Newspaper Page Text
f avannah Weekly llturs
MATITKIUV, KKI'TFMiKH I I?JSTS.
*— ' 1 I
“Centennial <rU!^(te. ,,
This in the ironical caption of an edito
rial in the Memphis Appeal, in which the
editor touchingly complains of Ihe in -
gratitude of the Philadelphia Time*. Our
Memphis ootemporary thinks it is especi
ally bard that after “the Ap}*al has ta
ilored zealously and unceasingly for the
success of the Philadelphia Centen
nial,” after 41 it had .published more
matter favoring this patriotic enter
prise than any other Southern pa
per, publishing column after column
free of charge, favoring” the movement
in Memphis “for the purpose of raising
contributions for the Philadelphia show
—that after all this the Philadelphia
Time* should denounce the Appeal tor
its defense of Jefferson Davis, and ac
tually “taunt” it with “abusing the Win
nebagoes of Illinois from whom the
South lias to purchase its bacon.' This, in
the opinion of our Memphis contempora
ry, is an actof base ingratitude on the part
of tho Time*, not to be endured in si
lence. Indeed it lias aroused liis spirit
of resentment, and taking courage from
the hen pecked husband, who had been
atibjected to an unendurable degradation,
he declares that the Time* would “sub
ject the South to the same degradation,"
tliat “it would have them to act the part
of cravens, aud when one cheek is smit
ten to turn tho other.” “But,” says our
outraged and indignant cotemporary,
the Philadelphia Time * “will live
to learn that as long as the Southern
peoplo have the spirit of men within
them they will complain when they are
called ‘cowards, knaves, murderers and
traitors.’” These are brave words, and
their utterance cannot fail to convince
the Time* that the spirit of true manhood
has not yet entirely died out at the South.
But we think that the indignation, like
tho contennialism of the Appeal, is per
haps a little overdone. It has gushed
rather more than was becoming, under
the circumstances, in its zealous and un
ceasing labors in behalf of the Centen
nial, and, on the other hand, it betrays a
needless amount of sensitivenes at the
strictures of the Time*. For our own
part, we have taken no stock in the great
Philadelphia jamboree, and are alike
indifferent to the success of that spec
ulation and to the opinions of the
Time*, which, like the ltadical papers of
Philadelphia nnd the entire North, omit
no opportunity to insult and misrepre
sent the people of tho South. We shall
gladly hail tho day of sectional reconcili
ation and restored fraternal relations and
sentiments. But wo do not look to Bun
ker Hill centennial pageants nor Philadel
phia centennial expositions us the agen
cies to bring about those desirable ends,
lteal reconciliation must have a more
substantial basis. It must be the result
of restoration the restoration of consti
tutional government, of the principles
of truth, justice, honor and honesty, of
equality of rights and mutual good will.
This restoration will not bo hastened by
cringing sycophancy and base self-hu
initiation on the part of tho people of the
South. It is only by preserving our
consistency and self respect that wo can
command the respect ot our late enemies.
Without mutual respect there can bo no
mutual cosiidcnce—no real restoration of
fraternal feeling.
- ■ ■ ■ • ■■■' ■■■
The Insurrection Trials.
On our lirst page this morning will bo
found a letter from our correspondent at
Sandenvillo, giving a history of tho M’i,*
v resulted in the acquittr’ the
liegro Corday i-.. ;. Jn ..,M'eforo the
Supreme Court of Washington county,
charged with being a leador in the late
Attempt at insurrection. The result of
tho trial was not unexpected to us, though
tho acquittal of tho prisoner, under tho
circumstances, does not change the
opinion wo entertained from tho first
that an insurrectionary demonstration wns
contemplated, uml was only frustrated by
accidental discovery and tbo prompt and
prudent action of the officials and citi
zens of the counties which wore to be the
scene of conflict. It was easy to foresee
the difficulty of obtaining positive evi
dence sufficient to convict tho subordi
nates who fell into the hands of tho au
thorities, while the prime movers of the
insane but devilish plot lmd oscaped. It
was manifest, too, that if a conviction
wore obtained it would be under tho strict
est enforcement of tho rules of evidence
by which all testimony against tho
prisoner of an indirect or circumstantial
character would be excluded. This was
highly proper, and wo are gratified to
record the fact that notwithstanding tho
strong circumstances against the negro
Harris, and the prejudice which his known
connection with the principal conspira
tors was calculated to excite against him,
ho was accorded a fair, and even more
than an impartial trial, resulting in his
acquittal.
It is possible that in the excitement
natural under such circumstances, this
affair has been somewhat exaggerated.
. But that there was a buugling and inoo
r lierent plot to inaugurate a disturbance
miidif have led to a serious contliot
between tho who have inves
tigated the facts can doubt Though the
real culprits have escaped for the present,
tho affair has uot been without good re
aults. Whilo it will teach the would
be leaders of tho negroes that
all such attempts are futile, that
they will be promptly met and suppressed
by the whites, it should convince the well
disposed in which class we include tho
large major'ty of tho negroes of Georgia—
of the forbear** and and justice of the
whites, and the folly of listening to the
iiisane counsels of the ignorant and evil
disposed negroes or worse whites, who
would beguile them into mischief and
desert them in the hour of trouble.
Postmaster Jewell.
A Washington dispatch alluding to the
minor that strong influences ure at work
, to secure the removal of Postmaster Gen
eral Jewell from the Cabinet, says: “The
principal complaints have come from
carpet-bag Senators and politicians in the
Southern States, notably Senator Spen
|r4l*..vho has many reasous for disliking
Mr. Jewell. When the Postmaster Gen
eral's attention was called to the state
incut he at ouco declared that he did not
care how soon he left the Cabinet. He
aocepted the position of Minister to l!us
sia merely because he desired to see the
country. A year’s residence there satis,
fiotl his wishes, and the position of Post
master General being tendered him it
gave him a good opportunity of return
ing to the United States. He had now
served as Postmaster General for a year,
and was very well satisfied with his ex
perience in the Cabinet. If the Presi
dent wished to give the offico to anybody
else he could do so with his most cordial
approbation. His business demanded
his personal attention. Employing a
thousand men and having dealings with a
large number of firms, a year s constant
application to the duties of Postmaster
General made it desirable for him to leave
public life. He had no idea, howepe?,
of stepping down and out at the behest
any of the political fault-finders.’’
OntiiPfr Third Term Contingency.
We have never doubted that Grant
would be the candidate of the Radical
party for re-election to the Presidency in
1 di. His whole course since bis last elec
tion has indicated such to be his settled
purpose, and the letter which was extorted
for him to be used for political effect in
tbo Pennsylvania Republican convention,
in which be disclaimed being a candidate
for re-election, declaring he would not
accept the nomination except in a certain
contingency, when it might become his
“imperative duty" to do so, only confirmed
n* in the conviction that he would allow
no ordinary obstacle to stand in the way
of his ambition.
