APPENDIX. (continued 2)

Immediately after his release, letters of condolence and congratulations, from distant parts, and almost from every direction poured in. One in particular from a friend in Gonzales, Texas, will also be read with more than ordinary interest. Its spirit and intention were to impel him forward to higher achievements of fame and utility.

A LETTER FROM A FRIEND IN TEXAS AFTER DEFENDANT’S RELEASE.

Gonzales, Texas, Dec. 30, 1859.

Dr. J. R. S. Pitts, Medical College, Ala.:

“Dear Sir:—In the sunshine of prosperity, friends will crowd around like bees on the honey-comb, but when the lowering clouds of adversity appear, there are but few who will not be found among the ranks of deserters, your case, however, forms an exception to the general rule. You have been favored by the benign and exhilarating influences of fortune; and you have also experienced the dark and bitter reverses with which humanity is so often saturated. At one time, she has thrown around you a joyous halo of felicity—at another time she has forsaken you with a treacherous inconstancy; but amid all her various phases of change which you have endured, the sympathy and good-will of every honest heart has beat high in your behalf. Your vile prosecutors succeeded by miserable subterfuges of law, which involved you in serious pecuniary embarrassments, and consigned you within the dreary walls of confinement, but time is now doing justice both to you and to them. You are mounting up into a brighter—a purer atmosphere of public estimation, while they are descending as rapidly into the dark abodes of eternal execration.

No one can feel more elated, or more disposed to congratulate you on anything pertaining to your interest, happiness, and success than myself; and certainly none more willing to contribute at every opportunity all within the power of one individual to your permanent gratification: how could it be otherwise? I have known you long; a chain of unbroken friendship has ever continued betwixt us; and more than all, I am proud in the contemplation that I have had some share in your early education.

Your attention is now directed towards the medical profession; and here I can express a few words of encouragement without acting derogatory to the principles of rectitude or sincerity; for if thinking otherwise, most certainly would I prefer the task of assisting at the risk of displeasing you.

The medical profession affords a fine scope for the developement of every faculty belonging to the human soul. Man, “the image of God,” is the most wonderful and complicated machine in the universe. Here is the noblest of all subjects—vast, boundless, and inexhaustible. Here is a theme on which the finest geniuses of the world have been engaged: a theme in connection with which the accumulation of intellectual wealth and constant progression have been marching onward with giant strides from the commencement of man’s mundane existence; yet but little hope—but little prospect of ever reaching perfection; hence the encouragement for onward acquisition for further triumphs of science.

Knowledge is valuable only in proportion to its applicability for preventing or alleviating the sufferings of humanity; then where is the avocation more adapted to better accord with this sentiment than the medical profession? Of course, I exclude all consideration in reference to the many quacks, empirics and murderers, who assume the medical garb without the least sign of internal qualification.

There is nothing in all the wide diversified forms of creation that can give you such lofty conceptions of the attributes of the Deity as the study of man: Life’s warm stream which ramifies and circulates in processes so wonderful; the numerous heterogeneous fluids which are secreted from it to answer all the astounding purposes of systematical economy with the nicest of all exactness; and all this by a “vital principle” which none can define, but which serves very well to represent our ignorance; the almost countless numbers of self-acting—self-propelling powers, with multitudes of valves, hinges, joints, all working in the grandest of earthly harmony; these are mechanical operations which belong to the Deity, and mock the proudest of all efforts in vain imitation. But what are these in comparison to the human mind—this noble prerogative of man? It is this which makes him the “lord of creation,” and draws the broad line of distinction betwixt himself and the lower order of creation. It is to this we are indebted for the manifold wheels, springs and levers which carry society along; in short the moral transactions of this revolving globe owe their origin and continuance to its agency. The science of medicine comprises a considerable knowledge of the whole. To understand any one business well, we must have much information on the relation of many. The study of causes and effects of physical phenomena, as well as the faculties, sentiments, and propensities of the human soul, are all within your province. But without enlarging, enough has been written to urge and animate you on in the work you have so well begun.”

The most remarkable action of any executive was that of the Governor of Mississippi in giving assistance to the “clan” in its expiring throes, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is not material now to enquire. From this action alone, but few are incapable of understanding, to some extent, the influence which wealth and distinction can exercise in cases, no matter how depraved they may be. This is only one instance from incalculable numbers which might be adduced where even the highest departments of State can be made subservient to vitiated purposes.

A LETTER TAKEN FROM THE “TRUE DEMOCRAT.”

The following was published in the True Democrat, from the pen of one of the ablest Judges in the eastern part of Mississippi, shortly after the liberation of the defendant:

Mr. Editor—We heartily sympathize with J. R. S. Pitts, Sheriff of Perry county, and are deeply mortified at the yielding course of our Governor in rendering him up a prisoner in obedience to a requisition from the State of Alabama. We look on this whole affair as being preposterous in the extreme. To have the Sheriff of one of our counties forced to vacate his office, temporarily, and to be taken like a common felon, and carried to another State, and there be tried as a malefactor, and for what? Why, for simply writing and publishing the confessions of a notorious “land pirate,” one of a gang of banditti that has till recently been a terror to the whole country for a great many years. Such a course betrays a feebleness of nerve on the part of his Excellency perfectly unpardonable in the Executive.

The “Wages and Copeland Clan” have become as notorious in portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, as was the pirate and robber, John A. Murrell, and his clan. It is well for Mr. Pitts that his friends volunteered to guard him and protect him until he reached the city of Mobile in safety.

Talk about rendering him up on a requisition that claimed him as a “fugitive from justice,” when the offence, if any, was committed in this State, when he was a citizen of Perry county, and Sheriff of the county at the time, and quietly at home discharging the duties of his office. “Oh! shame, where is thy blush?”

But we rejoice to learn that his prosecutors have failed to hurt him. They may have forced him to draw heavily on his purse to fee lawyers, pay tavern expenses, etc., but they have not hurt his character. He stands to-day proudly vindicated as a bold and efficient officer before an impartial and unprejudiced public. Mr. Pitts is too well known in Mississippi for the tongue of slander or the hand of the bitter persecutor to injure him seriously. He is a native of Georgia—“to the manner born.” He was reared and principally educated in Mississippi. And right in the county where he was principally raised, he was selected by a large majority of the citizens of the county to serve them and the State in the high and responsible office of Sheriff of the county; and that too when he had barely reached his majority of years. The intelligent citizens of Perry county elected him by their spontaneous suffrage solely on account of his great moral worth and his superior business qualifications.

The most amusing circumstance in the whole affair is, the report industriously circulated that Mr. Pitts did not write the book—that he is not scholar enough to write such a book. The report refutes itself by its own palpable absurdity. Everybody who is acquainted with Mr. Pitts knows that he is a fair English scholar, and a very good writer. The book is a valuable book; and it has done, and will do more to rid the country of the clan it exposes than even the killing and hanging has done.

Mr. Pitts may congratulate himself as having done more with his pen as an author than he did with the rope and gallows as Sheriff. Much more might be said in vindication of this persecuted gentleman, but this is deemed sufficient. Mr. Pitts is a young man, and will, if he lives many years, work out a character in high social position, and official position, too, if he seeks it. From his beginning, I predict for him a brilliant career in the future.

Very respectfully, Vindex.

THE CHARACTER OF THE PROSECUTOR.

The vile character of the prosecution is not yet sufficiently understood. There is yet more to be developed. Enough has already been brought to light to give some idea of Shoemake, one of the main witnesses in the struggle to crush truth. Earth was never trod by a more dangerous and despicable wretch than this. He was the embodiment of all that was mean, cruel, bloody and horrible. How much superior the other agent and intended witness, Bentonville Taylor is, the reader will judge for himself from the following authentic testimony.

The statement will be remembered in the commencing part of the proceedings of the trial that no ordinary amount of astonishment was experienced by the defendant when Bentonville Taylor was called into court as one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution. The defendant well knowing the character of this man, he lost no time for getting the most substantial of testimony touching his notorious reputation. This testimony has been held in reserve up to the present period for reasons which will be given presently.

In Shoemake’s evidence, the prosecution sustained such an overwhelming defeat that it refrained from calling up another of the same type for that time. As before stated, Bentonville Taylor was brought from Williamsburg, Covington county, Miss. The nature of his testimony, intended to be given in court, was immediately learned afterward by his card published in one of the Mobile newspapers. The substance of this card was to the effect that the names given in the confessions were forged by the defendant, and that Copeland himself was insane at the time he made the confessions, and the same entirely unworthy of any credit whatever either in public or private. It was thought at the time that Bentonville Taylor was to be used in the other two cases of Moulton and Cleaveland against the defendant to be afterward tried. This is one reason why the documents pertaining to Bentonville Taylor have so long been withheld. Another is, it is always painful, in the absence of imperative necessity, to make public such considerations as, under other circumstances, might be better enveloped in silence; but when charges of forgery have been made, and that the whole confessions are entirely unworthy of credit, then it becomes an absolute necessity to know something of the man who has had the audacity to make such charges.

