410 



INDIANA. 



is made, and that the means provided in the 

 said act to raise the money, with which to pay 

 for said stock, were appropriate ; plainly con- 

 duced to the end proposed ; were not pro- 

 hibited by the constitution, and were not in- 

 consistent with the letter or spirit of the con- 

 stitution." 



There were other objections of less impor- 

 tance made to the validity of the law, which 

 were also overruled by the court. 



Suits were instituted by the Attorney-General 

 in the month of November, against John D. 

 Evans and Thomas B. HcCarty, ex- Auditors of 

 the State and their sureties, to recover money 

 alleged to have been obtained by them from 

 loaning out the funds of the public Treasury, 

 and appropriating the proceeds to their own 

 use. The State printer, Kichard J. Bright, was 

 also prosecuted on the charge of having drawn 

 money illegally and wrongfully from the pub- 

 lic Treasury. These suits, which were brought 

 with the consent and approval of the Governor, 

 were still pending at the end of the year. 



Several instances occurred in the State, dur- 

 ing the year, of the lawless execution of per- 

 sons charged with crime, by bands of masked 

 marauders, without the form of trial. In one 

 case in Clarke County a certain family had 

 been murdered, and, suspicion falling upon cer- 

 tain negroes, they were seized and hanged 

 without mercy by a mob of disguised persons. 

 These proceedings called forth the following 

 proclamation : 



STATE OF INDIANA, ) 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Nc vernier 23, 1871. ) 



Whereas, Organized bands of armed and masked 

 men have recently usurped the functions and powers 

 of the judiciary in the counties of Franklin and 

 Clarke, and have assumed the right to forcibly take 

 prisoners from the jails of said counties, and execute 

 them for offences against the laws of this State, 

 charged to have been committed by such prisoners, 

 and in the latter county three negro men were taken 

 from the jail and executed by one of these lawless 

 organizations ; and it has been made known to me 

 that proclamations have been published in said 



county of Clarke, purporting to emanate from one 

 of these clans, notifying all colored persons, who 

 have settled in said county since the close of the late 

 war, to leave said county on pain of death ; and, be- 

 ing also informed that there now are colored pris- 

 oners in the jail of Clarke County, who may be in 

 danger of mob violence : 



Now, therefore, I, Conrad Baker, Governor of 

 the State of Indiana, do hereby call upon the local 

 authorities and the people of said county, and of all 

 other counties where these illegal organizations may 

 exist, to use all the lawful means in their power for 

 the suppression of the same, and for the speedy arrest 

 and trial of those who have been engaged in the re- 

 cent terrible tragedy before mentioned. Every citizen, 

 and every class of citizens, are entitled to the equal 

 protection of the law, and mob violence must be 

 suppressed, and prisoners awaiting trial and their 

 lawful custodians must be protected at all hazards. 

 To this end, all the means at my command will be 

 furnished to the local authorities to aid in the per- 

 formance of their duties whenever a request to that 

 effect is made. I especially warn the misguided men 

 who are said to be attempting, by organized violence 

 and terrorism, to banish a portion of the people of 

 this State from their homes, that they cannot and 

 shall not succeed, even if it should be necessary to 

 call into requisition the combined powers of the State 

 and national Governments to prevent it. ^ The State 

 must rely mainly upon the local authorities in its 

 efforts to guarantee the equal protection of the laws 

 to all her citizens, and, if these authorities become 

 powerless in the presence of organized violence, 

 the late legislation of Congress makes ample pro- 

 vision for the intervention of the national authori- 

 ties ; and the President, in his proclamation of the 3d 

 of May last, has assured the country that this legis- 

 lation shall be enforced everywhere to the extent of 

 the powers vested in him. Let the people and the 

 constituted authorities of every county in the State 

 be so faithful in their observance and execution of 

 the laws that Indiana may forever avoid the reproach 

 of having rendered the intervention of the national 

 authorities necessary by the lawlessness of her own 

 people, or the impotence of her legal authorities. 



Given under my hand and the seal of the 



[SEAL.] State, at Indianapolis, the date aforesaid. 

 CONKAD BAKEE. 



Attest: NORMAN EDDY, Secretary of State. 



No general election occurred in Indiana in 

 1871, and therefore political matters were very 

 quiet throughout the year. 



CENSUS OF 1870. 