In that letter he sot his third term can
didacy upon a contingency, and since
then his policy, aud that of his faction,
has l>een shaped for the purpose of pro
ducing the desired contingency. There
were various ways open to him to accom
plish that object. The first plan having
failed, he will avail himself of the next
best means to bring about a state
of affairs, which, in the estimation
of himself and his minions, will
render his acceptance of the nomination
of the Radical party next year an “im
perative duty”— the only means of pre
serving the life of the “nation.” The
Southern outrage plot having failed—the
“bloody shirt” no longer serving its pur
pose to fire the Northern heart—the
currency question is to be made available;
and as the issue warms up between the
Ohio Democracy and the bondholders and
money monopolists, as it becomes more
apparent that the people are becoming
sensible of the iniquity of the present
national bank monopoly and aroused to
the necessity of resisting the encroach
ments of the money power, which
threatens alike the ruin of their pros
perity and the overthrow of their liberties,
it is more and more certain that
Grant will find in the conflict between
the money monopolists and the people
the contingency which will render his
acceptance of a re-nomination an “im
perative duty.” Grant already belongs
to the money power. The negroes of the
South are ready to make him king for
forty acres and a mule. The carpet
baggers are his obsequious creatures; a
hundred thousand officeholders stand at
his back ready to do his bidding; the
organized brigandism of the country is in
his service in every department of the
government. With this political capital
at his command it is confidently believed
by his faction that the money of the
bondholders and monopolists, and the
unscrupulous exercise of the executive
power of the government will secure the
victory over the people. Of course it will
be easy to convince Grant that upon this
victory depends not only the preserva
tion of the ltadical party, but the honor
and the life of the “nation.” Under such
circumstances it will be his “imperative
duty” to waive his personal objections,
disregard all personal “sacrifices,” aud ac
cept tho ltadical nomination for re-elec
tion in 187(1. Already his fuglemen are
setting their pegs in anticipation of this
imperative contingency. Tho kitchen
organ at Washington is taking the lead
in tho movement, aud is manifesting un
easiness lest the coming New York
Republican Convention shall go
too far in the game of hypo
crisy and duplicity, and say
something against a third term. It is
very much afraid the Republican press
of the State has been misled by the
clamor of the President’s enemies. It
hints ut a growing sentiment in favor of
tho retention of General Grant as the
only man who can be trusted to protect
•K-j . ... jutry from the evils of inflation
legislation-.' In the South, it says, “there
" • , <-.-1 atedemand tor his re-election,”
and “in tho North, uml who rovor tho
President’s consistent and persistent ad
heronco to his determination that the
financial pledges of the government shall
be kept inviolate, finds admirers, there is
a natural aud conservative disinclination
to venture upon a change of administra
tion. The true friends of the govern
ment, tlioso who have the honor of the
nation at heart, are cautious about
placing unlimited confidence in the man
agement of any strango and untried Ex
ocutive.” In view of this condition of
affairs, the organ thus advises the New
York Republicans : “The discreet thing
for them to do is to indorse his general
policy in terms of warmest approval, and
ignore tho existence of the shadowy third
term spook with which our enemies at
tempt to frighton us and provoke discord
in our ranks.”
The New York Times, the most influ
ential Republican journal in that State,
and which only a short time since was
very out-spoken in its opposition to the
third term movement, has evidently ex
perienced a change of views in regard to
tho true policy of its party, and now
siuiporiugly urges such action on the part
of the Convention as will not commit the
party against Grant’s candidacy for a
third term. In a recent editorial on the
subject of the approaching Convention
the editor says: “And as for the third
term question, it appears to us that Presi
dent Grant has himself put that beyond
the rauge of controversy, and all that
remains to be done is to accept
his declarations in an honest and
a fair spirit. He has been much
attacked personally, but few will
deny that whenever he has spoken, he
has meant all that he has said. He has
plainly told the people that nothing is
further from his thoughts than a re-elec
tion next year, and wo have never had
the least doubt as to his sincerity. Never
theless, we are not afraid to say that a
much greater evil might befall the coun
try than the re-election of Gen. Grant—
and that would be the election of a
Democratic “statesman,” who was pre
pared to succumb even to the demand for
inflation and repudiation in order that he
might reach the White House, and put
his party in power.”
The political weathercock of the New
York ll< raid, who, it will be remembered,
first raised tho ghost of Casarism, and
for mouths continued to denounce
Grant’s third term aspirations as treason
to the Republic, having no doubt been
influenced by weighty considerations,
has discovered anew danger to the na
tion, even greater than Ciesarism or a
third term. It says : “The truth is that
the Democrats aie frightening the coun
try back into the Republican party.
They are preparing the way for a third
term; for if the next election is to be
carried by a sort of panic revulsion
against the Democratic leaders, tfcen it is
clear to everybody that General Grant
will he the nominee. The country is
certainly opposed to ft third term, but if
the Democrats go on as they are going it
will prefer a third term to Democratic
rule—it will rush to Grant out of aver
sion to and suspicion of the Democrats.
That is the real danger in air politics to
day, and the danger of a third term
comes, not from the Republicans, but
from the Democrats.”
Such utterances from the leading or
gans of the Radical party are significant,
and in view of si) .the circumstances we
may set it down next to an assured fact
that Gen. Grant will receive the nomuu -
tiou of his party in 1876, and that he will
find it an “imperative duty to accept.”
Why Shall We Not Tan Our Own
Leather 1
The Atlanta ConstUulieih, commenting
on the articles which have appeared in
oar columns urging the importance of
establishing tanneries in Georgia, says:
“We concur entirely in this view. We
need tanneries in connection with our
growing manufactures of boots and shoes.
We Deed workers in leather as well as in
wood and iron, aud to have the former
we must have leather of home production.
H i mac is a natural product of oui
soil. It springs up anywhere, and is not
at all sensitive to heat, drought, or any
other change of climate. It is hardy,
plenteous and marketable. The demand
for this article is constantly ahead of the
supply, as a multitude of tanners prefer
it to any other article that contains tan
nic acid. True, it is only used at present
for tanning goat and sheep skins, but
this is on account of the inadequate sup
ply. If the supply were sufficient it
would be used in the tanning of all kind
of hides. Georgia sumac is as good as
Virginia sumac, and better than the finest
Sicily sumac. The next convention of
tie State Agricultural Society should give
this subject attention. Thousands of tons
aie allowed to rot in Georgia every year,
which the world wants, aud will pay
good prices for it. When properly pre
pared, the prices range from $75 to $l5O
a ton. The officers of the State Agricul
tural Society can easily procure all needful
information from Virginia, where the
traffic in sumac has grown to large di
mensions, and where its cultivation and
preparation for market are thoroughly
understood.”
Nothing is clearer to our mind than
that the introduction of manufacturing
and mechanical industries is indispensa
ble to the general prosperity of our peo
ple. The political and social revolution
through which we have passed has
made such a change in our domestic
economy more than ever necessary. If
our prosperity was, under the old re
gime, retarded by the absence of those
enterprises which diversify labor and
give employment to capital in the produc
tion of commodities and in the increase
of values of the raw material at our com
mand, still more do we feel the need of
them now when the one great and prin
cipal means of investment is cut off, the
old beaten track taken up, and capital,
labor and enterprise forced to look for new
fields of employment. The institution
of slavery no longer offers a means of
profitable investment for the surplus of
individual capital. Our planters no long
er make cotton with negroes to buy more
negroes to make more cotton to buy more
negroes, and our towns and cities must
no longer be mere factorage marts for
the transmission of cotton bales to for
eign markets, and for- the distribution of
plantation supplies. We must adapt
ourselves to the altered condition of af
fairs, and new enterprises, new indus
tries must be inaugurated to give em
ployment to labor and capital, and to
sustain population. In this respect Sa
vannah to-day is sadly deficient. She is
even behind her sister cities of our own
State. Augusta, Atlanta, Columbus are
far in advance of us in manufacturing
enterprise. How are we to retain even our
present population without manufactur
ing and mechanical industries to give em
ployment to both capital and labor ? This
is a question that addresses itself with es
pecial pertinence to the real estate owners
of our city. Many fine stores and dwel
lings have been built during the past
season. Not a few are yet unsupplied
with tenants. We need population, to
Secure which employment must be pro
vided. In the increase of employments
all classes, the capitalist, merchant, and
the laborer, are interested. Our first
step, then, should be to encourage such
manufacturing and mechanical enter
prises as are and tuat rutpiire no
iitrgo investment of capital. There are
many such enterprises that might be
safely and profitably inaugurated in our
city. None, perhaps, offers greater in
ducements than the one we have sug
gested. It would not require a large
amount of capital to establish a tannery
in our vicinity. This might be done by
associated capital. It would be the be
ginning of anew order of things, and,
with success, would no doubt soon be fol
lowed by other manufacturing enterprises
which, by keeping capital at home and
giviug employment to all classes of our
citizens, would add materially to our gen
eral prosperity.