First will be given some extracts from a letter which was intended for publication at the time, but on more mature thought was decided to be suppressed for the same reasons as just given. This letter is now in the hands of the defendant, the severer parts of which will still be suppressed for humanity’s sake:

“Who is this Bentonville Taylor, where did he come from, and what his character as established by himself? It seems he came to Ellisville, Jones county, Miss., about the time or shortly after Copeland was brought from the Alabama penitentiary to Mississippi to be tried for the murder of Harvey—pretending then to be a Yankee school master seeking employment—having with him a woman whom he introduced to that community as his sister and assistant teacher. They obtained a school; he and his sister took board in a respectable family located in Ellisville, Mr. Parker’s. They had not been there long before reports got out in this family of such a nature that is perhaps improper to publish. However, Mr. Parker ordered them to leave his house. The trustees of the school forthwith called a meeting, which resulted in the discharge of both. They were promptly paid off; the woman left for parts unknown, while he has been loitering around in the adjoining counties in a way anything but satisfactory, ever since. He got out a license to plead law, defended Copeland in his last trial, and then was brought from Williamsburg, Covington county, by the Mobile prosecutors, to there serve their purposes, in the most reduced of external condition and centless, but returned in the finest suit of attire, with plenty of money in his pocket—the rewards of his services in Mobile for falsehood and attempted deception. And this is the respectable lawyer from Mississippi, as represented by one of the prosecutors. A cheaper and more degraded instrument could not have been found in all Eastern Mississippi. A poor subterfuge to resort to such a man to lie men out of deserving censure. How readily it seems the prosecution knew where to place its fingers to subserve the purpose. A few more such licks will nail the truth of Copeland’s confessions to the cross forever.”

But read the documents now in possession, from the best and most respectable citizens of Jones county, about this man:

The State of Mississippi, }

Perry County.

This day personally appeared before me, A. L. Fairly, a Justice of the Peace, in and for the said county and State aforesaid, Franklin J. Mixon, who makes oath in due form of law, and on oath says that Bentonville Taylor stole from this affiant a bridle and girth, while this affiant resided in Jones county, Mississpipi, at, or near, Hoskin’s ferry in said Jones county, in the month of March or April, 1858.

Sworn to, and subscribed before me this twelfth day of April, 1859.

A. L. Fairly, J. P., P. C.

Signed, F. J. Mixon.

State of Mississippi, }

Perry County.

I, James Carpenter, Clerk of the Probate Court of said county, certify that A. L. Fairly, whose name is signed to the above affidavit, was at the time of signing the same, a Justice of the Peace, in and for said county, and that full faith and credit are due all his official acts as such.

Given under my hand and seal of said court, this sixteenth day of April, 1859.

James Carpenter, Clerk Probate Court, Perry Co., Miss.

Ellisville, Jones County, }

Mississippi.

We, the undersigned citizens of said county and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that we are well acquainted with Bentonville Taylor, and know him to be a man of no moral worth as a citizen, no character as a lawyer, nor school teacher, and a man to whose word we could not give any credence for truth and veracity.

J. L. Owen, Att’y at Law, Ellisville, Miss. J. A. Easterling. Norval Cooper. S. E. Nettles, Treas. of Jones county. F. K. Willoughby, Justice of the Peace. Hiram Mathas. Isaac Anderson. M. H. Owen. Amos J. Spears. Richmond Anderson. Thos. D. Dyess. John H. Walters. H. D. Dossett, Ex-Sheriff of said county.

State of Mississippi, }

Jones County.

I, D. M. Shows, Clerk of the Circuit and Probate Courts of said county, do hereby certify that I believe the men whose names appear to the foregoing annexed certificate, are men of truth and veracity.

Given under my hand and seal of office this second day of April, 1859.

D. M. Shows, Clerk of C & P. C.

Ellisville, Mississippi, }

Jones County.

I, E. M. Devall, Sheriff of said county and State aforesaid, do certify that I believe that the men whose names appear to the foregoing annexed certificate are men of truth and veracity.

Given under my hand and seal this 2d day of April, 1859.

E. M. Devall, Sheriff Jones county.

After Bentonville Taylor returned from Mobile, I saw him and told him of the rumor that was in circulation relative to his going to Mobile as a witness against Col. J. R. S. Pitts, and he denied emphatically to me of having any share in the transaction, and also stated that the aforesaid rumor was false.

[Signed.] Edward W. Goff.

The next question to be dealt with is the miserable plea of insanity, and forged names in the confessions.

First, let the report from the inquisition jury be read, which will be found on page 113 of this work. Again, it is well known by those who visited Copeland in person, that there was a keenness and shrewdness about him which distinguished him from ordinary men; and all the promptings given to feign insanity did not amount to anything but deserving failure. And as to the gratuitous charge of forging names, the defendant did not know anything about them previous to being given by Copeland. He did not know that such names were in existence before, and of course could not forge in the absence of all knowledge appertaining; but the conduct of the prosecution, with hundreds of living witnesses, go, as quoted from the letter just referred to, “to nail to the cross forever the truth of Copeland’s confessions.”

So much for the trial in Mobile in the first case, and now for the necessary comments to further enable the reader to comprehend the whole.

There were two other cases on the same docket of precisely a similar nature to the first against the defendant. For two or three years afterward he was in regular attendance, and always ready for trial; but the prosecution would not allow either case to come on until known that his presence was required in the army during the war; and then it had the cases called up, and the bonds declared forfeited. The two cases were ordered dismissed, and, some several years afterward, the bondsmen were finally released by the “Commissioners of Revenue” without injury.

Nothing is plainer than of the prosecution being glad of any plausible pretext for dismissing the cases—anything in the shape of a convenient opportunity for relief in the awkward situation in which it stood. Why so determined and successful to bring on instanter the first case in spite of the most powerful reasons for a temporary continuance? And why, when this was over, was it equally determined and successful to ward off the two remaining cases? Is it not evident, notwithstanding all the prostituted forces at command, that it was unwilling to make a second experiment? But how stands the presiding Judge affected in this slimy affair? In the first case, in defiance of the most powerful cause assigned in favor, he would not allow one hour of continuance of the case; but from term to term, from year to year, he allowed the prosecution all it wanted, regardless of all the urgent efforts of the defendant for the remaining trials to be proceeded with to save entire ruin from excessive and repeated expenses. But when the defendant’s absence was compelled by demands made from the War Department, then did this Judge allow the case to be pressed forward by the prosecution, and the bonds declared forfeited! If this junta, or combination of Judge with the prosecution did not exist, the plainest of all circumstantial demonstrations are not worthy of any notice whatever. But this is only one instance out of a number, which will be given of this Judge’s partiality—of his palpable efforts to do violence to justice.

Again, mark his conduct in endeavoring to obtain a forced and unnatural verdict. After twenty-four hours of close confinement, the jury returned with the report that there was no earthly chance of coming to an agreement. The Judge bid them, contrary to all custom, to again retire, with a declaration that he would hold it in confinement until the verdict could be made up, even though an indefinite period were required to accomplish the object.

Had he before been in consultation with the prosecution? Did he know the whole arrangement? Did he know that some one or more, perhaps influenced by gold, were resolved to hold out to the bitter end? And that one by one of the opposition, under the tortures of long confinement, must keep falling in to avoid further suffering, and more especially when the cunning device was resorted to for the purpose of deceiving the opposition by inducements to the effect that it was hardly worth while holding out when all could be so easily avoided by a few dollars of fine in the way of damages, which would not at all hurt the defendant? What was the meaning of the sham in his appearing, in the first part of his instructions, to lean to the defendant by telling the jury that if there was a doubt existing with it, the defendant was entitled to the benefit of said doubt; and then, in the last hours of worn out confinement, came squarely out in conflict, and positively told the jury that it was bound to find a verdict of guilty from the law and evidence before it? What was the meaning of packages and writing being conveyed to the jury by outsiders during the latter part of its retirement, or, at least, to that part of it in favor of the prosecution?

Notwithstanding the most justifiable and potent of all reasons in favor of the petition got up and signed by six hundred of the best and most respectable citizens of Mobile to be forwarded to the Governor for the release of the defendant, the Judge hearing of the same, emphatically declared, before being asked, that he would not sign it; and the Governor, because of this omission, refused to grant the prayer. Did the prosecution influence both Governor and Judge, so that the whole formed one compact ring to defeat justice? What says the learned Dr. Bevell on this subject—the very man who sat on this jury and witnessed all:

“We have made an effort to limit his imprisonment through the pardoning power of Governor Moore, by an article addressed him in the shape of a petition, with about six hundred signatures of the most respectable citizens of Mobile; but in this we have failed, and, to my deepest regret, he will have to serve his time out. We first drew up a petition to Judge McKinstry, signed by a respectable number of the jury, but hearing of his negative declarations on the street, we declined honoring him with the request.

“Although we have failed in these efforts, the conduct of all the opposing clique strongly indicate to my mind that the principal stringent ruling and opposition are to gratify, and sustain, and retain political influence.”

