The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-07

be acceptable. The unsuspecting enter
tainer was marked as an unreconstructed
rebel and taken under the special sur
veillance Of the government.
Cn September 8 Charles e. Mayer. car
petbagger officer OF the federal internal
revenue. and chairman of the republican
executive committee of the state, issued
a secret circular to the local leaders
In all quarters. The purport of the cir
cular was to instruct the sub leaders to
get up cases against prominent demo-
Gratis and to have them arraigned before
the nearest reliable United States COM
mis- ssioner. All United States commission
, ers were enemies of Alabama A list OF
the reliable" went with the circular.
Another list was inclosed. to wit, a
category Of the offenses which would jus
fifty arrest. All this conspiracy was put
in operation Immediately after the gov
eminent al Washington had distributed
the troops as Mayer suggested.
III sumter county on September IS, four
gentlemen were arrested charged with
violation OF the enforcement act. These
gentlemen were Messrs Renfro, Hillman.
Bullock and Childs. Renfro and Bull
lock were arrested by Lieutenant Afnes OF
tho United States army. accompanied by
two United States marshais. while at
tempting g public meeting in the court
house. The meeting was at once suspend
ed. They were met at the foot of the
stops by squad of four armed soldiers
and by them marched to the guard tent
There they were handcuffed together and
delivered at tho county jail, the sergeant
cursing them hostilely, as they marched
before him.
These prisoners were put in a farm
wagon and hauled to Demopolis. 20 miles.
On the way Hillman and Childs, citizens,
were arrested and taken along.
AT Demorolis all four were taken, hand
cuffed and chained to guard tent. There
they were put on the cars for Selma, tns
destination being Mobile, and the Gus
tomary line of travel from Livingston.
where the arrest was made, being by
way of Me, idian.
| At Selma a change of cars was made.
The prisoners were marched in irons.
! through the streets to jail Crowds OF
negroes lined the way shouting in de-
rision: You CID d-m Klu-Klux," etc,
| etc.
From Selma the travel was by rail- to
Montgomery. When they reached Mont
somery they had Travelled more than 100
miles and were not nearer Mobile than
they had been at Livingston. The OBJ
1ect was to expose the captives to ne
gro voters of the black belt at criti-
cal time. 1t was a part of the repub-
lican party programme.
| When the train reached Benton, 10
miles from Selma, a large crowd of ne
groes was found at the station, just re-
leased from political meeting that
| had been addressed by Circuit Judge
James 9. Smith, sealawag, and others.
| The negroes attempted TO break into
the car where the prisoners were chained.
| Failing In this, they beloved, raved and
cursed to their hearts content. A large
number OF the race took the train for
Montgomery, and all along the wav thau
made Intellectual efforts to- aa tna
| prisoners under guard
| At Montgomery the prisoners HE
in the little dungeon of the jai #sassz
| light or water. Citizens fed the ata'a
dainty. Negroes crowded the str 90
they marched along, believing curses.
| deep and loud
| AT Mobile they were released. The OBJ
| ject OF the arrests had been effected.
In Choctaw county the report was
| spread among the negroes that IL they
| would organize in bands and seize the
| farms. with the live stock and the crops.
| General Grant would send troops to Sc
cure them In possession. HUFF, a negro.
| betrayed the movement. Other negroes
seized him and whipped him. Huff car
! ried his case into court. When trial day
| came. Jack Turner, a negro leader, Or
| ganized a band of his race ito clean
| out the court" Tho sheriff heard or
the project, met Jack and his band on
| the highway with "a posse and d f.n'
them without firing a shot. P@ sra
Grant hearG of this episode as a slsusha
| ter of negroes by the democfafs fss
which "tan negroes were slain. 5rc
Turner after this event sat in ~. riss
| publican state convention of At 81
| as a delegate He admitted he had mad.
! the report of ten slain" to the leaders.
who sent It 10 the President. He took
that way of helping to get the troops.
| The President ordered tho army to
other states on the predicate that tho
/ W
| Should not be tolerated in any civilized
country" He stood forth the yicarious
| promoter of the election of Lewis; the
active and direct opponent of the cleo
| tion of Houston. Nine-tenths of the
votes for Lewis must be negroes, 80 in
! the 100 of whom did not know a letter
of the alphabet. A civilized country"
| was never a negro governed country. In
| evidence of the Presidents misinterpre-
| tation OF the issue involved in the cleo
| tlons In Alabama the Dallas county re-
| publican convention of this year called TO
| nominate county officers and controlled
| by negroes had before IL two candidates
| for clerk of the circuit court, an office
of the highest responsibility in the an
| fo-cement of law and order. One OF
| these candidates was the incumbent Well
! trainef and entirely satisfactory to the
court and the bar. John Sigsby, a white
! man of northern BIRTH a republican party
/
| Tom Walker. a cotton field negro, who
| cond not read the books sign his
| name. Tom received the party nornina-
| tion for circuit clerk of one of the rich
est and most populous counties.
| Chairman Bragg issued an elaborate
reply to the letter Charles Hays. scala
veg member OF Congress, had written
| by remest to Senator Hawley OF Con-
necticut, reciting long list OF fictitious
| instances OF outrages committed by
Murder and innumerable crimes marked
litical interest OF Mr.. Hays In his pres
ent recital was happily exposed by Cap
tain Bragg. This and other important
work for the committee tended to keep
up the democratic spirit to the highest
pitch. The career of the leaders was
itself an omen of success. In his first
ticket of is4. Houston defeated John
Lewis of Franklin county: In 1s43 he de-
feated Robert Armstrong of Lauderdale:
In 1s45 he defeated John A. Nool of Frank
lin; in 1sE he defeated David Hubbard
of Lawrence; in 1349 he declined to be-
come candidate; In 1851 he defeated
Hubbard again. In 1858 and 1856 none
was so confident as to oppose him and
he accepted the two elections unchal-
lenged. Hubbard opposed him for the
third time in 1851 but only TO meet
defeat. w. A. Hewlett of Walker opposed
him In 1859 without success.
Indeed Mr.. Houston had never been
defeated for office and his constituency
had been OF the section OF the state
<xy-s1