The Union League and the Southern
Negroes.
The Boston Post, commenting on the
recent meeting of the Executive Com
mittee of the Union League in Phila
delphia, and their declared purpose of
reorganizing their secret conclave in the
South for the purpose of “keeping tJtie
colored voters of the South from the con
taminating influence of the Democrats,”
says: “This is a worthy and congenial
work for those whom the late Horace
Greeley somewhat discourteously styled
“blockheads,” but it is one in which
labor is evidently needed. The con
tamination of Democracy has indeed
spread considerably as the colored voters
have grown in intelligence and self-con
fidence. Ik Mississippi they protest
against the Republican color-line which
divides them from the offices. In Vir
ginia they denounce the President as
scornfully indifferent to their claims for
Federal appointments; and throughout
the South the experience of the Freed
men’s Bank, the failure of the Georgia
insurrection, and other misadventures
into which they have been led by gentle
men of the Union League set, have in a
measure opened their eyes to the situa
tion. There is no help but in arousing
the old hostility of race against race, and
this the Union League proposes to do.
But with the failure of the bloody shirt
business at the North, the prospect of
reviving the policy of hatred at the
South is not so brilliant as when the
Union League was more of a power than
it now is.”
Tlie Government Accounts.
We are beginning again to hear of de
ficiencies in the government revenues. It
is asserted that the expenditures have
been manipulated by the several depart
ments for several years past so as to ex
hibit a surplus, whereas the invariable
deficiency bill that each session of Con
gress is asked to pass shows that the
Treasury is not as plethoric as is pre
tended. It will be remembered that at
the late session of Congress, Secretary
Bristow came out plainly and stated that
he would need $35,000,000 more for the
present and the next year than the
sources of revenue would yield; the
President backed up the Secretary’s re
quest with a special message; and the
result was that Congress increased the
tariff and the tax on spirits. This legis
lation does not appear to have had the ef
fect intended, for it is now said that the
departments have been deficient in money
to pay their employes, and that the de
partments are in the habit of borrowing
from each other, producing a complica
tion of accounts that it will be difficult
to straighten.
The St. Louis Republican thinks there
will hare to be a general and thorough
overhauling of the government books at
the next session of Gongress. The Re
publican Congresses of the last twelve
years have refused to perform this im
portant duty, but the next Democratic
House will be expected to do it, without
fefix or favor. If any of the departments
are not prepared for inspection so much
the worse for them.
TRIAL OF CORDAY HARRIS.
Wbnl the Kvif*nce ban llitclofwd—Cm
Any Conrictlonn be Secured—A Temple
of J untie? Not Profaned—flow tbe Ver
dict wt Received— A Word In Concln
nion.
[Hpeciai Correspondence of tbe Morning News.)
Sandersvelle, September 3d, 1875.
Now that the trial of Rev. Corday Har
ris is ended, and the jury have rendered
a verdict of “not guilty’ in his case, it
may be well for me to review the situa
tion of things here, and try to make plain
to your readers why such a result has
been reached. In my first report of the
insurrectionary movement I spoke of
Corday Hams as the third in command
or importance in the conspiracy. No
testimony has been given to disprove
this fact, although Captain Francis Mur
kerson is made to appear in a very prom
inent position by his incendiary threats,
and his active efforts to promote the pur
poses of the organization with which he
was connected. The failure to convict
Harris may be traced to various causes,
and was not the result of want of com
plicity on his part in the movement. As
I stated in my first letter, guilt and con
viction are two very different things.
WHAT THE EVIDENCE HAS DISCLOSED.
The prosecution has succeeded in pro
ving that there did exist among the
negroes of Laurens, Johnson and other
counties (and to some extent in this
county), a feeling of opposition and
hatred to the whites. Under the teach
ings and lead of Joe Morris, a bad and
worthless fellow, the negroes had been
made to feel that the road laws, the ten
ure of lands and their exclusion from the
jury box were oppressive and unjust to
them. Morris, Murkerson, and others,
who were ambitious for military titles,
took advantage of this state of things to
inflame the passions of their race, and in
this way organize them into military
companies, oath-bound and secret in their
operations, with a view to securing high
military positions for themselves. The
great mass of negroes who were drawn
into the movement were ignorant and
stupid plantation hands, but it has been
fully shown that the leaders aud many
of the subordinate officers were possessed
of some intelligence, aud that they exhi
bited a great deal of energy and used
considerable deception in their efforts to
organize and control the colored popula
tion of this section of the State. These
leaders, as has been amply shown by
reliable testimony, did make threats of
destruction against the white populace,
and proposed to burn the Court House in
this city. Unfortunately these threats
were made in adjoining counties, and the
negroes who made them have fled from
justice. Corday Harris is reported to
have listened, without protest, to these
threats, and one witness testifies that
Corday even made a threat himself ; but
it was done at Buckeye Church, which is
not in this county. That he was the
leader in this section, cannot be denied;
and that he was using his influence to
mass the negroes together for some pur
pose, secret in itself and fatal in its con
sequences to the whites, is too evident to
be laughed at as a mere “scare.” The
threats referred to were inadejat different
times and in places widely separated,
showing that Morris was making an
effort, by his own appeals and incendiary
threats, as well as tnrough his subordi
nate officers, to consolidate in this move
ment the entire negro population of the
nineteen counties over which he proposed
to exercise his authority as “Brigetary
Gineral.” Nothing has been called out by
the trial of Harris which goes to disprove
the sworn confessions already published
in my previous letters. It has been
shown that a feeling of hostility to the
white race existed among a certain class
of negroes, and that these negroes were
the leadeis in the proposed movement.
CAN CONVICTIONS BE SECURED ?
There is no doubt of the ability of the
State to convict “General” Joseph Mor
ris and “Captain” Francis Murkerson, as
their declarations were most emphatic as
to the bloody and insurrectionary pur
poses of the secret military movement.
As to General P. R. Rivers, who is a real
militia officer of that rank in South Caro
liua, I doubt if he can be made a crimi
nal participant in the affair. It seems
that it was his military title and high
position that stirred within the breast of
“Hon.” Joseph Morris the desire to be
come a great “General” among his own
people. It was natural that he should
consult Rivers as to how this object
should be accomplished. And when he
learned that it could only be done by the
organization and equipment of a certain
number of colored companies, he allowed
no time to elapse before he set about
forming these organizations. It is prob
able that Governor Smith’s refusal to
give him arms for his companies in Burke
county—the State then having none to
give even to white companies—angered
him to that extent that he began to plan
his insurrectionary movement. He had
set his heart upon being a “General,”
and a “General” he would be at all haz
ards. Rivers being a bona fide General,
it is to be presumed that Morris had fre
quent conferences with him, by letter or
otherwise, as to the best and quickest
way in which to secure the object of
bis vain ambition. I do not think,
therefore, that Rivers, if now in custody,
could be convicted, although I am satis
fied that he did inspire Morris with much
of the energy of purpose and vileness of
design which actuated him in his efforts
to mass the negroes together under his
military control.
There are also subordinate officers
whose guilt can be established in John
son county, if it is thought prudent to
press a conviction of such persons in the
absence of the chief ringleaders in the
movement. My sense of justice would
forbid the adoption of this course, "unless
the testimony was of such a character as
to show a deep-seated and deliberately
formed purpose on the part of these sub
ordinates, acting without regard to the
higher authority of the leaders , to do vio
lence to the white people of the county.
The movement, whatever may have been
its character and purpose, has been met
and its force destroyed. Never again,
under any circumstances, will those ring
leaders seek to marshal their colored
forces in a movement of this kind. Those
leaders have fled the country, and the
great mass of their duped followers, but
few of whom bore any ill-will in their
hearts to the whites, have gone back to
their labor in the field and to their places
in the shops in which they were employed.