But the abuses committed by Judge McKinstry do not close here. A verbal copy of Shoemake’s affidavit has just been received, the insertion of which cannot be omitted, as it will add new light on what has already been advanced on this subject in the commencing part of the trial, and will go still further to demonstrate the deeply sullied conduct of the prosecution and Judge. Let this copy be read with attention:

[COPY.]

State of Alabama, }

Mobile County.

Before ——, personally came S. S. Sheumack, who on oath saith that one J. R. S. Pitts did, within the last six months, in the county aforesaid, unlawfully, wickedly and maliciously, with intent to injure, defame, villify, and prejudice this deponent, and to bring him into contempt, scandal, and disgrace, publish and circulate in said county a printed pamphlet entitled, “The Life and Career of James Copeland, the Great Southern Land Pirate, who was executed at Augusta, Mississippi, October 30th, 1857; together with the exploits of the Wages’ clan in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.”

In said pamphlet, said Copeland is described as one of the leaders of a gang of robbers, murderers, highwaymen, and the deponent is represented therein by the name of “S. S. Shonesmak,” as a member of said clan, or gang of robbers, murderers, and thieves; which pamphlet containing the aforesaid statement, referring to this deponent, is a defamatory libel, and is utterly and wholly false.

S. S. Sheumack.

Subscribed and sworn to, this 17th day of January, 1859, before me,

Alex. McKinstry, Judge.

To any Sheriff of the State of Alabama:

You are hereby commanded to arrest the body of J. R. S. Pitts, charged by affidavit made with the offense of “Libel,” by one S. S. Sheumack, and hold him in custody until discharged by due course of law, which may be done by any examining magistrate.

Witness my hand and seal,

Mobile, January 17, 1859. Alex. McKinstry, Judge.

Received January 17, 1859, and on the same day I executed the within writ on J. R. S. Pitts, and have now in jail.

James T. Shelton, Sheriff. M. C.

The State of Alabama, }

Mobile County.

I, P. LaVergy, Clerk of the City Court of Mobile, hereby certify, that the foregoing is a true copy of the affidavit signed by S. S. Sheumack, as also of the writ of arrest, and Sheriff’s return, in a case of the State vs. J. R. S. Pitts, as the same on file in my office.

Witness my hand, this 19th day of July, A. D., 1874.

P. LaVergy, Clerk.

THE CHARACTER OF THE PROSECUTION.

Scheumack or Shoemake, all the while a citizen of Mississippi, the defendant a citizen of Mississippi, yet, he goes to the City of Mobile, in another State, among his friends and brethren, for process of law. This was changing of venue with a vengeance. With equal propriety, as far as law is concerned, might he not have gone to New York—not one whit more unnatural.

Sheumack, the “big dog” among the clan; the man, above all others, steeped the deepest in blood, and crime, and dissimulation; the man who brought counterfeit documents pretending to come from the Probate Judge of Kemper county; the man who denied writing the John R. Garland letter on the witness stand, and whose oath was there invalidated to the satisfaction of all; the man who bore the requisition from the Governor of Alabama to the Governor of Mississippi for the arrest of the defendant; this is the man to whom Judge McKinstry granted his writ to serve the purposes as specified in the affidavit.

This affidavit charges with “unlawfully, wickedly, and maliciously, with intent to injury, defame, villify, and prejudice the deponent:” and again “this deponent is represented by the name of Shonesmak, as a member of a clan or gang of robbers, murderers, and thieves, which statement, referring to the deponent, is a defamatory libel, and utterly and wholly untrue.”

In answer, will any one deny that such a “clan” existed? Will any one deny that its whole object was robbery, murder, and theft? It is presumed that none will have the effrontery to make such a denial in the face of such overwhelming testimony almost everywhere to be found.

The next thing to be considered is, did the defendant publish and circulate, with an intent to defame, villify, and prejudice, etc., one represented by the name of Shouesmack, as belonging to the said clan?

Is there one disinterested and unprejudiced being in existence who can believe that the defendant could have any motive for “wickedly, maliciously.” etc., assailing somebody he before knew nothing about, either good or bad—not even before knowing that such a creature was in existence? Up to that time, unacquainted with a single act of his life, can any one believe that the defendant published and circulated with a wicked and malicious intent to defame and prejudice somebody he neither knew by person or reputation before? Maliciousness can not exist while unconscious of any cause for the same. So much then for the unlawful, wicked and malicious attempt to injure the fair fame of Scheumack.

The same arguments will apply with equal force to the other names as published being the same as given by Copeland to the defendant; for to suppose otherwise would be the height of absurdity. The next subject for inquiry is, did Copeland, in his list of names, include Scheumack rightfully or wrongfully?

Shonesmack, and not Scheumack, was given in the published list in consequence of a typographical error. But Scheumack declared that the published name must mean him, and the same publication was “having a very deleterious effect against him in his own county, Kemper.” Why was Scheumack so very sensitive? Why did he take on himself the published name of Shonesmack? Why was the publication having a very deleterious effect against him in his county, Kemper? An innocent man by the name of Scheumack would hardly have troubled himself much about Shonesmak. A man living honestly, honorably, and respectfully in his own county would not have taken any umbrage at all from the publication. Around here, there are quite a number by the same, or very similar, name, yet none of these complained against the publication having a very deleterious effect against them. Those who foam, and rave, and curse the hardest, are generally the object on whom suspicion falls the heaviest.

But this is not all, immediately after the publication of the pamphlet complained of, he wrote his John R. Garland letter, in which he described himself with the most perfect of accuracy as being occasionally absent for some time, and then returning with horses and mules, and other sorts of property which nobody besides himself could account for, etc. Let it be borne in mind that he denied writing this letter on oath on the witness stand, when the conclusive proof came next that he undoubtedly was the author of it. The counterfeit papers, with feigned authority from the Probate Judge of Kemper county, his several designs on the life of the defendant, with many other of his actions which are more than suspicious, all go to establish the fact that Copeland made no mistake when he gave his name and designated him as a “big dog” among the clan.

Ye, Governors, Judges and prosecutors, learn from the old adage: “Tell me the company you keep, and I will tell you who you are.”

But there is something left behind of a still darker and more enigmatical character as to the mockery in processes of law belonging to the case.

Scheumack, a resident of another State, goes to Mobile to prosecute for libel, and Judge McKinstry grants him the writ accordingly. The Sheriff is represented as returning the same to the effect that the writ had been executed, and the defendant in jail on the 17th of January, 1859. Again, the trial docket and the records show that four bills were got against the defendant from the Grand Jury the November term, 1858, marked cases numbers 61, 62, 63, 64, corresponding to which are given the names of G. Y. Overall, C. F. Moulton, G. A. Cleaveland, and S. S. Scheumack; and that the name of Scheumack disappeared subsequently without any order being made or without any cause being assigned for the same; and furthermore four appearance bonds given by the defendant are found on file in the office. In these cases, there is no record of any action being taken by either Governor of Alabama or Mississippi, the reason for which, perhaps, may be accounted for by the innovation and wrong being too great for Governors’ names to be associated with on record.

Now, it is evident, from the affidavit of Scheumack, that he did not get a bill at the time the other three did from the Grand Jury of 1858, and it is equally evident that he never afterward got one; then why was his case associated on the trial docket with the other three?

The writ executed and returned asserts the defendant to be in jail on the 17th of January, 1859. What a farce! If the defendant was in jail at that time, it so mysteriously happened that he never knew it. A bond is found on file in the office given by the defendant to answer the charge preferred by Scheumak. What a farce! If the defendant gave such a bond, he never knew it—was never called on to sign it—never went before any examining magistrate, nor never knew, until a few days ago, that Scheumack had ever succeeded in any action of law against him.

Ye prosecutors, answer, if you can, how the records are made to show that Scheumack got a bill from the Grand Jury of the November term, 1858, when his affidavit of January 17, 1859, shows conclusively that he never got any such bill at all. Answer, if you can, how his name so mysteriously disappeared from the trial docket without any order being made, or without any cause being assigned for the same. Answer, if you can, how the appearance bond relative to him and the defendant is found on file in the office, when no such bond could possibly have been given. Answer, if you can, how the defendant came to be in jail on the 17th of January, 1859, when thousands positively know that such was not the case. If “something rotten in Denmark” is not found here, it is vain to seek from any other quarter.

CONCLUDING SKETCH OF THE TRIAL.

