The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-22
THE FIGHTING ALSTONS.
all Of Them Died With Their Boots
On.

Georgia will be the disposition OF the
bonvtots of the State There are now
over 2, 500 persons under sentence. OF
these fewer than 200 are white. The ex-
ritemept attendant upon the disposition
of the convict question has been sharp
eued By an investigation which was held
by the governor into the treatment of the
honvicts.
1t was during the military governor
ship of Gen. Thomas H. Kruger in 1868
that the oonviots of Georgia were frat
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 afterward served
two terms in the United States Senate.
1t may we'll be imagined that the con-
vict lease system, placed upon the State
by the military arm of the United States
In which the benefciaries were leaders
In the Democratic party, was beyond the
criticism of ordinary eopls, and that it
would require brave man to raise his
voice against it. This man, however, it
is recalled in an Atlanta letter to the
louisville Courier Journal, came to the
front in the Georgia legislature of 1874
In the person of Col. Robert A. Aston,
who in his place charged upon the system
the vilest of crimes and abuses, and
raised such howl that it set the lessee
by the ears, and threatened for time to
break up the entire system. The enemies
which Col. Aston made by this denun-
citation followed him until they brought
him to his death in manner as tragic
Rs sensational.
One of the men who was strongly at
tached to Gen. Gordon was Capt. Ed
Cox. Cox was bluff, hearty, ready
Fingered man-one whose friendship was
without limit, but whose readiness to
nvenge an insult or to resent a slight
made him considered dangerous. Be-
tween Col. Aston and Cox til ere arose a
feud which the public never understood
at the time or since. There came day
when both men met in Atlanta, armed
10 the teeth, and yet each pursuing a
diplomatic avoidance of the other. They
would pass on opposite sides of the street
pr perhaps enter the same building BY
opposite doors, but SO evident was the
danger OF tragedy during the day that
prominent citizens became aware of it,
hnd, instead of placing the PARTIES under
arrest, watched their proceedings with
Furious interest.
1t was well toward evening when the
two men met suddenly in Gov. Colquitt's
office in the State capitol, and without
word, pistols were raised and the firing
began, which resulted in the death of
Col. Aston and the supposed mortal
wounding of Capt. Cox. The tragedy
occurred in the very presence of the gov
ernor, with all the State House officers
called to the spot by the firing.
In time Capt Cox recovered, was tried
aud convicted, with recommendation to
mercy. which saved his neck, and gave
him life sentence in the peDitentiary.
be. for the governor was the ard snt
Iriend of his victim, as was also the late
Henry W. Grady, who was at the time
swinging the influences which controlled
the politics of the State.
The unexpected entrance of Woe Presi-
dent Alexander H. Stephens. of the late
Confederaoy, into the campaign for the
governorship Of the State, upset most of
the alliances which had hitherto CON-
trolled affairs, and his election brought
hope into the prison of Capt. Cox. Gov.
Easphens was very anxious to get the
sdgh allure of Mr.. Grady to the petition
fsr Cox's pardon. A local political lead
CT undertook to secure tt, succeeding in
obtaining 1t just as such signatures are
usually added, for Mr.. Grady immediately
sent word to Gov. Stephens that he had
signed the paper through an aocommoda-
ton to his friend, and not that he really
wanted the pardon granted. The mes
sage came too late, however, for Mr.. Ste
phens held MIR. Grady to his written sig.
nature rather than his verbal message,
and Capt. Cox became free.
This Capt. Cox. by strange fate, has
been for nearly three:y Observation-Disclosures
Of the very prison in which he was once
convict, and the many grave charges
against the treatment of the conviots are
placed at his door. He established
punishment known as duoking of prison
ers, and was accused of belittling their
efforts at religious exercises referring to
their devotions as prayers to wooden
gods. It was highly sensational mo-
ment when this man was brought before
Coz. Atkinson and his court to answer
to the charges made. His answer began:
How could do such things when
was once a convict myself" There was
a difference of opinion as to the full
truth of all that was told before Gov.
Atkinson, but one thing is certain, and
that is that the convict lease system is
doomed.
The appearance of Capt. Cox, after
having passed under the shadow of death
exercising supreme control over the pris-
on house in which he once served with
cut ray of hopo for the future. recalls
interest in the sad tragedy, which began
with the agitation against the lease sys-
tam, and makes the whole story read