There is no real oonfliet of races existing
between the blacks and whites of this
section. A few turbulent negroes and a
handful of equally foolish whites have
existed here, and will exist here as
long as human nature remains hu
man nature. I cannot see, therefore,
that the conviction of any but the real
instigators of this movement, the am
bitious, ever-to-be-feared leaders of in
surrectionary bands, would result in good
to the people of the State, or that the
demands of justice require more than
this. Even when the alarm was first
given, and before the whole affair could
be calmly investigated, the people and
press cf Georgia, as with one voice, pro
tested against the imprisonment or con
viction of any but the really guilty in
stigators. And now that all danger is
passed away, and peace and quiet and
good feeling between the races is restored,
I am satisfied that a still stronger protest
will be made against the conviction of
subordinates in the movement.
A TEMPLE OF JUSTICE UNPBOFANED.
The people of this section won the
highest praise for their coo land delib
erate action and calm and cool obedience
to law and order in their efforts to defeat
and suppress what threatened to be a
most bloody and terrible slaughter of the
white population of this and adjoining
counties. Whatever may have been the
grounds of alarm their humane and for
bearing conduct has won the plaudits
of the civilized world. But grander
still, and more to be honored in every
sense, has been their conduct during
the trial of Rev. Corday Harris. Not a
word has been uttered, not a threat made,
so far as I know, calculated to im
properly influence the minds of those in
whose hands his* fate was to be placed.
The Mayor of the city and other legal
gentlemen of high character and fine at
tainments, promptly volunteered for his
defense. The ex-Attorney General of
the United States, Hon. Amos T. Aker
man, was secured as leading counsel.
Judge Hersehel Y. Johnson, whose emi
nent ability and great worth give power
to his utterances, charged the grand jury
with marked candor and strict impar
tiality. It was a body of men worthy the
confidence of the community, and their
faithful dische *ge of delicate and impor
tant duties is their highest commendation
to public endorsement. The petit jury
was composed of some of the best and
most reliable citizens of the county, each
one of whom was duly passed upon by
the prisoner and his counsel.
The Attorney General of the State.
Hon. N. J. Hammond, leading counsel
for the prosecution, presented his case to
the jury in a most able, clear and unbiased
manner. He assured that body that tbe
great State of Georgia, whose official acts
were governed by “wisdom, justice and
moderation.” desired the blood of no one
of her citizens. He was there in no
spirit of anger, with no purpose of re
venge in his heart. The laws of the
State guarantee to its humblest inhabi
tant a full, free and impartial trial, when
ever the said individual is sought to
be deprived of life, liberty, or the
pursuit of happiness. His duty in the
case—and he should in no manner go be
yond that —was to try the accused in
strict accordance with the law and the
testimony. The Governor of the State,
anxious that nothing should be done in
haste or under excitement that could in
any way infringe the rights of the ac
cused, had desired his presence here m
the conduct of this case, that an impar
tial trial and an honest verdict might
show to the world that in Georgia, if in
no other State of the Union, a colored
man, even in times like these and under
circumstances so peculiar, could be put
on trial for his life and receive impartial
justice at the hands of white men whose
own lives and whose own homes had been
threatened with destruction by the ac
cused and his co-conspirators.
Ex-Attorney General Akerman deserves
the highest praise for his calm, unbiased
and conservative course during the trial.
He came here under the ban of Radical
ism, and nearly everybody trembled with
fear as they contemplated the extent to
which, by his unwise speech and extreme
course of action, he might possibly stir
up strife between the two races in this
county. But nothing of the kind took
place. No word that fell from his lips
during his three hours’ talk to the
jury, or in his cross examination
of witnesses, " revealed the fact
that he was not a Democrat. And while
he had it in his po—er to stir up the pas
sions of both n' , and to have pro
duced results ' * would have flung a
hundred “blood., shirts” to the political
breeze, he chose to be wise, prudent and
patriotic. By this course he won the re
spect of the people j 0 were present
during the trial, all cf whom will long
remember his able, eloquent and impar
tial speech to the jury. I must confess
that he completely won my heart by his
tender and beautiful appeal in behalf of
kindly relations between the races. He
advised the negroes not to think of emi
gration, but to stay here with their
old masters and their best friends. They
could live in peace with the whites, and
if they had any unjust laws to complain
of, not to seek to abrogate them by any
insurrectionary movement. His advice
to the whites was equally appropriate.
“These negroes,” he said, in closing,
“many of them, were old family serv
ants ; they smiled over your cradles, and
if you will only let them live here in
peace with you, they will also weep over
your graves.”
It may not be wrong to state that Cor
day Harris might have been convicted.
Under the present condition of things
here, had the counsel for the prosecution
“clamored” for his blood, or made an im
passioned appeal, based upon testimony
that showed his conduct in other coun
ties, the jury might have brought in a
verdict of “guilty.” But whenever a
doubt existed upon any point, either of
law or testimony, the benefit of that
doubt, in accordance with law, was given
the prisoner at the bar. His utterances
in Burke or Laurens county, however
insurrectionary in their character, could
not be used against him in this county.
Here, according to the evidence, he was
simply the Marshal of the procession that
marched from Tennille (No. 13, C. R R.),
to Sandersville, on the 24th of July, and
in this peaceful capacity he was mounted
upon a horse at the head of the column,
carrying a sword, and giving the usual
orders. It was shown by the witnesses
for the prosecution that when Harris
found he could not secure the court
house for the negro mass meeting, he
sought out the Mayor of the city, and
after advising with him, made a brief
speech to the negroes, in which he coun
seled them to quietly disperse to their
homes, to keep perfectly sober and make
no disturbance of any kind. Although a
great many negroes were dressed in fan
tastic uniforms, made of calico or cam
bric, it was shown that of the fifteen
hundred present only three had arms
of any kind—Harris having a sword,
and the other negroes being armed
with pistols. Of course, in all
this there was no testimony with which
to secure an honest conviction of the ac
cused. Had any unwise attempt been
made to influence the jury against the
prisoner, I am sure that Judge Johnson,
whose love of justice is proverbial and
cannot be swayed by the speech or im
pulses of men, would have promptly met
it with a charge so impartial and so clear
that the jury would have hesitated long
and deliberately before arriving at a ver
dict not fully sustained by the law and
the testimony in the case.
HOW THE VERDICT WAS RECEIVED.
While there were many who fondly
hoped for the conviction of Harris, on
account of his prominent position among
the negroes of this county, I think the
court and the great mass of the people are
satisfied with the result. They do not look
upon the accused as innocent of com
plicity with the movement, but they
clearly see that the testimony was not
sufficient to convict him here in this
county. And a word as to his promi
nence in the matter. There can be no
doubt that he was the next in impor
tanec. oJ‘ ‘General” Morris, and that he(of
ten acted for Morris in raising money and
in getting up mass-meetings. But beyond
this he seems to have acted with consid
orablecaution. Holding religious meetings
about in the adjoining counties, he fre
quently took advantage of the noon hour
to con .e’t with the negroes in regard to
this movement. In his utterances, how
ever, he seems to have been quite guarded.
One witness testified that Harris, at
such a time, made threats against the
whites, but he laughed when he did so,
and the witness thought “he was only
joking.” It may be possible—but I think
it quite improbable—that Harris did not
wholly approve the threat of Morris to
burn the court house, and that he did not
desire a conflict of races. But I still
adhere to the theory of my first
letter—-in fact, I can stand by that whole
communication —that the conspiracy was
prematurely exploded. There can be no
doubt of tne ultimate bloody purpose of
Morris and Murkerson, for their dis
tinct utterances are positively insurrec
tionary in their character. Yet no dan
ger is now feared from them, nor will the
ghost of Rev. Corday Harris, as pictured
so vividly by the associate counsel for
the State, ever disturb the slumbers of
the people of Washington county.