Not in populous cities—not in the centres of accumulated wealth and misdirected intelligence that integrity and the administration of justice can be found. The highest functionaries of States have to bend to these rings and cliques. Honor scorned, justice mocked, and shame departed, what is there left to purify the national streams? Clans who live by plunder and murder can, with their ill-gotten gains, find plenty of law protection. Above all things, the Bench should be kept pure and independent, so that the criminal, though rich, cannot escape; and the poor and humble, if honest, can receive protection. Not as now, when judicial decisions are measured according to political numbers and the varied influences of wealth. If mercy is shown at all, let it be on the side of the unfortunate and those who have had few opportunities for improvement; and never on the side of those who have had all the advantages of wealth and education, and who should set an example to the subordinate classes of the community. Let the lessons cease to be taught and children cease to learn that because a man is rich no crime can hurt him; and if poor, though honest, he can be victimized by a snap of the finger from some influential person at any time. Is it any wonder at the increasing centralization of power? It is a necessary consequence under present circumstances. The corruptions and abominations have nearly reached the maximum height, and are at present of such a frightful magnitude that some remedy, ere long, must be adopted. Liberty abused must bring on reaction, sometimes for the better, but oftener for evils as great as those desired to be remedied.

And now, in concluding this sketch of the trial, which was carried on with so much absorbing interest and excitement, a brief recapitulation of its paramount features may be of some utility in bringing within our immediate view those incidents of it which are the most pregnant of meaning as to the future consequences.

In reviewing the conduct of the then Governor of Mississippi, McWillie, it is not charity, nor warranted by correct inductive reasoning, to suppose that he intended to assist the Wages and Copeland Clan by giving his approval for the rendition of the defendant as a “fugitive from justice,” at the time he was an acting Sheriff for one of the counties of the State. It is, perhaps, better to suspect the Governor’s ignorance or want of the proper information, than to charge him with evil designs. Had he known at the time the desperate character of Shoemake, one of the clan, and the authorized agent to make the arrest; had he known that the defendant knew nothing of the names prior to the confessions, and, of course, could have had no interest nor malicious motive to misrepresent, with the fact of locating the Three Distinguished at the risk of protracted trouble and a ruinous expense, furnishing a strong inference of the truth of all as to the names inserted; had he known that Copeland himself, on the scaffold in the last moments of earthly existence, acknowledged publicly and before living witnesses the truth of the whole of his confessions; had he known and reflected that the full publication of them must have, not only a direct and powerful tendency to disorganize the remnant of the clan, but also to prevent future associations of a similar character; had he known the full extent of the horrors, for years, perpetrated by this clan, and that numbers still living, from experience, can vouch for many of the facts as narrated in the confessions; had he known that an offense committed in one State or county, and the injury sustained inflicted in another State or county, the case may be tried in either, which gave him the right to use his discretion; had he known and reflected that the conflict must be between prosecutors—revengeful and experienced, wealthy and powerful, from another State, against youth—against an humble but honest citizen of his own State; had he known all these circumstances and maturely considered them, censure could not be too severely applied for his approving the rendition of the defendant as “a fugitive from justice.” Who ever before heard of any person being dragged from one State to another as a malefactor on a charge of libel?

However, if he, without design, gave assistance to the clan in the shape of an unmerited expense and injury to the defendant, it is nevertheless true that he also, without design, was instrumental in laying the foundation for a more distant triumph in behalf of justice.

Many of the last observations are strictly applicable to the presiding Judge, McKinstry. We cannot believe that he had any affiliation with the clan, nor any sympathy for its continuance; but his reprehensible conduct on the trial can be better accounted for in the language of the competent gentleman who sat on the jury, and who had an opportunity of seeing and hearing and witnessing all, thus: “His strenuous ruling, strongly indicated to my mind, was to retain and maintain political influence with powerful cliques.”

The changing of this Judge’s charges, the veering about first from one side to the other, his expressed determination to force a verdict against the better informed and more respectable of those who formed a great majority of the jury, if it required an indefinite period of confinement to do it; and then, in the last hours of torture, came squarely out and told the jury it was bound, from the law and evidence before it, to find a verdict of guilty; and all this while knowing the awful character of Shoemake, one of the main witnesses, as proven on the trial; and while knowing that G. Y. Overall had no right to prosecute in the name of G. Overall, when there were more of the same name in the place, and to which the jury believed the confessions applied as intended by Copeland; and more, after conviction, anticipating something righteously in favor of the defendant, this partial Judge declared his intention before hand not to sign any petition for the release of the defendant from the prison; all these incidents taken together are too strongly stamped to be explained away. The refusal of the defendant’s application against the strongest of reasons in contrast with his unreasonable granting the prosecution all it wanted for several years afterwards, is also something which will not soon be forgotten.

But it may be said that Judge McKinstry did no more than is fashionable in the present day—that of consulting political interest in preference to the eternal laws of justice. This is but too true. It is a deplorable fact that, from the most inferior to the highest of courts and officers, measures are gauged according to political considerations and wealthy favorites. Truth is sometimes very disagreeable, but it is nevertheless indisputable that when the progress is rapidly onward to idolize vast possessions under a system which rather favors than checks the spread of those evils which sap the very foundations of strength and national vitality, and at the same time, and in the same ratio, to dishonor the real sources of wealth—honest labor—the nation’s decline and fall will follow in the wake of consequences under excessive government, no matter whether of Republican or Democratic. The baneful effects from either will be pretty much the same, as long as there are lacking the will and the power to restrain or repress excesses as they spring up. When general means of subsistence are easy, with plenty everywhere abounding, there is not much danger of convulsive change; but a prodigious increase of population with proportionally narrower resources to command, together with extensive disaffection and oppressive burdens from previous wars, then is the time for the exercise of prudence and a strict administration of justice in every department to maintain the life of the nation.

Granted that G. Y. Overall proved satisfactorily enough an alibi, that is, that he was not present at the time referred to; but it is again asked what was he doing associated with such men as Shoemake and Bentonville Taylor? Was he the tool of more designing men? What right—what necessity had he to turn prosecutor, when, as plainly elicited on trial, it was another Overall that Copeland referred to in his confessions?

The trial succeeded in nothing against the defendant only in crippling his pecuniary resources, and harrassing him in other ways. It rather strengthened than weakened the authenticity of the work. These circumstances, with the war, interrupted the sale for some years; but as might have been reasonably expected, truth can only be temporarily crushed to burst forth again with renewed vigor. Persecution only adds fuel to the flames.

Sick of the career of life which he had led, it was but natural for Copeland to repine against those who had shared his plunder and goaded him on to crime with ample promises of protection, and then deserted him in the last hours of his affliction.

The defendant could have had no conceivable motive to forge names—not knowing before Copeland gave them, that such persons were in existence; therefore, where there is no possible motive, there can be no crime or intentional wrong. So much then for the “wicked and malicious intentions,” as charged in the affidavit of Shoemake.

The foregoing observations close the narrations of the trial with the circumstances of connection belonging; and now for particulars, as reasonably presumed, of another attempt on the life of the defendant in 1862.

Throughout the proceedings of the trial Dr. Pitts has been properly referred to as the “defendant.” Hereafter his own proper name will be given.

ANOTHER DESIGN OF ASSASSINATION.

In the spring of 1862, when returning from a professional visit, he was waylaid by two persons to him entire strangers. Just before the Doctor reached a by-path he was accustomed to travel, because somewhat nearer, he first suddenly discovered one of them near the main road, in a bunch of bushes by a stump, some fifty or seventy-five yards distant. The Doctor made a quick change of position; the rays of the sun fell on the bright gun in possession, which reflected a dazzling brilliancy for the moment. This extraordinary circumstance of itself was sufficient to cause well-grounded apprehensions of danger; and, accordingly, the Doctor kept a close watch for an excited moment. No sooner had he taken the by-path above alluded to, than he saw one of the two rush out—fast running through the thick woods in order to intercept him. The Doctor instantly turning his course, he at once beheld another person running in the same direction. There was but one available outlet for the Doctor to make his escape, and this through a long narrow valley with obstructing hills on each side. Both made a strenuous effort to get ahead of him in the valley, but fortunately he was mounted on a fine animal very fast on speed, which successfully enabled him to escape unhurt.

As before stated, these two parties were entire strangers, and never spoke a word during the whole transaction. On peaceable terms with every one in the settlement around, so far as known, there could not be a doubt on his mind as to this movement being another attempt on his life from the clan for the sake of vengeance for the past, and to prevent republication in the future. The same conclusions must be arrived at by every impartial judge of the affair.

The following tragic accounts have recently been carefully collected from authentic and reliable sources, which, here introduced, will form something like an episode of after transactions of the parties whose names are also found in Copeland’s confessions—transactions exactly of a character to correspond with the dark and bloody operations as given by Copeland himself.

SHOEMAKE AGAIN.

From whatever stand-point viewed, there is something extraordinary about this man. He was particularly distinguished in the art of sculpture. He built the jail in DeKalb, Kemper county, Miss., which, when completed, was pronounced a master-piece of workmanship for substantial security. But in some length of time afterward, the report got out, probably from his own boasting, or some unguarded expression which he had made use of, that it was not safe. Inspection of the minutest sort followed, but not a sign of insecurity was discovered. However, when he got ready, he volunteered to show, and did show the defect which all previous search had utterly failed to find. He pointed to a place in the wall so perfectly concealed, yet with a very little exertion a vent could be made quite large enough for one person to pass out.

