ALABAMA. 



ALABAMA. During the latter part of 

 1874 the condition of affairs in this State at- 

 tracted much attention. The reports, _ how- 

 ever, have been so conflicting that it is impos- 

 sible to determine which are correct, or what 

 the actual facts have been. On the one side it 

 has been reported that the most flagrant out- 

 rages have been perpetrated in certain coun- 

 ties, especially Sumter, Greene, and Pickens ; 

 that a bitter war has been waged upon the 

 negroes, who have been secretly threatened 

 and murdered ; that diabolical deeds have been 

 committed by the Ku-klux, or other disguised 

 assassins ; and that generally there has been a 

 reign of terror. On the other side these re- 

 ports have been denounced as false, and as 

 having been circulated for political purposps ; 

 and it has been declared that the peace of 

 the State has not been disturbed by polit- 

 ical crimes. This conflict of testimony has 

 existed both among correspondents and the 

 editors and public men of the State. Of the 

 many statements that have been made, two 

 opposing ones may be selected as carrying the 

 greatest weight of authority. The first of 

 these was made in a letter, dated September 

 7, 1874, written by Hon. Charles Hays to 

 Hon. Joseph R. Hawley. Mr. Hays was the 

 Representative in Congress of the Fourth Con- 

 gressional District of Alabama, in which most 

 of the disorders are alleged to have occurred. 

 In a note to Mr. Hays requesting this written 

 statement of facts for publication, Mr. Hawley 

 says : " I know you as a native and life-long 

 resident of Alabama, engaged largely in plant- 

 ing, formerly the largest slaveholder in the 

 State, and a soldier in the Confederate army 

 throughout the war. Please give me in writing, 

 as compactly as clearness will permit, the sub- 

 stance of what you have told me. I want to 

 publish it at home, and give it to my neighbors 

 and constituents as the account of a gentleman 

 of unimpeachable honor." Mr. Hays in his 

 letter recites numerous instances of foul deeds, 

 giving the names of the victims, and the times 

 and places of the outrages, which he alleges 

 were inflicted upon orderly negroes by their 

 political opponents. He prefaces this enumera- 

 tion with the following general statement : 



I am anxious that the true condition of affairs in 

 the State of Alabama should be known as soon as 

 possible to the whole country, in order that they 

 may begin to realize the fact that the spirit of rebel- 

 lion against the laws and Government of the United 

 States, to extinguish which so many brave and gal- 

 lant men laid down their lives, still exists in the 

 hearts of many misguided people. They embrace 

 every ^opportunity to commit deeds of lawlessness 

 and crime, that are everlasting stigmas upon the fair 

 name of the nation, and an open insult to the flag of 

 our country, which many of your people are vainly 

 patriotic enough to believe is an fflgis of protection, 

 wherever it floats. I had fondly hoped that the 

 u reign of terror" in the' South was over, and that 

 peace, good-will, and' prosperity, might henceforth 

 reign supreme. In this hope I am sadly disap- 

 pointed, for candor compels me to say that to-day 

 riots, murders, assassinations, and torturings, for the 

 purpose of terrorizing the true friends of the Gov- 



ernment are more common than they have been at 

 any hour since Lee surrendered to Grunt, and unless 

 the strong arm of Federal power can avert the calam- 

 ity I can see nothing in the future save gloom and 

 despair to the loyal men of the South, ruin to the 

 material interests of the country, and death to those 

 of us who uphold the honor and integrity of the na- 

 tion, and counsel submission to the laws of the 

 United States. But I need make no appeals to the 

 patriotism or the sympathy of the Northern men, 

 who, like yourself, have bared their breasts to the 

 battle-storm in the dark and bloody days of the 

 eventful past. The bare recital of proved facts shall 

 be my only appeal. That will cause the heart to 

 shudder, the cheek to blanch, and the mind to won- 

 der how such dastardly outrages, such unprovoked 

 murders, and such fiend-like conduct, can be tolerated 

 for an hour. I shall he particular to narrate no ru- 

 mors, to color no atrocity, to " set down naught in 

 malice," but simply to give you well-authenticated 

 facts, with dates, names ? and localities, so that every 

 man in the land may himself verify the accuracy of 

 my statements, if he deems it necessary. These, 

 then, I proceed to give you, with the deliberate opin- 

 ion on my part that the half cannot be told, and that 

 to-day many victims of hellish murder are sleeping 

 in unknown spots and secluded places, from which 

 they will never be wakened until the final judgment- 

 day. 



The first case mentioned by Mr. Hays was 

 that of Captain W. P. Billings, a former resident 

 of Brooklyn, N. Y., who he alleges was " bru- 

 tally murdered," on about the 1st of August, 

 in Sumter County, about one mile from his resi- 

 dence, on the Gainesville branch of the Mobile 

 & Ohio Railroad : 



When discovered he and his horse were both lying 

 dead in the public road, his body pierced with buck- 

 shot, and that of his horse riddled with bullets. 

 The "hiding-place" of the assassins was found, 

 but the coroner's jury returned the usual verdict, 

 " that he came to his death by gunshot-wounds, ana 

 that the parties firing were unknown." Captain 

 Billings was a Kepublican, and had that day addressed 

 a Republican meeting at Abraham's plantation, some 

 fifteen miles distant trom the spot where he fell. He 

 had about a twelvemonth since purchased a cotton- 

 plantation in the county, was a man of unimpeach- 

 able character, and did not know he had an enemy 

 in the world. 



" The next example," says Mr. Hays, " is, 

 perhaps, one of 'the most atrocious, unpro- 

 voked, and terrible, that has ever stained the 

 pages of Southern desperation." This was the 

 case of Thomas L. Ivey, "an inoffensive, in- 

 telligent, honest, and hard-working colored 

 man, appointed a United States mail agent on 

 the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad, run- 

 ning between Meridian, Miss., and Livingston, 

 Ala." On the 29th of August, near Living- 

 ston, in Sumter County, the train was sig- 

 naled by a man standing on the track, and 

 when it stopped "the report of a number of 

 guns or pistols was heard, and Ivey was found 

 shot to pieces/' After mentioning other in- 

 stances of outrages in Sumter County and in 

 Mississippi, near the Alabama line, Mr. Hays 

 says : 



Not only are murders and whippings resorted to, 

 to effect a change in the politics of the negroes, but 

 other means also, as will be seen from the following 

 " notice," which was taken from a sign-board on the 

 cross-roads near Livingston, Ala., and handed me 