Mounted on his horse, in flowing, fan
tastic robes, with a red rooster’s feather
in his hat, and a drawn sword in his
hand, he passes into history by the
eloquence of this gentleman, as the
leader of a procession of fifteen
hundred foolish and deluded negroes,
armed with but two pistols for the
entire foice, and dressed in the most fan
tastic array of calico and cambric cos
tumes. This was the head and front of
his offending in Washington county, and
althoug : for all this foolishness the asso
ciate co osel eloquently pleaded for Ms
conviction, the court, the Attorney Gen
eral of the State, and the jury themselves,
“could not see it in that light,” and hence
the verdict of “not guilty.”
And is this the end of it all, you will
ask ? What better ending, under the cir
cumstances, could have been secured?
It is true that a large amount of money
has been expended by the State and
county during the efforts put forth to
suppress this anticipated insurrection.
Is it to result in the conviction of no one
of the guilty parties ? As I have before
stated, Morris and Murkerson, whose
guilt is clearly proven, have fled the
country. Harris escaped, under the law,
a conviction. But what is this compared
to the great results reached ? What are a
few thousand dollars compared to the
peace, order and dignity of a great State
like Georgia ? Where else, in any part
of the land, could such ah alarm have
been given, with or without foundation,
and human life not have been sacrificed
and streams of blood been poured out in
a conflict of races ? The question of “a
big scare" does not enter into this prop
osition. The pecy’e did not then know
—lf they do now -hat “minnies” meant
“minutes,” and not Minnie rifles. They
did not then kr jw that “General Bivers
and staff and two thousand armed negroes
from South Carolina” was one of Morris’s
tricks of trade. They only knew that
these rumors, coming from written com-
municatious which had passed between
negroes, were abroad, and that they must
promptly defend their homes and their
innocent wives and children. Men at
such times are not always cool in action
or reasonable in judgment.
But, thank God, these people were cool
in action and reasonable in judgment;
and because of this no lives were lost,
and the peace, good order and dignity of
the State were preserved. Of the wis
dom of keeping so many prisoners here
under a military guard, after the excite
ment had subsided, I have already ex
pressed my opinion. Still, in view of all
the facts of the case, I do hope that
the Legislature at its next session will
pass a bill to relieve the county of Wash
ington of a portion of the heavy expense
which has been incurred by her faithful
public officials. If they erred in judg
ment at a pater period, they acted with
great caution, prudence and firmness in
the most critical hour of the insurrection
excitement. They and the people of the
county —whatever may have been the
revengeful purposes of a few bad white
men—preserved the State of Georgia
from a calamity that would have deeply
financial standing, put a dark
stain upon her political character and made
her grand old motto— “ Wisdom, Jus
tice, Moderation”— a trio of empty and
meaningless words. Let the State show
her appreciation of the wise, moderate
and just action of the people of this sec
tion, in this matter, by cheerfully bear
ing a portion of the heavy and oppressive
burden of debt which their efforts to
suppress the anticipated insurrection has
brought upon them.
A WORD IN CONCLUSION.
There may be some journalists who will
t attempt to cast ridicule upon this move
ment, and who will flippantly call the
trial of Rev. Corday Harris “a complete
fizzle. ” If such a journalist there be, it
is to be hoped, for the sake of decency,
that he lives beyond the borders of this
State, and that he is a “bohemian dead
beat” of the lowest order. A trial con
ducted as this has been, with such a man
as ex-Govemor Herschel V. Johnson on
the bench, ex-United SufyjjS 'Attorney
General Amos T. Akerman, for the defense,
and Attorney General N. J. Hammond, for
the prosecution, and a. jury of the best
men in the county, is no mere child’s
play. In their presence all trickery van
ishes away—all technicalities are swept
aside, when the life of a human
being is in the scales of justice, even
though that life belongs to a poor, mis
guided, foolish negro preacher. The
calm, majestic presence of the law over
shadows all their acts and gives tone to
all their utterances. Such men, under
such circumstances, cannot, if they
would, commit judicial murder merely
to appease the demands of an excited and
angered populace. But in this instance
there was no outside clamor for blood,
and within in the temple of justice the
scales were not moved by a single breath
of hatred, nor a single purpose or desire
to misconstrue or misapply the law and
the facts in the case.
Prematurely “nipped in the bud” what
might have grown into a vast'power for
evil and bloodshed, now lies dead in its
infantile proportions. All false adorn
ments have been stripped from its form,
and the strangled monstrosity is no
longer a cause of alarm. “General’’ Mor
ris, a turbulent, lazy and scheming negro,
ambitious to be a great man among the
negroes of this State, as is General Riv
ers among the negroes of South Caro
lina, consults that equally turbulent
and ambitious negro as to how
he can succeed. He is told to form
military companies aud get Governor
Smith to order an election for a negro
“Brigertory Gineral.” This is the foun
dation of the movement. But failure to
get arms at Atlanta—as there were rone
—angers Morris, and then he ‘ ‘talks big”
and “swells,” as one of the negro wit
nesses said. Negro must go on juries;
have arms for military companies
(whether or no); work the roads by
themselves and under black overseers;
have a share of the public lands (and he
claimed that all the lands were public), and
if they could use the court houses when
they wanted them he would find men who
would not hesitate to burn them down.
With these incendiary and bloody threats
—for he proposed to obtain lands by the
murder of whites—Morris had gone about
inflaming the negroes of the counties in
this section, and organizing oath-bound
and secret military companies. I do
not think he intended to get
up an insurrection on the 24th
of July, or to do violence to
the whites, but by a grand display of
General Rivers and his armed troops and
his own unarmed forces, he hoped to
frighten the white people into yielding
to his demands. Failing in this, at some
future time he would have led his duped
and ignorant black followers “into the
jaws of death” in a bloody insurrectionary
movement. Sidney Herbert.
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
The Jim .Smithson Show—How to Kutcr
taiu the l’ublic—The Seminole Nero
Uodge —An Outrage on Florida A
Bloodthirsty Captain—The I.asli of
Thaclier— Radical Itoysterers—Califor
nia Notes, etc., etc.
[Special Correspondence of the Morning News.]
Washington, D. C., Sept. 3, 1875.
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE.
An old Englishman named Jim Smith
son having accumulated quite a fortune,
and his mother-in-law being deceased,
he passed in his checks, as the lamented
Beau Hickman would say, and willed
$515,169 to the founding of an institu
tion for “the increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men.” This sum was
afterwards increased by $26,210 63, and
with appropriations made by Congress
and other bequests, now foots up nearly
a million. The funds and other things
are in charge of a Board of Trustees, of
whom Professor Henry is Secretary, and
who have a quarterly “blow out” from
the assets. Whether old Smithson in
tended to have a sort of a knowledge
receptacle established or not, the trus
tees have always believed that he wished
a museum, a moral exhibition and collec
tion of curiosities, started on his funds.
The mistake has been made by not having
engaged Bamum to run the plow. They
have snakes and bugs enough to jim-jam
the United States, birds’ nests and stuffed
animals, including that type of radical
perfection the gorilla, Dr. Kane’s old
clothes and wax figures that outdo
Madame Tussand’g. The megathenum,
the Irish elk and the icthyosaurus all sit
around in graceful positions, and the
Japanese relics are scattered over the
building in brilliant profusion. Petrified
boot-heels, Alexander the Great s
glass-eye, Napoleon’s old shirt,
Jehosaphat’s pocket-flask, Captain Noah’s
compass from the ark, a ticket of admis
sion to the Tower of Babel, and the
whale that Mr. Jonah swallowed, are all
there, and the average American is edified
by the sight of them. But the show
lacks life. There is no Artemus Ward to
descant upon the beauties. I'This, ladies
and gentlemen, is the great ’rang-a-tang,
wot entereth defenceless villages, carryeth
off unprotected females to the topmost
branches of the tallest trees, an there de
voureth he they them.” Add a feature of
this kind to the institute and millions yet
unborn will bless the trustees of Jim
Smithson’s bequest.