He was expert and dexterous in everything he engaged, but, as time developed, with an ultimate object of fraudulent gain in one way or the other. He was a scholar, yet this capacity only enabled him to attain greater heights of rascality with less liability of detection. Politeness, civility, and the most consummate of gentlemanly airs he could assume when his nefarious purposes could be best served by so doing. He was cruel, but not brave. It is said that the sister of his now brother-in-law received cruel treatment from him in youth; and for years this brother-in law determinedly bore it in mind, and at maturity beat Shoemake unmercifully for the same. This is a case with one man that Shoemake childishly dreaded ever afterward.

But his wife, formally called Muggy Worbington, was made of different material. She was brave sure enough, which was sufficiently evidenced on a number of occasions; one of which was in making two men, who had before vehemently offended her, jump precipitately into the river from a flat to avoid the contents of a revolver which was too resolutely presented to be mistaken.

And again, in the malignant feud between the Shoemake and Fisher family, which culminated in a pitched battle with shot-guns and pistols, near a brickyard, half a mile north of old Marion, Lauderdale county, Miss., in the fall of 1844, or early in 1845. Shoemake and his wife against Fisher and two sons, William and Theophilous. The fire from the Fisher family was too hot and severe for Shoemake; he left in haste and deserted his wife, who fought inch by inch with unfaltering fortitude until shot down by the greater opposing force with which she was in conflict.

Shoemake, before leaving Kemper county, made intimations as if disposed to divulge the interesting historical part of his life; and, at the same time, in reference to the tremendous disaster he sustained on the trial of Dr. Pitts; made significant remarks of a double meaning, but really of a nature to warrant the impression that the publisher of the Life and Career of Copeland would pass off this stage of existence, which would be certain to leave mystery behind for future contemplation.

Shoemake resided in and around Kemper county for a number of years. His conduct was always suspicious, but his address, his ingenuity, and his whole movements were so profoundly managed as to evade penal detection. Years had to elapse to fully develop the man for anything like a common consent as to his real Character. It but required time to satisfy the judgment of all that he tainted everything he touched. And this is the man who was so sensitive because Copeland confessed him to be “a big dog among the clan.”

THE TWO HARDENS AND THE MURDER OF SHERIFF SMITH.

The names of the two Hardens were given by Copeland as forming a part of the clan. More about them has since been collected, which will now be read with interest.

About the year 1853 John Harden, from the State of Alabama, stole a fine animal, buggy and negro man, and succeeded in getting them safely to Marion county, Miss., where his mother resided. The Sheriff, Mr. Smith, from the county in Alabama where said property was stolen from, pursued Harden, and on reaching this State, Mississippi, he employed the services of Philip James, of Greene county, to accompany him. Finding Harden in the night at his mother’s, he was by them taken on surprise, but made a desperate resistance, though being overpowered, was compelled to surrender. The horse, buggy and negro man were all found. Sheriff Smith had Harden confined within the buggy, and the negro man ordered to ride the horse. On returning, and when they reached the residence of Philip James, Sheriff Smith made no further request on Mr. James, and thought he could then manage without any further assistance. Accordingly they started, but shortly after they had crossed Chickasahay river the Sheriff was killed—appearances indicating that he had been beaten to death by a club. But whether by Harden or the negro man, none ever were able to ascertain. The buggy was rolled off under a hill. The horses and the two persons made their escape for the time being. Nothing positively definite, but the report followed that in some six or eight months afterward Harden was apprehended by Smith’s friends, and by lynch operations finished his career by being hung to the limb of a tree.

His brother, also mentioned by Copeland, who married a daughter of Gideon Rustin, was hung in Columbia, Mississippi, about the year 1843, for the murder of his wife. Immediately after the murder, he made his escape, and got into the State of Georgia, where he remained for some months; but subsequently returned and gave himself up to the sheriff, but had not been long in prison till he broke out, and would probably made his escape, but was captured by some parties in a boat near by while he was in the act of swimming Pearl river.

John Harden was a powerful man, not only in physical strength, but also in determined energies and resolution. Years ago, it is said that he and Hampton H. Nichols, of Perry county Mississippi, disagreed—followed by a fight betwixt the two in the usual manner, and that Harden came out the best; although, for nerve and surpassing strength, it was before thought that Nichols had not a superior. Thus, one by one do the members of the “clan” drop into eternity by violent and unnatural terminations.

JAMES M’ARTHUR, OR “CALICO DICK.”

There are others of the “clan” still active and surviving. James McArthur—better known in some places by the appellation of “Calico Dick” still lives. By reference to the original history of the Wages and Copeland clan, page 89, it will be seen that this man became connected with the organization in 1844; and, at the time, was acknowledged by the former members as being directly concerned with others engaged in the business of counterfeiting money. Dr. Pitts has taken considerable trouble in tracing out the character of this man, and has received information from the best citizens of Mississippi and Alabama. Let this information be read with care and attention; and then, who can have the effrontery to contend that the names given in the “confessions” “are forged and the entire work unworthy of credit.”

In former years, when the Wages and Copeland organization was in full blast, he was then looked on as a suspicious character and believed to belong to the clan, as well as having more or less to do with the counterfeiting business which had been the means of flooding the country with a spurious circulation.

This organized band of robbers, murderers and counterfeiters had become such a terror to the seashore counties of Mississippi that the good people of these sections were driven to the necessity of forming a “Vigilance Committee,” for the better protection and preservation of society. By this committee, many suspicious persons were arrested, among whom was Jim McArthur. He, with a rope around his neck, piloted the committee to the swamp, where he pointed out and dug up the coining apparatus which was used by the band in coining counterfeit money. Here he acknowledged his identity with the counterfeiters, and was only released on his solemn vow to leave the country—never more to show his face in that region of society. Accordingly, he did leave, and was not seen there again until during the late war between the States, when he returned and was a great source of trouble again to all the neighboring counties around—committing more crimes of a more shocking and atrocious character.

After the close of the war, he again left that vicinity, and made his headquarters in Mobile, Alabama, where occasionally he was seen very flush of money. Also, after the war, he made a visit to Perry county, Mississippi. While there, he made inquiry after a woman, who had left her husband while the national contest was going on. The supposition is that he, made her acquaintance on Honey Island during the war.

He is now well known to all this country as a renowned traveling gambler; and, among the fraternity of that class, is probably better known by the name of “Calico Dick,” which appellation he received many years ago, according to his own statement, when but a youth, in the State of Georgia, for stealing a bolt of calico, and for the same received thirty-nine lashes. But particulars on this subject will be best understood by giving an extract of a letter from one of Mississippi’s gifted sons:

“Calico Dick is the same brigand—the infamous Jim McArthur. He himself states that when he was a youth in Georgia, he stole a bolt of calico—was detected and received thirty-nine lashes, and ever since has been called Calico Dick. He was suspected of murdering a peddlar in Hancock county years ago, and acknowledged, with the rope around his neck, to the vigilant committee that he was a counterfeiter, and pointed out the apparatus for coining—confessed to horse-stealing and negro-stealing, and had left his wife and children in Hancock county to starve or do worse. His nephew, young Frost, who kept a cigar stand in or near the Battle House, Mobile, was arrested at Bay St. Louis last year on the charge of murder, and carried to Alabama. I have not heard the result. McArthur was unquestionably one of the Copeland clan. He committed many crimes during the war. At any time during the second year of the war, when we had no law, if I had met him, I would have shot him from my knowledge of his crimes.”

Jackson County, 1873.

From another friend, in Jackson county, he still further exhibits the man in his true colors:

“James McArthur, long known as Calico Dick, has resided many years in Hancock county, Mississippi. Though absent frequently for months, sometimes for a year or two. His own statement when he first appeared in the county, was, that he stole a piece of calico, from a country store in Georgia, and being detected received thirty-nine lashes. So far from being ashamed of this exploit, he boasts of it, and when drinking often repeats the story of his filthy life. He soon made himself known in Hancock as a gambler; and from his frequent mysterious journeys, and generally returning with a fine horse and plenty of money, he became an object of general suspicion. The Murrell clan, and, subsequently, the Wages and Copeland clan were then operating throughout the country. Negro-stealing, horse-stealing, counterfeiting, highway robbery and murder had been reduced to a system, and it was rare that anybody was brought to justice. If any party was arrested, some of the clan was always on hand to prove an alibi. Suspicion very often pointed to an individual, but people were afraid to hint their suspicions lest they might draw down upon them some secret vengeance—the burning of their dwellings or assassination. Thus, crime was committed with impunity. A peddler, known to have considerable money, was found murdered in Hancock, and though there was but one opinion as to who committed the deed, no one was arrested. The county was flooded with spurious coin. McArthur was known to make frequent journeys towards Mobile and to the Sabine on the Texas line, and when he returned, there was always an influx of bad money in circulation. He generally brought one or more strangers. Men of doubtful character, and with no apparent means of living, and never known to work, began to multiply, and this class was constantly around McArthur, and looked up to him as their chief. Though known to be personally an abject coward, he became, through these desperate men, an object of terror to the timid; and even respectable men were weak enough to court his favor. The late Col. D. C. Glenn would often say, after his attendance on the Hancock Circuit Courts, that he was shocked to see decent men jesting and drinking with such a wretch! The secret was that these men dreaded him and his gang.

