Year: 1874

charge of violating the constitution OF
his country and his oath of office
is natural and laudable enough. We
cannot, however, restrain ourselves
from hoping that his ambition may
not be gratitied. He has done the
south harm enough already.


EXCITING events tread so closely up
OH the heels of each other that before
one is disposed of and its effects thor
oughly understood its successor
crowds it off the stage, and it is BAN
ished to the category of worn out top
les. The amours of the reverend
Brooklyn Lothario filed the public
attention to the exclusion of almost
every other subject. AS this was be-
ginning to grow stale, it was removed
from the board, and southern out
rages,' hot and well seasoned, were
dshed up for the dainty palates of the
north. AS these We're beginning to
sour, even on the stOmachs of those
who cooked and prepared them for
the public taste, the revolution in New
Orleans came, and, by the magnitude
of the issues involved and the heroism
of its authors, swept all other subjects
for the time, out of the public mind.
This has, in turn, been discussed and
looked at from every point by the
press, until it too has begun to pail
upon the public appetite; and the
question now is, what will the next
act be?


Selling the opportunity afforded by
this temporary absence from the stage
of any one all-engrossing subject, we
deem it not inappropriate to recur to
the "Trenton massacre and show
what the immediate result of it, so far,
has been, especially since it has been
the cause of bringing prominently be-
fore the American people an illuStra-
ton of the extent to which the con-
solidating tendencies of the national
government nave gone.


If will be remembered that on the
night of the 25th of August party OF
disguised men took from the Jail at
Trenton, Tennessee, sixteen negroes
who were confined therein on charge
of melting riot and murder; that six OF
the negroes were found near the town,
four of them shot to death, the two
others beng severely wounded, and
that the fate of the ten other negroes
remained envcloped in mystery. Gov
eruOr Brown al once bent all his M
diviiual and official energies To DIS
covering the authors of this most in
cxc,lsahie crime, and bringing them to
Justice. \ special term Of The crini'-
nal court was convened at Trenton to
have the grand jury inquire into the
circumstances OF the case large re-
wards were offered for the detection of
the guilty parties, and the governor, III
company with the attorney general OF
the state, went in person To the scene
of the outrage to lend their power and
Influence to the vindication of the law.
All the machinery of justice was put
into operation to ferret out the crimi-
nails, and at last the efforts of the oili-
cipls were crowned with success. n
Young man, seventeen years OF age,
named Ben. Davis. was found, who
admitted that he was in the party that
took the negroes out of the Jail, and
expressed his Willingness to save HIM
self by turning states evidence. He
made a clean breast of it before the
grand jury. His statement was that
the band of disguised men numbered
sixty-eight ; that they were disguised
in every possible way, some wearing
gowns, some their wives clothing, the
most of them with masks, but some
not disguised nor masked and that
the band consisted of persons hurried
~ gathered together in the neighbor-
hood, without any previous arrange
ment or organization. Davis said that
it was moi, ,as he understood it, the pur-
pose to kill the negroes but to take
them out and force them to tell all
they knew about the alleged conspira-
cy to murder the white people. AS,
however, they were moving across a
bridge not far from Trenton, on the
Huntingdon road, AZ a signal given by
one of them the negroes all endeavored
to make their escape. Immediately
an indiscriminate firing began, the re-
suit of which was that ten negroes
were left upon the ground for dead.
Subsequent develupemnt proved that
four of these must have been playing
possum, for only six were found upon
.he ground by the citizens of Trenton
Oh the following day.


On the testimony of Davis The
grand Jury found true Hills against
iorty-one persons, all of whom, except
those that fed the country, were ar
rested. Notwithstanding these strenu-
ous and successful efforts Of the state
authorities of Tennessee to detect the
wrong-loers and bring them to pun
lament, the U. 5. Marshal for the
western district of Tennessee, aided
by soldiers from the garrison at Hum
boldt, raided upon the country and
began to arrest some men That mao
already given recognizance 10 answer
for their alleged crime in the state
courts, and to carry them off to Mem
phis. one hundred miles from their
homes, TO answer to indictments for
the same offense in the U. s. courts
Thsrsuson Gov, Brown addressed .