THE BANE OF CALIFORNIA
has furnished a goodly amount of chat
try bursting, and old Adolph Sutro and
the Austrian capitalists who built the
Sutro tunnel are rejoicing. The above
named bank fought the tunnel scheme to
death and has now gone up itself. It
controlled the wood and charcoal supplies
to the Nevada mines and was the power
that placed Sharon in the Senate and
Stewart on the shelf. Sharon will hardly
blk about buying the capital for a coun
try residence any more. California brag
gadocia needs an occasional check, and
Sharon has received it very hard. It is
aumored that ex-Senator Nye loses some
thing by the bank failure. The talk was
that Jones paid Nye fifty thousand dol
lars for his influence in getting him
elected, and now it is said that Nye had
most of this in Ralston’s charge. We have
a number of Californians laying loose
around here and all of them profess to
feel bad oyer the orash. The Califor
nians will soon recuperate from any
trouble, however. Looking at Raymond s
report on the mineral resources of the
country, he shows an average of forty
four millions of bullion produced annu
ally in California and Nevada, the latter
controlled by the former. Of this amount
over fourteen millions come from the
Comstock mines and tailings. It costs,
however, more than a dollar and a half
to get out one dollar in gold, yet mining
industries seem to thrive, and many of
the speculators become vory wealthy.
A LUCKY CALIFORNIAN
in Peru, who left San Francisco with sev
eral hundred thousand dollars worth of
debts, struck a railroad bonanza in the
country of the Andes and has built iron
roads enough to bring him in several
millions and enable him to pay his debts.
Harry Meigs is now the railroad king of
South America, and has with him an able
corps of American engineers. He pays
them well and gets a good return from
them.
THE NEW DISTRICT ATTORNEY ,
Wells, has been directed toopeu the safe
burglary investigation again. It will be
remembered that the safe of the District
Attorney s office was blown open and
books taken out to be left at the house of
one C. Alexander, who was prosecuting
the District ring and exposing their
thefts. The object of leaving the books
was to connect Alexander with the rob
bery of the safe, but through bungling
the whole affair fell to the ground, the
burglars were allowed to escape and an
investigation whitewashing over the thing
left an impression that the Assist
ant District Attorney Harrington,
the District Attorney Fisher, the
Chief and other police, Boss Shepard,
and others were all implicated. If the
case is reopened a terrible roll of rascality
can be shown up. A burglar arrested
here a few days ago was let out on bogus
bail, and young Fisher, the late District
Attorney’s son, is accused of connivance
in this affair. There is a fearful lack of
hoaesty in the administration of District
affairs even yet. The Commissioners are
accused of speculation, and it is evident
that they are making far more money
than their salaries.
THE FISHERIES
in the Chesapeake have all lost money
this year, but are still catchiug some.
Sturgeon are very plentiful, and are sell
ing from fifty cents to a dollar each,
weighing seventy or eighty pounds.
Oysters have been good all this year,
Something very unusual, but there are
fen of them on the market. The shad
breeding places are all closed up, and
shad have been shipped off by the mil
lion. Black bass is now being shipped
off in large numbers, and it really seems
as if in a few years all our streams will
be well stocked with fish.
THE SEMINOLE NEGROES.
The latest dodge is an attempt to ship
several hundred negroes from Texas to
Florida under pretence of their having
been Seminole slaves. The few Seminole
slaves who settled on the Rio Grande
years ago. still remain there and do not
wish to move, but a crowd of discharged
negro soldiers and others are gathered
together to be supported by the govern
ment and shipped to Florida, where they
can do service in the elections. Texas is
so overwhelmingly Democratic that these
fellows can’t do much good there, but in
a close State like Florida they can be
of great assistance. What a yankee
will not think of in the way of
political dodges the devil has never con
ceived. These Seminole darkies will be
assigned, I suppose, to Brother Hicks’s
paternal uare, and will be duly voted at
the earliest opportunity. There may be
a fight over them yet, but Conover and
Purman have Walls pretty well in hand,
and can manage the piebald element
pretty well for their own ends. Major
ltubenstein is the individual who has
been sent to take charge of the emi
grants, and he will take them down to
the Indian river country, where a benifi
cent government will furnish them prov
ender. Now is the time for
SENATOR JONES
to open out. Let him show up this
scheme of fraud and it will be a big
feather in his chapeau. Jones is able to
do it, and if he makes his fight properly
he can prevent the population of Florida
from being improperly increased by this
method. If colonization dodges of this
kind are allowed, we will have them bring
ing over the population of Guinea and
feeding them on administration pap, for
the purpose of controlling the elections.
We have too many brunettes now, and
instead of bringing them back east they
should be sent across the Rio Grande, to
increase the mongrel population of Mex
ico. We might send Butler with them as
Tycoon, and let the Mexicans give them
a piece of country to form a little gov
ernment on, where they could razor each
other to their heart’s content, or Grant
might send them to Steinberger in his
Samoan kingdom.
CAPTAIN LEIB
is ferocious over the notice he received in
the News and the way the Jacksonville
Press burnished him up. He threatens
to sue the Press for libel (as if he could
be libelled), and to use up your corre
spondent when he finds him out. For
the latter purpose he carries a pair of
flint-lock horse pistols, a two-inch dagger,
a machete and a bottle of croton oil.
When the Cap. gets excited blood is
nothing to him. He has fertilized the
soil of Florida with his enemies, and
what people have supposed to be Indian
mounds are only places where the Cap.
piles up the carcasses. His coat buttons
are made of smuggler’s bones, and he has
about two bushels of rebel tendons that
he proposes to have made into shoe
strings. I solemnly warn the people of
Jacksonville to fortify, fqy there is no
telling when this bold buccaneer may
appear before that devoted city in his
felucca and sweep it like the dread
simoom.
ANOTHEK ONE GONE.
Thacher, the Commissioner of Patents,
has been forced to resign, and has made
arrangements to open in the patent busi
ness in Chicago. The causes that led to
his leaving were numerous, prominent
amongst them his trickery in the sewing
machine cases. The former Commis
sioner, Leggett, whose two sons prac
ticed before him while he held the office,
which led Don Piatt to dub the Patent
Office as the firm of Leggett, Leggett
& Father, picked Thacher out from
amongst his clerks as a fit instrument in
his hands to do dirty work, and there
fore resigned in his favor. The Leggetts
have controlled all the principal patent
cases since that time, and the frauds
committed on patentees have led to a
considerable amount of complaint. It has
been notorious that the inventor of every
valuable patent would lose more than half
his claim before getting it through the
office. In some instances patents wore
stolen from inventors altogether through
confederates outside the office who would
make out ante-dated caveats. It has been
so that a man was not sure of anything
sent to the Patent Office. Every ex-Com
missioner of patents now alive is in the
practice of patent law, and nearly all of
them rich. There must be a bonanza of
stealing for them as no man could get
rich out of mere fees. There are numer
ous candidates for Thacher’s place, but
Speer, the Assistant Commissioner, has
the inside track and will probably get the
position. Cyclops,
Mr. Beecher has conducted himself
since his trial in a manner so offensive to
decency, so inconsistent with his sacred
calling, and so out of relation to the
character he claims for himself and his
partisans ask the public to believe is his,
that we are not surprised to hear start
ling reports as to his actions. The fol
lowing, however, from the White Moun
tains correspondence of the Exrpretus, is
almost too graceful for belief;
“The Beecher excitement is quite died
out. At first there was a great rush to
see him, and hear him, but now the fun
is over, and last Sunday his entire audi
ence did not exceed two thousand people.
