From the "Huntsville Democrat," Dec. 8, 1838.
"The Aberdeen (Miss.) Advocate, of Sat.u.r.day last, states that on the morning of the day previous, (the 9th) a dispute arose between Mr.
Robert Smith and Mr. Alexander Eanes, both of Aberdeen, which resulted in the death of Mr. Smith, who kept a boarding house, and was an amiable man and a good citizen. In the course of the contradictory words of the disputants, the lie was given by Eanes, upon which Smith gathered up a piece of iron and threw it at Eanes, but which missed him and lodged in the walls of the house. At this Eanes drew a large dirk knife, and stabbed Smith in the abdomen, the knife penetrating the vitals, and thus causing immediate death. Smith breathed only a few seconds after the fatal thrust.
"Eanes immediately mounted his horse and rode off, but was pursued by Mr. Hanes, who arrested and took him back, when he was put under guard to await a trial before the proper authorities."
From the "Vicksburg Register," Nov. 17, 1838.
"On the 2d inst. an affray occurred between one Stephen Scarbrough and A.W. Higbee of Grand Gulf, in which Scarbrough was stabbed with a knife, which occasioned his death in a few hours. Higbee has been arrested and committed for trial."
From the "Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat" Nov. 10, 1838.
"_Life in the Southwest_.--A friend in Louisiana writes, under date of the 31st ult., that a fight took place a few days ago in Madison parish, 60 miles below Lake Providence, between a Mr. Nevils and a Mr.
Harper, which terminated fatally. The police jury had ordered a road on the right bank of the Mississippi, and the neighboring planters were out with their forces to open it. For some offence, Nevils, the superintendent of the operations, flogged two of Harper"s negroes. The next day the parties met on horseback, when Harper dismounted, and proceeded to cowskin Nevils for the chastis.e.m.e.nt inflicted on the negroes. Nevils immediately drew a pistol and shot his a.s.sailant dead on the spot. Both were gentlemen of the highest respectability.
"An affray also came off recently, as the same correspondent writes us, in Raymond, Hinds co., Miss., which for a serious one, was rather amusing. The sheriff had a process to serve on a man of the name of Bright, and, in consequence of some difficulty and intemperate language, thought proper to commence the service by the application of his cowskin to the defendant. Bright thereupon floored his adversary, and, wresting his cowhide from him, applied it to its owner to the extent of at least five hundred lashes, meanwhile threatening to shoot the first bystander who attempted to interfere. The sheriff was carried home in a state of insensibility, and his life has been despaired of. The mayor of the place, however, issued his warrant, and started three of the sheriff"s deputies in pursuit of the delinquent, but the latter, after keeping them at bay till they found it impossible to arrest him, surrendered himself to the magistrate, by whom he was bound over to the next Circuit Court. From the mayor"s office, his honor and the parties litigant proceeded to the tavern to take a drink by way of ending hostilities. But the civil functionary refused to sign articles of peace by touching gla.s.ses with Bright, whereupon the latter made a furious a.s.sault upon him, and then turned and flogged "mine host" within an inch of his life because he interfered. Satisfied with his day"s work, Bright retired. Can we show any such specimens of chivalry and refinement in Kentucky!"
From the "Grand Gulf (Miss.) Advertiser," June 27, 1837.
"DEATH BY VIOLENCE.--The moral atmosphere in our state appears to be in a deleterious and sanguinary condition. _Almost every exchange paper which reaches us contains some inhuman and revolting case of murder or death by violence. Not less than fifteen deaths by violence have occurred, to our certain knowledge, within the past three months._ Such a state of things, in a country professing to be moral and christian, is a disgrace to human nature and is well calculated, to induce those abroad unacquainted with our general habits and feelings, to regard the morals of our people in no very enviable light; and does more to injure and weaken our political inst.i.tutions than years of pecuniary distress. The frequency of such events is a burning disgrace to the morality, civilization, and refinement of feeling to which we lay claim and so often boast in comparison with the older states. And unless we set about and put an immediate and effectual termination to such revolting scenes, we shall be compelled to part with what all genuine southerners have ever regarded as their richest inheritance, the proud appellation of the "_brave, high-minded and chivalrous sons of the south_."
"This done, we should soon discover a change for the better--peace and good order would prevail, and the ends of justice be effectually and speedily attained, and then the people of this wealthy state would be in a condition to bid defiance to the disgraceful reproaches which are now daily heaped upon them by the religious and moral of other states."
"The present white population of Mississippi is but little more than half as great as that of Vermont, and yet more horrible crimes are perpetrated by them EVERY MONTH, than have ever been perpetrated in Vermont since it has been a state, now about half a century. Whoever doubts it, let him get data and make his estimate, and he will find that this is no random guess."
LOUISIANA.
Louisiana became one of the United States in 1811. Its present white population is about one hundred and fifteen thousand.
The extracts which follow furnish another ill.u.s.tration of the horrors produced by pa.s.sions blown up to fury in the furnace of arbitrary power. We have just been looking over a broken file of Louisiana papers, including the last six months of 1837, and the whole of 1838, and find ourselves obliged to abandon our design of publishing even an abstract of the scores and _hundreds_ of affrays, murders, a.s.sa.s.sinations, duels, lynchings, a.s.saults, &c. which took place in that state during that period. Those which have taken place in New Orleans alone, during the last eighteen months, would, in detail, fill a volume. Instead of inserting the details of the princ.i.p.al atrocities in Louisiana, as in the states already noticed, we will furnish the reader with the testimony of various editors of newspapers, and others, residents of the state, which will perhaps as truly set forth the actual state of society there, as could be done by a publication of the outrages themselves.
From the "New Orleans Bee," of May 23, 1838.
