens held Mr..
Grady to his written signature rather
than his verbal message, and Captain
Cox became free,
This Captain Cox, by strange fate,
has been for nearly three years super
intendent of the very prison in which
he was once convict, and the many
grave charges against the treatment OF
the convicts are placed at his door.
He established a punishment known rs
ducking of prisoners, and was accused
of belittling their efforts at religious
exercises, referring to their devotions
as prayers to wooden gods. 1t was a
highly sensational moment when this
man was brought before Governor At
kinson and his court to answer to the
charges thus made. His answer be-
gan:
"How could I do such things when I
was once convict MYSELF"
There was a difference of opinion as
to the full truth of all that was told be-
fore Governor Atkinson, but one thing
is certain, and that is that the convict
lease system is. damned.
The appearance of Captain Cox, af-
ter having passed under the shadow of
death, exercising supreme control over
the prison house in which he once
served without a ray of hope for the
future, recalls interest in the sad trag-
edy, which began with the agitation
against the lease system, and makes
the whole story read more like romance
than reality.
Colonel Robert A. Aston belonged to
a remarkable family in North Carroll
| ma, known as the Fighting Alstons of
Halifax. 1t has been for half a centu-
ry a tradition in the family that its
men died with their boots on. For