He is to return to Brooklyn this week,
much to the displeasure of the Barrons,
who keep the hotel where he is staying.
They have given him his board and fifty
dollars a week to stay and preach at their
house. He thinks they are making too
much money out of him, and demands
that they pay him two hundred dollars a
week. The Barrons say this is too
much, and Beecher says, ‘All right, gen
tlemen, I go home this week. ’ ‘lf you
do, we will sue* you for breach of
contract; for, Mr. Beecher, you agreed
to stay till the third Sunday in Septem
ber.’ Beecher coolly replies, ‘Sue away, if
you like. I should think after what you
have seen of my success in the law
business, that you would know better
than to undertake a suit against me.’
The Barrons are furious. They say they
have done everything for Beecher; that
they defended him in the newspapers,
and have petted him always. But they
can’t help themselves. When Mr.
Beecher makes up his mind to go, he will
start if a whole regiment opposes.”
The previous report that Mr. Beecher
was a dead-head at the Twin Mountain
House, paying his way by exhibiting
himself there, was discreditable enough;
but the above is an outrage to honor and
decency that we are not able to believe
even of Mr. Beecher.— N. Y. Sun.
TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.
Nn mumry of the Week’s Dispatches
THE CASE OF DR. HICKS.
[Special Telegram to the Morning New*,]
Live Oak, Fla., September 3.
Dr. Collier withdrew from the prose
cution of Hicks because a practicing at
torney employed in a civil suit on
the same issue was allowed to conduct
the defense. The committee are no
doubt sincere in their proceeding. Three
more witnesses were examined. Secre
tary Carruth also retired this afternoon.
[Special Telegram to the Morning News.]
I. tvs Oak, Fla., September 4.
THE PROSECUTION RESTS.
The prosecution in the case of Dr.
Hicks closed this afternoon, and the
examination of witnesses in behalf of the
defense was begun. The trial will be re
sumed on Monday.
an explosion.
The charge of collusion or conspiracy
on the part of any one to injure the char
acter or standing of the Rev. Dr. Hicks
was most thoroughly and effectually ex
ploded by the evidence, there being not
the least shadow of testimony to sup
port it.
hicks’ lawyer.
White, Hicks’ lawyer, appears to be
conducting both sides of the case, and is
framing answers for witnesses with as
tounding sagacity.
A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE.
Dr. Hankins, the prosecuting counsel
for the church, is too conscientious and
unsuspecting to cqjjo with a lawyer.
THE CALIFORNIA ELECTION.
San Francisco, September 3.—lncom
plete returns indicate the of
Irwin, Democrat, Governor, and the en
tire Democratic State ticket by a large
plurality. Three Democratic Congress
men are elected and the fourth is in
doubt. The Democrats have a plurality
in the Legislature aud probably a ma -
jority. The decision of the Mayor’s con
test will probably require an official count.
The vote of the State as far as heard
from, except the cities of San Francisco
and Sacramento, which are much mixed,
gives Irwin, Democrat, for Governor,
21,C‘.)4, and Bidwell, Independent, 9,673.
In the Second Congressional District,
Page, Republican, reoeives 4,891, Larkin,
Democrat, 4,361, and Tuttle, Independ
ent, 1,267. In the Third Congressional
District, Luttrell, Democrat, receives
5,641, Denie, Republican, 2,666, aud
Reid, Independent, 2,165. In the Fourth
Congressional District, Wiggeuton, Dem
ocrat, receives 6,442, Houghton, Repub
lican, 4,803, and Thompson, Independ
ent, 1,675. In this city, Piper, Demo
crat, for Congress, is undoubtedly elected,
but the other offices are still undecided.
FOREIGN MARKET REVIEW.
London, September 4.- —To-day’s Times,
in its financial column, says the firmness
of the money market is continued, and
of the discount business done at market
rate a large proportion of the bills were
negotiated at a Higher figuro. Corn is
steady. Deliveries of English wheat and
foreign wheat continue to be heavy. The
provincial markets are mostly firm, with
occasionally an advance in price on last
week. The Hungarian wheat crop is said
to ‘be disappointing, but owing to the
late harvest there may still be some avail
able for export. There is little further
news regarding foreign crops. The Min
cing Lane markets are without change
from the dullness of many weeks. The
sugar market continues depressed, and
prices are tending downwards.
FOREIGN CROPS.
London, September 3.—The Times in
its financial column, says that there is in
creased firmness in the discount market,
apart from other influences which may
be expected to cause a greater demand
for floating capital. As we get into the
autumn, more than usual attention is
directed to the requirements of the
country in connection with the grain
trade. It is known that we shall have the
import of an unusually large quantity of
wheat, and it is equally certain that all
malting barley will have to come from
abroad.
The Daily Telegraph says the prospects
are favorable for the bop harvest, which
has already commenced. The damage
done by mould and vermin is below the
average.
FAST MAIL TRAIN.
Philadelphia, September 4. The
Post Office Department lias perfected
arrangements for a post mail train from
New York to Philadelphia, Washington
and Baltimore, via Pittsburg to Chicago,
St. Louis, Cincinnati aud all points in the
Southwest. This train will commence
running on Monday, September 13, over
the Pennsylvania Railroad and its con
necting lines, making extraordinary fast
time, so as to fully accommodate the im
mense postal business of the cities
designated as well as a limited number of
through passengers. The schedule of
the train will be arranged and announced
in a few days.
RADICAL BIOTS.
Y icksbubg, September 4.—A difficulty
occurred at the Republican meeting at
Clinton, Miss., to-day. Three whites,
Chas. Chilton, of Clinton, Martin Se
villy and Mr. Thompson, of Raymond,
are reported killed. Three negroes are
killed, and several whites and negroes
wounded. No positive information has
been received regarding the origin of the
conflict. About one hundred and fifty
armed whites from this place and fifty
from Edwards and Bolton arrived at Clin
ton this evening, to protect the town.
The negroes are reported arriving and
threatening another town.
SHOOTING DOWN THE WIND.
St. Louis, September 5. —Major John
A. Edwards, of the St. Louis Times, and
Colonel Emory S. Foster, editor of the
Evening Journal, exchanged one harm
less shot in Winnebago county, whither
they had gone to settle a difficulty grow
ing out of a newspaper article concern
ing the refusal of the people of Winne
bago to hear Mr. Davis at the county fair.
Major Edwards demanded a second shot,
but iho seconds, having decided that there
should be but one unless demanded by
both, and Colonel Foster considering that
he had given sufficient satisfaction de
clined, and the matter was settled with
out further difficulty.
THE NOBTH CAROLINA CONVENTION.
Raleigh, September 6.—The' State
Convention met; 119 members present.
One vacancy is created by the death of
ex-Gov. Graham. Two ballots for Presi
dent resulted in Ransom, Independent
Democrat, receiving 59 votes, and Dock
ery, Republican, 58. The two candidates
voting scattering, leaving the result un
decided. The convention then adjourned
until 10 a. m. to-morrow morning. In
tense interest is felt in the result. Large
crowds are in the city. No one knows
the final result.
THE maid’s BEST TIME.
Hartford, September 3.—Goldsmith
Maid trotted two heats with a running
mate, to beat her best record for a purse
of $2,000. In the first heat Doble did
not send her, evidently only caring only
to put her in trim for the second trial.
The time was
she was sent, and made a mile without a
skip in 2:14£, creating great enthusiasm.
Turfmen regard this as better time than
2:14 on Mystic Park, and really her
greater achievement, all things consid
ered.
A FIGHT.