Finally, somewhere about 1845, counterfeiting, horse-stealing, stock-stealing, and other crimes became so common; and the county so swarmed with idle, worthless, and suspicious characters, the citizens of Hancock formed a vigilance committee for mutual protection. It embraced the best, most responsible, and determined men in the county. They arrested a number of persons, most of whom confessed to being, or having been, members of the Murrell and Wages clans. The names of these men, and what became of them, can be given to you by some old citizen—such as Col. Claiborne, S. T. Randall, Luther Russ, J. W. Roberts, and others. Those who confessed to belonging to the above named clans, were to a man the boon companions and associates of the notorious Jim McArthur, alias Calico Dick. The committee finally arrested him. I have been told that nearly the entire committee was for hanging him instanter. Indeed the rope was around his neck; but some one suggested that if they hung him, many important secrets would die with him; and that it was better to spare his life on the conditions of full confession and his immediate and perpetual departure from the county and State. The cowardly and treacherous scoundrel clutched at this expedient to save his life. He acknowledged his crimes, gave the names of his associates, and piloted the committee to his camp in the Devil’s swamp, where he fabricated spurious money. The moulds, forge, and a quantity of base metal were found there. The forger should have been handed over to the U. S. authorities, but he was permitted to leave the county on his oath (what was the oath of such a creature worth,) never to return. He left immediately for Alabama, where it would be worth while to track him. When the war broke out, and the vigilance committee of Hancock no longer existed—its most prominent members having died or removed—this self-confessed felon returned to the county. He appeared there, I am told, in the character of a bounty jumper or substitute broker, in which he swindled a number of confiding people. A band of his old associates returned about the same time, and during the war became the terror and scourge of the country. Some were deserters from the Confederate ranks—some joined the United State army, and deserted their colors came back to their old haunts and their old leader. Some were professional thieves, robbers, and murderers, who never belonged to either army, but took to bushwacking, and jayhawking for a living; robbed the old, the widow, and the orphan without scruple, and often added arson and murder to their robberies. McArthur was constantly on the wing on the old pattern followed by Wages and Copeland. Since the war, he has passed much of his time in Alabama; but I am informed by citizens of Hancock that he has for some months past been dwelling in that county. His doings in Alabama ought to be traced out. What he is after in his obscure den in Hancock county, will, no doubt, in due time, crop out.”

Calico Dick is described by those who have seen him as having the appearance of being deformed from the effect of disease. The external appearance indicate considerable curvature of the spine. Others more intimate and better acquainted with him, say that this seeming curvature is caused by the constant wearing of a steel plate, which is used for the purpose of carrying cards; and that the plate is so constructed that he can without detection take from or add to his hand while playing, and with the assistance of his spring plate renders it impossible for any one to compete with him in this department of gambling.

The report of his death by being shot near St. Stevens is proven to be false. There is now a letter in the possession of John Champenoies, a resident of Shubuta, Clarke county, Mississippi, from Calico Dick, dated at Pensacola Junction, the 28th of May, 1873, and mailed at Whiting, Alabama.

There is another incident in his life which is rather amusing, and should not be entirely overlooked. In the year of 1868, he purchased a ticket to Enterprise, on M. & O. R. R., to Quitman, and got on board of a freight train, which carried him to the next station below, DeSoto, some four or five miles further than he wanted to go, and he had to walk back again. For this he sued the company, and got judgment against it to the tune of several thousand dollars; but the case was carried to High Court, and judgment reversed for a new trial. However, a compromise was made, and the company only paid him five hundred dollars, and gave him a free ticket on the road to ride afterwards.

Since writing the above, Dr. Pitts entertained some doubts of the truths of the whole of this story; and, to be better satisfied on the matter, wrote to one member of the company in high position, and received from him by way of reply the following:

“I know James McArthur, often called ‘Calico Dick,’ but know little of his antecedents.

“He did bring a suit against the railroad for taking him past Quitman to DeSoto, I think in 1867 or 1868, and Judge Leachman gave judgment on demurrer, not a jury, for, I think, $10,000. Exceptions were taken, and the case sent to the High Court, where the error was cause to send it back for a new trial. Before the new trial was had he proposed to compromise, and I did so for $500, he paying costs, but I do not know that he did pay, as he said he had given security for costs, and the Clerk might make them.

“I have not seen ‘Calico’ in the last two years, but presume he lives, and has his ‘Tiger’ yet. The last time I saw him was at State Line, where he told me he was ‘flat broke,’ and his ‘Tiger’ in ‘soak,’ and he wanted with his whole soul a ticket to Mobile on credit. He got it, and I have not seen him since.

“June 25, 1874.”

There must be something remarkable about this man, otherwise he could not so long have escaped the last penalties of the law and the vengeance of an outraged population. The last heard of him, of import, was his visit to Escatawpa, Ala., a short time before the foul murder of W. C. Stanley, of this place, particulars of which the reader will now examine, as related to Dr. Pitts by one of the main witnesses involved in the case; but it should be first remembered that “Calico Dick” made a visit to Escatawpa, then left for Mobile, Ala., and in a few days after his nephew, Frost, came to Escatawpa. The current belief is that he was induced to do so under the influence of his uncle.

REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING, AND ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF INABILITY TO REPRESS SUCH FLAGRANT AND WELL KNOWN CRIMES.

The masterly description of the terrible clans as they have heretofore existed, and as given by the natural as well as artistical pen of the Jackson county correspondent, cannot be overestimated. It will well pay for perusal and re-perusal again and again. Let the following quotations never be forgotten:

“The worst of human crimes had been reduced to a system, and it was rare that anybody was brought to justice. If any party was arrested some of the clan was always on hand to prove an alibi. Suspicions often pointed to an individual, but people were afraid to hint their suspicions lest they might draw down upon them some secret vengeance—the burning of their dwellings or assassination. Thus crime was committed with impunity. A peddler, known to have considerable money, was found murdered in Hancock, and though there was but one opinion as to who committed the deed, no one was arrested. McArthur, though personally known to be an abject coward, became, through desperate men which he commanded, an object of terror to the timid; and even respectable men were weak enough to court his favor. The late Colonel Glenn would often say, after his attendance on the Hancock Circuit Courts, that he was shocked to see decent men jesting and drinking with such a wretch! The secret was that these men dreaded him and his gang.”

The above is a whole volume for contemplation. Decent, respectable, and distinguished persons jesting and drinking with renowned and scientific criminals through fear of conflagration and assassination. No efforts made to bring to justice—crime passing with respectable impunity.

Honor crime, and numbers will soon increase prodigiously. Make escape easy and almost certain, and the law will carry no terrors with it. Grievances, real or imaginary, and opportunities will be sought to bring in play the bowie-knife and revolver. Let life’s warm stream flow freely, the sight common, and human life will soon be worth no more than the dog’s. Let a callous indifference pervade the community when the tidings of outrage, robbery and murder are brought, and soon will the great arteries of a State’s wealth and prosperity begin to languish and decay. Under such a system, can civilization progress? Will capital invest to set the springs of industry at work? Can wealth and intelligence thrive under such blighting influences of desolation? Is not government strong enough to protect its subjects? If not it should be, and the sooner it can be accomplished, the better it will be for all classes of society. Even affluent railroad companies have to bend to such men as Jim McArthur. To produce wide-spread fear and social insecurity, it is not necessary for crime and murder to be of an every-day occurrence; it is the hopelessness of getting redress from the courts as they are at present constituted that is so pernicious in consequences.

THE HORRID MURDER OF W. C. STANLEY AT ESCATAWPA.

W. C. Stanley came to Escatawpa with a small capital, and invested to the amount of two or three hundred dollars worth of goods. On or about the night of the 6th of June, 1872, he was brutally murdered, and was not found until one or two days afterward, when the woods hogs were discovered eating up his lifeless body. An inquest was immediately held, and one on the jury by the name of Oye, tried to implicate a colored man, William Powe, on a plea of his having made some threats previously, but this insignificant plea was quickly ruled out of consideration as unworthy of any credit whatever, and properly so, for the colored man satisfactory proved himself clear immediately afterward. A verdict of murder by some unknown hands was returned. However, one by the name of Frost began to get very uneasy, and left the place the second or third day succeeding. The passions of the citizens around became greatly inflamed by having such a horrid murder committed within their midst. And this was not the only one; no less than ten other brutal murders had occurred in and about the place within a very limited period of time. Blood and terror reigned to an extent never before experienced. To such a pitch of atrocity had this neighborhood got that no man could reasonably feel safe twenty-four hours.

