The leader., 1905-09-16

ling to turn the others loose; and
any party that thinks | am that
| kind Of q citizen, and that / could
scar my conscience enough to call
lany such farce maintaining law
land order is mistaken.
/ Now if Mr.. Hoyt had gone be-
fore the Federal grand jury with
positive evidence and indicted
lthe few that did order off home
lsteaders, if there we're any order
ed off, would not have had a
word to say against it; but
llet's look at some of his methods.
There are about sixty men in
one indictment charged with go-
ing on the premises Of one Steve
Cant, homesteader, with fire.
arms, threatening to intimidate
him, causing him to abandon his
home. This is all false. Steve is
still on his land; never having
been ordered off, nor has any no.
tices been posted, so am reliably
informed, and he will testify to it
himself.
About 80 Of the parties in the
above indictment are my neigh
bors, and as good citizens as ever
lived IN any county and they live
80 miles from Steve Grant. /
never heard of him before this in
dIctment, nor have any of the 30
ever been in ten miles miles of
where the negro lives, as it is in
a remote part of the county.
AS to what you say about the
old soldier of Lincoln / won't apply
to the old soldiers of Franklin.
While you try to ridicule and be-
little me, you cannot belittle the
character Of the old soldiers ] re-
ferred to as being indicted, that
we're only passive members of the
Farmers League. Also Mr.. e.
&. Adams, our circuit clerk, who
has been clerk about So years,
whom Mr.. Hoyt himself told me
was not a member of the Farmers
League; and what you say about
them will not only be resented by
all the old soldiers of this county,
but by its citizenship.
One reason of so much strife
and bitterness is caused by just
such bitter attacks as you have so
unjustly made, not only on me,
but the odium you try to place on
Jour citizens in your article, and /
want to say just here if outside
meddIers will let US alone we will
settle this matter, but if this GRIM
ination and recrimination contin-
ues we will have a Breathitt coun-
lty, Kentucky, if this persecution
goes on. Now, ] want to say, Mr..
Hobbs, that 400 as good and as
law abiding citizens as you or
anybody else have signed this pc
tition as we'll as myself they COM
pose at least three-quarters of the
citizens that are not members of
the Farmers League, and I am
satisfied you cannot find 25 men
+ in franklin that will endorse
Hoyt's action in having over 300
of our citizens indicted at a cost
of $4,000 each. Lawyers, wit
nessas and other expenses will
cost our citizenship over $4,000.
So | am going to do what | be-
lieve to be the best interest OF our
county and her people and by
compromising this outrageous
prosecution we can maintain law
and order.
j. HIRAM McGEHEE.
The Leader very willingly gives
Mr.. McGenee the asked for space
for the above reply, though much
of it is misleading and evidently
intended for strictly demagogic
purposes. For instance, in his
opening sentence he character
ICES The Leaders, article to which
he replies, as an unwarranted at
tack on me and a great number of
the citizens of Franklin county. =
If our article could be correctly
termed an attack on the citizens
of Franklin county in any sense,
it was an attack on the real white
cappers, only. If Mr.. McGehee
is not actually championing this
class, what is he roaringo about?
Again, Mr.. McGehee declares
that the charge that / have
changed from one side to the 9TH
er is false Il stand where / have
always stood, = etc. The Leader
never understood the Advocate or
any one else as charging that Mr..
McGehee had changed from one
1side to the other, in the sense that
The endorses white cap methods
or sympathizes with white cap
lcrimes. Much as we have been
surprised at some things he has
|said and done recently, we have
lneVer even entertained such a
Thought Of him, much less made
lsuch a charge. However, this
much is undoubtedly true: until
within the last few months, he has
Isomehow managed 60 make his
.Itrue position strangely naisunder-
Istood both By the whitecappers
and the friends Of law and order.
l Further along Mr.. McGehee