Denver, Col., September •.—Particu
lars have been received of an engage
ment on the 15th of August between
Gardner and Gennet’s party of Hayden’s
survey and a band of Sierra la Salutes,
near the line between Colorado and Utah
and near the line of New Mexico. The
fight lasted twenty-one hours and resulted
in a loss to the Gardner and Gennet party
of all their baggage and nearly all their
provisions. They all escaped without
injury,
Ralston’s defalcation.
San Francisco, September 4.— Mr. S.
Q. Mills authorizes the statement that
the defalcation of the late President of
the Bank of California will amount to be
tween three and four millions of dollars,
and that an over issue of stock has been
discovered. It is supposed that this
will in any way prejudice the arrangements
nowjbeihg made to rehabilitate the bank.
TSE MISSISSIPPI RIOTS.
Vicksburg, Miss., September 6.—An
extra edition of the Herald gives the fol
lowing account of the disturbance at
Clinton :
“The origin and particulars of the riot
at Clinton on Saturday afternoon have
been variously stated. After nearing all
the statements, we think the following
about correct: There is a law prohibiting
the sale of liquor in Clinton. Some
young men from Raymond brought a bot
tle with them, and, while the speaking
was going on, Martin Siveley and some of
his friends went off a short distance to take
adrink. The colored Marshal for the occa
sion approached them and forbade their
drinking. This order was not regarded,and
when the Marshal attempted to take'the
bottle out of Siveley’s hand Sivele
struck him over the head with it. Sena
tor Caldwell, colored, started to settle
the difficulty, and was followed by some
twenty- negrees, whom he ordered back
but about one hundred more CRnio rush!
ing on. Someone fired a shot, which
was followed by a general firing and a
stampede. Siveley fired all the barrels
of bis pistol, and the negroes then de
mauded his surrender. He surrendered
and gave up his pistol, after which he
was shot and his brains knocked out.
He was then robbed of his clothing
and his finger was cut off in order
to get bis ring. The infuriated mob
found Charles Chilton in his yard and
shot aud killed him in the presence
of his family. Frank Thomas, the son
of a promising young lawyer, was shot
from his horse a mile and a half from
the scene of the conflict, aud, after fall
ing, the savages drove their knives in his
body in many places. John Neal was
fatally shot in the left lung, in town, and
Waddy Rice seriously in the hand. Four
negroes were found dead on the field and
two mortally wounded. Six additional
negroes have been found dead about Clin
ton since. The white men of Clinton
were organized at once, for self-protec
tion, under Col. Harding, aud telegrams
sent here for assistance. Fifteen min -
utes after the* receipt of the first dispatch
one hundred and fifty-men were ready;
to inarch, and took a special train,'
which reached Clinton at 7 o’clock. About
10 o’clock more reinforcements came
from Jackson. The roads were picketed
during the night, but all danger being
apparently over, most of the citizens re
turned to their homes at Vicksburg, leav
ing thirty men on guard under Captain
W. H. Andrews. Captain Audrows re
turned with bis men this morning, and
reports all now quiet at Clinton and Ed
wards. The train from Jackson, on Sat
urday night, with reinforcements for
Clinton, was fired into from the side of
the road, aud obstructions were also
placed on the track.
THE FOREIGN CORN MARKET.
London, September 6.—The Mark
Lane Express, in the weekly- reviow of
the corn trade, says: The bulk of the
harvest has been generally gathered in
good order. Another ten days of propi
tious weather will about complete the
work. The new samples of wheat show a
great variety. The quality is much in
ferior aud the crop is short as a whole,
and a large importation will be necessary.
Prices generally have only been firmer in
Paris and in the home market, while in
the provincial markets of France
thoy have further declined one
shilling per quarter, aud in some
places two shillings. In Gormany har
vesting has gono on well, and'prices were
generally easier, although for future de
livery most are above the present rates.
In Belgium prices have varied, but mostly
downward. In Holland the movement
has been decidedly downward. At St.
Petersburg prices are lowering. The
harvest in the neighborhood of Dantzig
has been completed under the most fa
vorable circumstances. The new product
is of fine quality and good weight, al
though the total yield is below that of tli
preceding year.
THE CODE.
St. Louis, September 4.—Major John
N. Edwards, ono of the editors the St,
Louis Times, and Colonel Emery ’ oster
editor of the Evening Journal, left here
last night for Winnebago county , to fight
a duel. Major Edwards was acci i .aniol
by Colonel H, B. Branch, and i oionel
Foster by D. W. Barnard, as seconds.
The affair grew out of an editorial in the
Times of August 24, on the action of the
citizens of Winnebago county in refusing
to allow Jefferson Davis to speak at their
fair and a rejoinder by Foster in the
Journal of the next day, in which ho cast
very severe strictures on the writer of
the Times article. The point at which
the duel was to have been fought is not
known here, as that was left to be so
leeted by the seconds after entering Win
nebago county. Nothing has been beard
as to the result, and it is thought a hos
tile meeting has been prevented.
KENTUCKY RACES.
Lexington, Ky., September (;. The
fdl meeting ovor the Kentucky Associa
tion course commenced to-day with lino
weather, a good track, a good attendance,
and good sport. The first race, mile
heats for three-year olds, was won by
Grinstead’s ch. f. (by Gilroy), Cadwalla
der’s b. f. (by Enquirer), second, and Mc-
Gibben’s b. f. (by Leamington) third
Time, l:43i{ and 1:50. The second
race, one mile aud a furlong, was
won by Bob Wolley; King Alfonso second
and Katie Pease third. Time 1:54. This
is the fastest race over run in America
by seconds. The first furlong was run in
13 seconds, aud the mile, from string to
string, in 1:41; the whole distance at the
rate of l:4l£.
LETTER FROM SANDERS ViLLE.
Trial ol tlic NcKro lumirrei:tioiiiilH.
[Special Correspondence of the Morning News.]
Gilmore House, September 3, 1875.
The trial of Rev. Corday Harris having
resulted in a verdict of “ not guilty ” in
his case, I do not feel willing to give your
readers a hastily written report of the
proceedings, as by so doing I should not
fairly represent the condition of things
here.
I have listened attentively to all the
testimony and arguments of the prose
cution and tho defense, and although
Harris escaped conviction, I am not pre
pared to change any of the views or
.statements put forth-in my first report
of this insurrectionary movement. No
testimony was offered or given to the
court which disproves my theory of the
affair.
I propose, therefore, to take suitable
time to write up the events of the trial,
and shall give .your readers a thoroughly
reliable and impa rtial statement of facts
The failure to conv ;t Harris does not of
itself weaken the conspiracy, as the just
and impartial ruling of the court excluded
testimony that plainly showed many of
his acts and utterances to have be lone
or spoken in other counties. The' ido
also acted with great fairness, and
way “clamored” for the conviction .u :t l
accused. They cheerfully accorded
him every advantage that the lav/ alio
him to avail himself of for his defen.
Sidney Heebeui
The Seri veil County CanartL
Sylvania, Ga., September 3,187. *
Editor Morning New*:
In looking over this morning’s paper I
notice an article headed “Trouble in
Scriven County,” and giving an account
of a demonstration made by the negroes J
which ended in a fight and discomfiture
of the colored troops, who fled to South
Carolina, all of which occurred during
the latter part of last week near this
place. As I live near this place, and
have been in the village frequently for
the past two weeks, and hearing nothing
of this fight or demonstration, I incline
to the opinion that there is some mistake
in the matter. The colored people
about here have manifested no dis
position to fight, or in any way encour
age strife, being very peaceable and"
disposed to friendship with the white
people. Our entire county I believe to
be as peaceful as any community in tho
State. There was some excitement last
week and week before, and rumors of a
fight in that portion of our county ad
joining the Savannah river, and near
Brown’s Ferry; hut the fight has been
contradicted and the excitement has. sub
sided. My object for writing this is to
set this matter in its true fight before
you, to the end that you may contradict
the same before the public, which I
know you will take pleasure in doing.
_ R. D. Sharpe.