Year: 1879

last number of the Fort Smith Weekly New Era. What ranting, raving political fire eater could have written a more bitter letter? Our head lines will suffice to show our opinion of the letter, and the only comment we have to make is that the letter is slanderous, hbelous, md shameful document to come from one claiming to be an ambassador of God, and pretending to labor for the good of the world.

 Perhaps the writer had not inves- tigated the matter which he gloat- ingly seizes upon as the pretext to wave aloft the "bloody shirt and "tear agap the bleeding wound" of sectional hate and animosity. For his information, and in order that all who read his letter may have an opportunity of knowing the actual facts in regard to this much to- be- deplored and unfortunate affair, we also subjoin an account of the occur renee taken from the Brinkley Times of April the 3d, which version of the affair we take to be correct and true. We opine that had Pollard and Todd been ministers of any other Church they would have been arrested just as quickly under the circumstances, the positive declaration of the Rev. Mr. Ford to the contrary notwith- standing.

 We do not justify violence or rash action on the part of officials in mak, ing arrests or in holding prisoners, and we say that if the civil officer who arrested those parties transcend ed his duty or discharged hls duty in an unlawful manner, let the law be enforced against him.

 We submit the letter of Mr. Ford, and following it the Times state ment of the affair:

 RUssELLvILLE, ARK, April 4. Hon. V. Dell, Editor New Era:

 Dear Frlend-In your reference in this weeks New Era to the Brinklev outrage you speak of Rev. l. G. Pol lard and Rev. Mir. Todd as ministers of the A. NJ. E. church. They are members of the Little Rock confer ence of the M. K. church, and both of them are WHITE MEN, BORN AND RAISED IN THE SOUTH. Brother Pol lard is Presiding Elder of the White River District, and ip company with Bro. Todd, was looking alter the in- terests of our church among the freedmen of that section of the coun- try where they have not enjoyed very much of the liberty which the immortal proclamation of Mir. Lin coin, and the triumphs of the Union army, were supposed to secure to them. The whole affair is properly styled by you as "wanton outrage"

 It is an outrage upon the rights of American citizens and illustrates what an airy phantom is American citizenship in the solid south. It is in perfect accord with the old rebel spirit which, alas, for the country, still lives to lay violent hands upon all who do not imbibe the same spirit. It illustrates also the lawless Less so prevalent Tn many portions of the South under the conciliating measures of President who con templated the peace and prosperity of the whole country, but whose con- fidence has been shamefully abused in that the positive pledges of some of the leading southern men, upon which that confidence was based, have been most violently disregarded in the frauds, intimidations and murders which blacken the whole South.

 If the leaders-political leaders I mean-can cut the colored people of from all sources of information ex- cept those which are in avowed sym pathy with their diabolical plots, sectional churches and anti -Ameri- can institutions, why they will not only control them at the ballot-box --I need not say in what way--but will reap the benefits of their unrec- ompensed toil.

 If the Government does not intend to protect this class of Southern eitl- zens, (and also the white loyal ele- ment), would it not be better to en- courage this general exodus, and, if not this, restore them to their former relation, wherein those who get their labor would have, as in ante bellum days, private pecuniary interest in providing for their temporal wants?

 If the brethren who were so rough ly used at Brinkfey had been zeal ous propagandists of Rome in Amer ica, or ministers of any Southern Protestant church, they would not have been attacked. Who can point to single instance in which Cath ollie priest or preacher of any of the Southern churches has been so mis used for preaching the gospel to the freedman? But these ''falsely i'm