Volume III Part 70 (1/2)
The ”West Tennessean,” Aug. 4, 1837, says--
”A duel was fought at Calhoun, Tenn., between G.W. Carter and J.C.
Sherley. They used yaugers at the distance of 20 yards. The former was slightly wounded, and the latter quite dangerously.”
June 23d, 1838, Benjamin s.h.i.+pley, of Hamilton co., Tennessee, shot Archibald McCallie. (_Nashville Banner_, July 16, 1838.)
June 23d, 1838, Levi Stunston, of Weakly co., Tennessee, killed William Price, of said county, in an affray. (_Nashville Banner, July 6, 1838_.)
October 8, 1838, in an affray at Wolf's Ferry, Tennessee, Martin Farley, Senior, was killed by John and Solomon Step. (_Georgia Telegraph, Nov 6, 1838._.)
Feb. 14, 1838, John Manie was killed by William Doss at Decatur, Tennessee. (_Memphis Gazette, May 15, 1838_.)
”From the Nashville Whig.”
”_Fatal Affray in Columbia, Tenn_.--A fatal street encounter occurred at that place, on the 3d inst., between Richard H. Hays, attorney at law, and Wm. Polk, brother to the Hon. Jas. K. Polk. The parties met, armed with pistols, and exchanged shots simultaneously. A buck-shot pierced the brain of Hays, and he died early the next morning. The quarrel grew out of a sportive remark of Hays', at dinner, at the Columbia Inn, for which he offered an apology, not accepted, it seems, as Polk went to Hays' office, the same evening, and chastised him with a whip. This occurred on Friday, the fatal result took place on Monday.”
In a fight near Memphis, Tennessee, May 15, 1837, Mr. Jackson, of that place, shot through the heart Mr. W.F. Gholson, son of the late Mr.
Gholson, of Virginia. (_Raleigh Register, June 13, 1837_.)
The following horrible outrage, committed in West Tennessee, not far from Randolph, was published by the Georgetown (S.C.) Union, May 26, 1837, from the Louisville Journal.
”A feeble bodied man settled a few years ago on the Mississippi, a short distance below Randolph, on the Tennessee side. He succeeded in ama.s.sing property to the value of about $14,000, and, like most of the settlers, made a business of selling wood to the boats. This he sold at $2.50 a cord, while his neighbors asked $3. One of them came to remonstrate against his underselling, and had a fight with his brother-in-law Clark, in which he was beaten. He then went and obtained legal process against Clark, and returned with a deputy sheriff, attended by a posse of desperate villains. When they arrived at Clark's house, he was seated among his children--they put two or three b.a.l.l.s through his body. Clark ran, was overtaken and knocked down; in the midst of his cries for mercy, one of the villains fired a pistol in his mouth, killing him instantly. They then required the settler to sell his property to them, and leave the country. He, fearing that they would otherwise take his life, sold them his valuable property for $300, and departed with his family. _The sheriff was one of the purchasers._”
The Baltimore American, Feb. 8, 1838, publishes the following from the Nashville (Tennessee) Banner:
”A most atrocious murder was committed a few days ago at Lagrange, in this state, on the body of Mr. John T. Foster, a respectable merchant of that town. The perpetrators of this b.l.o.o.d.y act are E. Moody, Thomas Moody, J.E. Dougla.s.s, W.R. Harris, and W.C. Harris. The circ.u.mstances attending this horrible affair, are the following:--On the night previous to the murder, a gang of villains, under pretence of wis.h.i.+ng to purchase goods, entered Mr. Foster's store, took him by force, and rode him through the streets _on a rail_. The next morning, Mr. F. met one of the party, and gave him a caning. For this just retaliation for the outrage which had been committed on his person, he was pursued by the persons alone named, while taking a walk with a friend, and murdered in the open face of day.”
The following presentment of a Tennessee Grand Jury, sufficiently explains and comments on itself:
The Grand Jurors empanelled to inquire for the county of Shelby, would separate without having discharged their duties, if they were to omit to notice public evils which they have found their powers inadequate to put in train for punishment. The evils referred to exist more particularly in the town of Memphis.
The audacity and frequency with which outrages are committed, forbid us, in justice to our consciences, to omit to use the powers we possess, to bring them to the severe action of the law; and when we find our powers inadequate, to draw upon them public attention, and the rebuke of the good.
An infamous female publicly and grossly a.s.saults a lady; therefore a public meeting is called, the mayor of the town is placed in the chair, resolutions are adopted, providing for the summary and lawless punishment of the wretched woman. In the progress of the affair, _hundreds of citizens_ a.s.semble at her house, and raze it to the ground. The unfortunate creature, together with two or three men of like character, are committed, in an open canoe or boat, without oar or paddle, to the middle of the Mississippi river.
Such is a concise outline of the leading incidents of a recent transaction in Memphis. It might be filled up by the detail of individual exploits, which would give vivacity to the description; but we forbear to mention them. We leave it to others to admire the manliness of the transaction, and the courage displayed by a mob of hundreds, in the various outrages upon the persons and property of three or four individuals who fell under its vengeance.
The present white population of Tennessee is about the same with that of Ma.s.sachusetts, and yet more outbreaking crimes are committed in Tennessee in a _single month_, than in Ma.s.sachusetts during a whole year; and this, too, notwithstanding the largest town in Tennessee has but six thousand inhabitants; whereas, in Ma.s.sachusetts, besides one of eighty thousand, and two others of nearly twenty thousand each, there are at least a dozen larger than the chief town in Tennessee, which gives to the latter state an important advantage on the score of morality, the country being so much more favorable to it than large towns.
KENTUCKY.
Kentucky has been one of the United States since 1792. Its present white population is about six hundred thousand.
The details which follow show still further that those who unite to plunder of their rights one cla.s.s of human beings, regard as _sacred_ the rights of no cla.s.s.
The following affair at Maysville, Kentucky, is extracted from the Maryland Republican, January 30, 1838.
”A fight came on at Maysville, Ky. on the 29th ultimo, in which a Mr.