Almost under any plea life was taken with but little hesitation by lawless violence. However, these good citizens held meetings to protect themselves against such diabolical outrages which then, of late, had been perpetrated in large numbers. They, well knowing Mr. B. F. Woulard to be a close observer, and active and energetic in every other respect, appointed him as the most suitable and reliable person in the capacity of detective to ferret out and apprehend the guilty parties. He obeyed the call, and, after Frost, took the first train to Mobile, Alabama, where, after much trouble, he learned that Frost had departed for Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Still forward, and without delay, he very soon reached that place, where he found him stopping with one of his aunts, and arrested him almost without disturbing the family. There taken before the City Marshal, who was acquainted with Frost, and knew him to be of very bad character—knew that he had sometime before endeavored to induce young men of that city to engage in the counterfeiting business. Mr. Woulard well knew that Frost, prior to the murder of Stanley, was without money, and did not really have respectable clothing to wear, though, when arrested, he had two valises well packed with good, substantial clothing, which he had purchased when passing through Mobile, as learned by detective Woulard on his return to this city, with Frost still under arrest. Then and there, the firm of Jacobins & Brisk gave information to the effect that Frost had purchased from seventy to eighty dollars worth from this firm. It was now plain to detective Woulard that Frost had received money some where, and was required to give an account of the same. He answered by declaring to have obtained it by registered letter. On further investigation, it was satisfactorily shown that he had received no registered letter; and now finding it was vain to attempt to conceal any further, he was about to make a confession of the whole affair; but a person by the name of Cotton, in Mobile, stepped up and learned the cause of arrest, when, to detective Woulard, he proposed for Frost to be turned over to him for a while, during which time he would be apt to get from him a full confession of all the facts connected with the case. Accordingly, Frost was placed in Cotton’s custody for something like an hour, when he returned with this report: “You have certainly got the right man; go now and arrest Oye and his wife, at Escatawpa.” In compliance with such advice, detective Woulard lost no time, but hurried back with Frost, and there did arrest Oye.

But here Frost’s confession should be given, which in substance, was as follows:

“At the time Stanley was absent from home on business, Oye availed himself of the opportunity by going to Mrs. Stanley, and by an attempt at strong reasoning, he persuaded her to leave him—all the while believing that Stanley, in such an event, would become so dissatisfied to an extent sufficient to cause him to sell his goods, which could be so managed as to give Oye the preference of purchase, when the money paid for same could be got back by a devised scheme of robbery. But in the interval between the commencement of the plan and Stanley’s return, two Irish shoe-peddlers came into the neighborhood. Oye purchased the remnant of goods they had on hand. Forthwith one left—the other remained and boarded with Oye. Now, Stanley returned home, and found that his wife had left him, and his store, with all other of his effects, in the hands of Oye. This unexpected conduct of his wife had, according to Oye’s calculations, the desired effect. Frustrated and discontented to an extent better imagined than described, he at once desired to dispose of his whole interest in the place. This was what Oye wanted, and quickly proposed to buy him out, which proposition, under the circumstances, was readily accepted. Oye paid the full value of the goods without any scruples whatever, and put Frost in charge of the same. Stanley, during the time he intended to remain in the neighborhood, and Frost now became room mates, and boarded at the house of Oye. Up to this time, the progress had been attended with very little trouble, and everything seemed to promise continued success. The next movement was a secret consultation among the three—Oye, Frost and the Irish shoe-peddler, the latter of which, from inference, seemed to have before affiliated with such company, and likely his appearance as an Irish shoe-peddler at the time had all been previously arranged to produce the desired effect. This consultation was for the purpose of decoying Stanley out on a fishing excursion, so that he could be ambushed, robbed and murdered. Frost was the person agreed on to perform the part of betraying Stanley out, but, on more mature consideration, Oye could not repose sufficient confidence in the Irishman—entirely ruling him out, and broke up the first agreement. The next one adopted was for Frost to inform Stanley that Mrs. Oye had been receiving letters from his wife, Mrs. Stanley. Frost further intimated that he could so manage as to get hold of one or more of these letters, and would, the first opportunity, do so for Stanley’s satisfaction. Stanley, very much wanting to know the whereabouts of his wife and children, urged Frost to get possession, if possible, of the letters the first convenient opportunity. So far, there was a mutual understanding between the two. But little time elapsed before Frost made known that sure enough he had succeeded in getting the letters from Mrs. Oye, and was then in possession of the same. Night being present, it was agreed for Stanley to retire with him, for the purpose of reading the letters, to a place some two hundred yards in the rear of Oye’s drinking saloon, which place is a pine thicket or grove. Matches were procured, and forward they went to this designated place. Here Frost handed Stanley some sort of a paper package; and while Stanley was in the act of making a light from a match to a candle, Oye suddenly rushed up with a loaded revolver, and shot Stanley through the head—followed by five more discharges at him. After he had fallen, Oye was about to put his hand in Stanley’s pocket for money, when a hollow groan was heard, indicating that the last sign of life had not departed, to fully effect which, Oye, with his pocket knife stabbed the victim several times in the breast, and then cut the throat from ear to ear. Oye now leaves Frost to get the money and drag off the corpse to some old well near by, while Oye would return and see that all was right outside. In this operation of dragging to the well, Frost became alarmed and left the spot.

The following day, Oye made a proposition to Frost to take an axe and cut the lifeless body to pieces, so that the same could be sacked and thrown into Dog River. Frost declined to do this from suspicion of a great probability of detection in so doing. As yet, no disposition having been made of the remains, a young man by the name of William Cooper, the next evening, found the decomposing body with active and consuming hogs around it. On the bloody grounds of the murder a pistol rammer was found, which was inspected by detective Woulard. Oye hearing of this circumstance, ordered Frost to immediately take the pistol to which it belonged, and throw the same into Dog River without delay, which was done accordingly. In the confession of Frost, he further told where the pocket-book of Stanley could be found that had been taken away from him after death. Agreeable and true to his statement, the pocket-book was found, and contained a tooth, which on seeing by Mr. A. O’Donnell, was declared to belong to Mrs. Stanley—she having before shown the same to him. With it a piece of poetry, in the hand-writing of Stanley, was also found.”

The fact of Frost and Stanley boarding together at Oye’s house; the fact of the murdered body having been found; the fact of the sudden departure of Frost—before well-known to have been in want of both money and respectable clothing, and all at once, found with plenty, and then his falsehoods and failure to account for the same; and then the fact of his confession about the pocket-book having been proven to be perfectly correct; these circumstances, with others connected, all taken together, fasten guilt on Frost, and go far to establish the truth of the other part of his confessions in which Oye is represented as the principal actor of the whole.

Aware of all this when detective Woulard arrested Oye. He placed both under a vigilant guard for a short time to be controlled by Mr. A. F. Hooks. Immediately after the arrest was made, Mrs. Oye got an opportunity to speak to her husband, and was overheard to say something about a fuss, which in a few minutes followed by her using such language of obscenity and profanity against the guard which, perhaps, was never equalled from the lips of woman. During the disturbance, the intention was for Oye to get away, but the guard kept too sharp a lookout for the attempt to succeed.

The prisoners were conveyed as soon as practicable by detective Woulard, to St. Stevens, Alabama, where they had a preliminary trial, and evidence sufficiently adduced for committal. But all the while Mrs. Oye had been active. A writ of Habeas Corpus had been obtained from the Circuit Judge of the district, Mr. Elliott, requiring the prisoners forthwith to be brought before him for a further hearing. In conformity with the writ, the Sheriff of Washington county, E. L. Collins conveyed them to Mobile, and the evidence there produced was sufficiently strong for Judge Elliott to order them back to Washington county to there await the action of the circuit court.

When the case came up for trial, by motion of counsel, a change of venue was made: Oye’s case being removed to Baldwin county, and Frost’s to the county of Mobile. Owing to the great distance, with proportionate expenses, this change made it very inconvenient for witnesses to attend, by reason of which they were unable to be present in court, and the consequence was a discharge of Oye for want of evidence; but last reports say Frost still remains in Mobile jail—perhaps to be liberated also when convenience of time will justify: thus defeating the ends of justice and demonstrating the almost impossibility of convicting any belonging to the worst class of criminals.

Since the forgoing was prepared for the press, the following additional information has been received through a highly responsible source from New Orleans, La.:

MORE ABOUT FROST, “CALICO DICK’S” NEPHEW.

“Frost shortly after the murder of W. C. Stanley, in Alabama, made his appearance at Bay St. Louis, with two carpet bags filled with fine clothing and his pockets full of money. He displayed this ostentatiously, and spent it lavishly in the coffee houses. While splurging in this style, he was arrested and taken to Alabama, on the charge of murder. When he was discharged (to the amazement of everybody) he returned to the Bay, and by some means was made an assistant light-house keeper on Chandlier Island: How he got in this position would be well worth finding out. Recently the keeper sent him to New Orleans to draw his (the keeper’s) money. Frost drew it, and wrote to the keeper that he had deposited it with a certain firm in the city. On inquiry, such deposit had not been by him made, and he with the money disappeared some six weeks ago. He and his uncle are capable of any crime, but are cowards.”

August 13, 1874.

NECESSARY COMMENTS ON UNPUNISHED CRIME.