"_Contempt of human life._--In view of the crimes which are _daily_ committed, we are led to inquire whether it is owing to the inefficiency of our laws, or to the manner in which those laws are administered, that this _frightful deluge of human blood fowl through our streets and our places of public resort_.
"Whither will such contempt for the life of man lead us? The unhealthiness of the climate mows down annually a part of our population; the murderous steel despatches its proportion; and if crime increases as it has, the latter will soon become _the most powerful agent in destroying life_.
"We cannot but doubt the perfection of our criminal code, when we see that _almost every criminal eludes the law_, either by boldly avowing the crime, or by the tardiness with which legal prosecutions are carried on, or, lastly, by the convenient application of _bail_ in criminal cases."
The "New Orleans Picayune" of July 30, 1837, says:
"It is with the most painful feelings that we _daily_ hear of some _fatal_ duel. Yesterday we were told of the unhappy end of one of our most influential and highly respectable merchants, who fell yesterday morning at sunrise in a duel. As usual, the circ.u.mstances which led to the meeting were trivial."
The New Orleans correspondent of the New York Express, in his letter dated New Orleans, July 30, 1837, says:
"THIRTEEN DUELS have been fought in and near the city during the week; _five more were to take place this morning_."
The "New Orleans Merchant" of March 20, 1838, says:
"Murder has been rife within the two or three weeks last past; and what is worse, the authorities of those places where they occur are _perfectly regardless of the fact_."
The "New Orleans Bee" of September 8, 1838, says:
"Not two months since, the miserable BARBA became a victim to one of the most cold-blooded schemes of a.s.sa.s.sination that ever disgraced a civilized community. Last Sunday evening an individual, Gonzales by name, was seen in perfect health, in conversation with his friends. On Monday morning his dead body was withdrawn from the Mississippi, near the ferry of the first munic.i.p.ality, in a state of terrible mutilation. To cap the climax of horror, on Friday morning, about half past six o"clock, the coroner was called to hold an inquest over the body of an individual, between Magazine and Tchoupitoulas streets. The head was entirely severed from the body; the lower extremities had likewise suffered amputation; the right foot was completely dismembered from the leg, and the left knee nearly severed from the thigh. Several stabs, wounds and bruises, were discovered on various parts of the body, which of themselves were sufficient to produce death."
The "Georgetown (South Carolina) Union" of May 20, 1837, has the following extract from a New Orleans paper.
"A short time since, two men shot one another down in one of our bar rooms, one of whom died instantly. A day or two after, one or two infants were found murdered, there was every reason to believe, by their own mothers. Last week we had to chronicle a brutal and b.l.o.o.d.y murder, committed in the heart of our city: the very next day a murder-trial was commenced in our criminal court: the day ensuing this, we published the particulars of Hart"s murder. The day after that, Tibbetts was hung for attempting to commit a murder; the next day again we had to publish a murder committed by two Spaniards at the Lake--this was on Friday last. On Sunday we published the account of another murder committed by the Italian, Gregorio. On Monday, another murder was committed, and the murderer lodged in jail. On Tuesday morning another man was stabbed and robbed, and is not likely to recover, but the a.s.sa.s.sin escaped. The same day Reynolds, who killed Barre, shot himself in prison. On Wednesday, another person, Mr.
Nicolet, blew out his brains. Yesterday, the unfortunate George Clement destroyed himself in his cell; and in addition to this dreadful catalogue we have to add that of the death of two, brothers, who destroyed themselves through grief at the death of their mother; and truly may we say that "we know not what to-morrow will bring forth.""
The "Louisiana Advertiser," as quoted by the Salt River (Mo.) Journal of May 25, 1837, says:
"Within the last ten or twelve days, three suicides, four murders, and two executions, have occurred in the city!"
The "New Orleans Bee" of October 25, 1837, says:
"We remark with regret the frightful list of homicides that are _daily_ committed in New Orleans."
The "Planter"s Banner" of September 30. 1838, published at Franklin, Louisiana, after giving an account of an affray between a number of planters, in which three were killed and a fourth mortally wounded, says that "Davis (one of the murderers) was arrested by the by-standers, but a _justice of the peace_ came up and told them, he did not think it right to keep a man "tied in that manner," and "thought it best to turn him loose." _It was accordingly so done_."
This occurred in the parish of Harrisonburg. The Banner closes the account by saying:
"Our informant states that _five white men_ and _one_ negro have been murdered in the parish of Madison, during the months of July and August."
This _justice of the peace_, who bade the by-standers unloose the murderer, mentioned above, has plenty of birds of his own feather among the law officers of Louisiana. Two of the leading officers in the New Orleans police took two witnesses, while undergoing legal examination at Covington, near New Orleans, "carried them to a bye-place, and _lynched_ them, during which inquisitorial operation, they divulged every thing to the officers, Messrs. Foyle and Crossman."
The preceding fact is published in the Maryland Republican of August 22, 1837.
Judge Canonge of New Orleans, in his address at the opening of the criminal court, Nov. 4, 1837, published in the "Bee" of Nov. 8, in remarking upon the prevalence of out-breaking crimes, says:
"Is it possible in a civilized country such crying abuses are _constantly_ encountered? How many individuals have given themselves up to such culpable habits! Yet we find magistrates and juries hesitating to expose crimes of the blackest dye to eternal contempt and infamy, to the vengeance of the law.
"As a Louisianian parent, _I reflect with terror_ that our beloved children, reared to become one day honorable and useful citizens, may be the victims of these votaries of vice and licentiousness. Without some powerful and certain remedy, _our streets will become butcheries overflowing with the blood of our citizens_."
The Editor of the "New Orleans Bee," in his paper of Oct. 21, 1837, has a long editorial article, in which he argues for the virtual legalizing of LYNCH LAW, as follows: