The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-30

mission, hurrying TO Smithviile TO Sc
cure an appointment by the county
authorities To keep out of the service Is
a matter of history. When ii was
known that Capt. Russell was to be otiie
Ger of the. day. not ONE of the force
wished he was on There lives to-day
ina Roheson county as honored citizen
as the State poasesaea who could Il
tale unfold IL he would Arouse the
manhood of every old Confederate
veteran 70 vote the straight Democratic
ticket"
A BLOW IN THE BACK
But let the people get closer to this
part of Russell's career. Following
disubedience of orders he found him
self at odds with Col. VIM. M. Swami,
who was then the enrolling officer at
Wilmington. Col Swami Is dead but his
brother, James G.Swann, lives and from
him to me comes confirmation of the
story of his trouble with Col. Swami.
After sharp words, Col. Swami had
turned about and was at his desk with
his back to Russell. While hrs back
was turned Russell, without giving
him a chance to defend him
self struck him with stick
the backs of his friends the blows that
he might haSe been dealing in the
face of his foes. Does he deny this?
Then there are scores of good men and
true in this city who will set him right
in the story 1t was turbulence from
the start. Then came the struggle to
get from President Jefferson Davis
clemeney. 1t turned out in later years,
as will appear, to be clemency i'll
placed. Only through the eminent in
fuence of Mr.. Geo. Davis, of Whining
ton, who was Attorney General in Mr.
Davis's cabinet, did the young man
escape severe punishment, being per-
mitted to resign and then he set to
work to keeping out of the army going
so far as to get elected to the legisla-
ture before he was twenty one in or
der ito escape enrollmSnt. Was die
grateful? Hear him in his speech of
1866 as one of the old citizens who
heard him tells me abusing Mr.. JEFF
ferson Davis like a pickpocket." His
detection from the Confederate cause
seems to have been well understood
by one Union general at least. For
when a noble and beautiful Southern
4 Il
MaXton to ask protection against the
Federal soldiers who were breaking
up her furniture and stealing hea'
jewels, General Blair replied: ''No id
rebel woman need ask me for protec-
ton" Russell was in hearing distance
when this remark was made; he too,
was under guard; but there were a
few confidential words and he went
back free, while the mother with her
children wept under the villianous
insults that had been hhaped upon
her by General Blair. But / do not
intend to be unfair: to the credit OF
Russell, there seemed to have been
some spark left: for but for his Sin
tfoonce" the poor woman
would have been subjected to
greater indignity than that which she
suffered For he was allowed the priv
ilege of escorting her back to her de
vastated home. He ''stood in with
Blair, and Blair knew his friends.
HIS Low FOR THE NEGRO.
Raised ON a plantation where there
We're more slaves probably than on
any plantation in Brunswick county,
he knew the negro well, his suffer
ings as a slave. and he should
have known the sufferings of the
slaves around him. He has spoken
with venomous scorn of white men
who sold negro babies. Did he ever see
any negro babies sold from the planta-
ton of his boyhood? Did he know OF
any of the slaves of his plantation
fleeing from the cruel lash of the over
seer? If not, his neigIhbor across the
creek on the next plantation knew of
them. An eyewitness tells me the
story of how the slaves would come
from the Russell plantation and beg to
be harbored, and of how they were
numerically scourged on their return.
Where then was this heroic love for
the negro which seems to have bios
somed out so fruitfully after the ne
gro became available toward his get
ting some political job. How his soul
pours out the lava of its love now for
the poor negro. How he suffers as a
martyr" because, forsooth, of his
broad sympathy for THE human race"
specially the negro race. But the he
rOic within him seems never to have
been discovered until the negroes were
free with ballots in their hands.
But it was different now.
ADVOCATES SOCIAL EQUALITY.
The negro had vote and Russell
had a twenty dollar law license, and he
was made a Judge of the Superior
Court all for love of the negro. Hear
him when ON the bench he gave way
to his feelings in the opera house de-
cision. He had been on the bench since
1868 Che was then 24), and the decis-
ion was in 1873, i'm October of 1878.
AT that time, certain negroes having
determined to sit with the white peo-
pie in the opera house in this city, pro-
cured tickets by some means and at
tempted to gain admission by force.
The negroes were arrested and legal
proceedings instituted against them
by the lessee of THE opera house.
Judge Russell heard the case and gave
his opinion in writing. In that opin-
ion he declared that the negroes had
committed breach of the peace, sub
versive of all public order and safety,
and that, too, even if they had undis-
puted right to admission to that por-
ton of the opera house to which they