Talk of reform and State improvements, impossible while this system of things continue; “as well expect grapes from thorns or figs from thistles.” Not occasional robberies, not occasional murders alone that poison the vitals of society. These will sometimes occur under the best government—under good laws and well administered; it is the ninety-nine chances for escape to one for conviction which produces so much evil. When punishment is sure to immediately follow the commission of crime, then society can repose in security; but otherwise, the honest and peaceable live in fear—the dishonest and disorderly in defiant lawlessness. Overt crime, regardless of law, with a determination to remain and risk all consequences from the farcical courts; in such cases, arrest sometimes follow, but the bail is ready, and with a few dollars acquittal will be almost certain. If the case is too dark and unpopular, time after time the trial will be put off, until, according to common parlance, the case is worn out, or some material witness got out of the way, and then the answer is “ready for trial”—well knowing the result which must follow. But oftener, if the criminal leave the county or State, no more notice is taken—no effort made to reach and bring him back.

It is seldom that redress is ever endeavored to be obtained by process of law. This reluctance cannot be wondered at in the face of so many unblushing recommendations and encouragements from unprincipled attorneys in open court to willful violations of law; not to be wondered at when the injured prosecutor experiences nothing but abuse and malicious, or rather mercenary, invective, while the vile criminal is allowed to walk out of court unhurt and plumed with the laurels of victory, even in the worst cases which can possibly be conceived. If one person becomes irritated against another, no matter for what cause, either real or imaginary, he thinks not of investigation in the courts, but either sets in to break up his antagonist by private and malicious mischief, or he waylays, ambushes or seeks an opportunity to create a quarrel, so that life can be taken under the plea of justifiable homicide! But sordid, corrupt and sinister motives do not always stop at acquitting the guilty; they occasionally labor as hard to harrass and punish the innocent! The author’s case, in his trial at Mobile, is one instance out of many where everything was strained to convict innocence. Sometimes one object in view, and sometimes another. Grand juries are not unfrequently acted on in a very disgraceful manner. One person, through spite, or for getting the property of another in some covert way, will seek an opportunity to get a bill from the grand jury. Another, to avoid paying a just debt, or to screen himself in some other case, for the purpose of producing intimidation, or, as it is more commonly called, “running him off,” will seek to get a bill from the grand jury. Others, if the truth is too plainly spoken, will seek to command the grand jury for libel. Under such a system, the worst of men are generally the most expert in law, and always the readiest to fly to it to subserve their purposes. Alarming abuses in one direction seldom fail to be carried on in the contrary direction pretty much with equal proportion.

Lynch law is an unavoidable consequence of a mockery of civil law. No nation can long prosper under a reign of court corruptions. If the guilty, as a rule, escape, and justice not strictly administered, the sources of wealth will soon languish and decay. If the fashions of the courts are to favor the worst at the expense of the best members of society, the necessary results cannot fail to come shortly afterward. Under such a deplorable state of things, confidence and security cannot dwell. Suspicion and distrust everywhere; industry, the desire to accumulate, and also productive capital, will all be defective.

There are but few crimes which a determined and prudent government cannot suppress. Those aggravated offenses under the name of “Ku Klux” depredations, how soon they were put down under a vigorous execution of law. If the government of this State continues as it has begun, there will be no more of dueling, or at least so rare as not to be productive of much injury. The certainty of punishment, even in rare cases, will relieve society from serious harm on this account.

States, Empires and Republics search for the first causes of their decline and fall, and they will be found to consist in the vitiated customs of the rulers in the various departments of governments, in a reckless trampling on the principles of justice without shame, without remorse, and, above all, in overgrown corruptions practiced with the honors of emoluments and distinctions.

And now it is only necessary to add, in reference to the Wages and Copeland Clan, as an organization, it is broken up, though isolated individuals who belonged to it still continue to perpetrate crime whenever anything like a favorable opportunity offers. For a lengthy duration of time this clan spread terror and desolation both far and wide. Happily for present society, as an organized body, it is numbered on the dark and bloody pages of the past.

The publication of the confessions by the author was productive of much good. The high and mighty outside aiders severely felt the blows. But for the support given by such auxiliary aiders the organization would have come to dissolution much earlier. It is such influential aiders and abettors, in warding off the chains of law, which give vitality to movements of this character. The decline began from the death of the President and leader, Wages, and also at the same time the death of the preaching hypocrite, McGrath. This change was further accelerated by the execution of Copeland, and the narrow escape of another brother, together with the publication of the confessions, laying open to public gaze the implicated parties and the principal movement of the whole.

But the expiration of one sort of lawlessness does not preclude the existence of others more dangerous, because more subtle and more in accordance with the corruptions in the high departments of States, and more in harmony with the operations of those who boldly trample on rectitude and the laws of the nation. Rings and cliques are not confined to political considerations alone, but descend to many other important affairs of life. A union of an inferior and unprincipled lawyer with a subordinate officer, and these again with a league of reckless and desperate “strikers,” who can make money almost at any time from the honest earnings of the less expert, and all by forms and processes of law. This is one class of rings complained of, the evils from which are of a frightful magnitude. They weave the net, goad the honest but unwary into its meshes, and revel on the spoils which have been extorted from litigation. The former modes of robbery, plunder and murder have, to a great extent, been superseded by, if possible, worse evils in the form of a science as taught and practiced by these rings and cliques. Crimes which formerly had to encounter hardships and danger, can now be accomplished by other means with honors, profits, and a plausible sanction of law. Government should have power sufficient to be able and willing to crush such proceedings, which, unchecked, must, ere long, produce another national convulsion.

Copeland’s crimes were huge and many. Before he had reached the meridian of life he paid the last and highest penalty of the law. He was cut down anterior to the attainment of the flower of his days—a melancholy example to all who prefer robbery and murder to the honest and peaceful pursuits of industry. With all the weight of crime belonging, he made some atonement by his valuable confessions in the last hours of his existence. It is not clear what were the actuating motives; whether smarting under disappointment, and goaded on by a spirit of revenge against those who had promised him safety and protection, but did not prevent him enduring years of imprisonment with the immediate prospect of a violent and ignominious death, or sick of life, with no hope of earthly relief, and oppressed with painful reflections on the past—conscious that the affairs of this world could not concern him but a few days longer—it is more than probable that the task of disclosing the dreadful operations of his past life in associations with others, afforded him some repose or satisfaction in the unhappy situation he was then placed. With some, in the condition of distress and despair, there is perhaps nothing which can give a greater temporary relief than for the mind to be intensely fixed and engaged on something which is to live after the body has finished its earthly career.

No matter in what way the confessions may be put to the test, they come out of the ordeal firmer and stronger than before. They cannot be broken down in the severest conflicts in organized courts for the purpose. A partisan Judge, supported by a phalanx of talent and wealth, with all other influences brought to bear, cannot, as has been tried, destroy nor impair the invulnerable facts which they contain. Search for internal evidences of truth, and they will be found in ample profusion. Appeal to the last testimony of a dying man on the scaffold, and it fully confirms the correctness of his confessions as made some short time before. Ask numbers of still living witnesses and they will vouch for the substantial accuracy of the facts as related in these confessions. Call in time, the great arbiter of disputes, and the revelations since made all go to corroborate the validity of the work so obnoxious to the guilty implicated in it.

If there are such occurrences as special acts of Providence, the author of this work has certainly been favored. The numerous snares set, the manifold plots laid for his life—these considered and understood, and it is more than marvelous how he has so far escaped destruction. Many devoted friends have endeavored to dissuade him from the present object of publication, because of the dangerous elements in high life which affect society, but, for life or death, “the die is cast.” The confidence in Providence, in prudence, and in the better portions of society give him hope—conscious that whatever fate the body may meet, truth will survive.

Long associations, official position, and many other causes may prevent abler minds from grasping the evils which have been only faintly touched on in this humble and unostentatious work which is now submitted to the public. The thunders and turbulent billows of criticism may play in wild warfare against it, but simplicity and truth will finally prove more than the match to sustain it.

The author has studiously avoided tinting any of his observations with preferences in favor of either of the conflicting political parties of the day. He has indulged in no personal considerations for the sake of revenge. He has constantly kept in view public evils as they at present exist, and can see no effective remedy from the triumph of either of the political parties. The evils are fundamental, and require new combinations to meet the exigencies of the times, and to prevent further of intestine convulsion.

In concentrating, or giving additional power, the secret and difficulty consist in preventing the abuse of this power. Not in excessively frequent elections; not in the glowing descriptions as given by Republican and Democratic orators and writers, which have had their origin in the wild domains of fancy; nor not in the harsh acerbitude which come from the archives of despotism can the remedy be found to prevent the abuse of power. All these have sufficiently been tried with a melancholy failure. A form of government perhaps well adapted to one stage in the progress of a nation, may, if continued, prove fatal in a more advanced period of progression.

Let us hope that passions will subside within due bounds for temperate reasons to mount the throne, so that this necessary change can be accomplished without further effusions of blood—resulting in permanent order, peace and prosperity for the enjoyment of every class in this great and powerful nation.