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Page 6
During the consultation, one Butler Cavins, who had a good deal of
influence (he owned about twenty slaves), left the grocery with five
or six others and was absent about ten minutes. He returned with a
coil of rope upon his arm, elbowing his way through the crowd, and
exclaimed, "Gentlemen, I am in favor of hanging him. He is a nice,
innocent young man. He is far safer for heaven now than when he
learns to drink, swear, and be as hardened an old sinner as I am." I
could not, even at the peril of life, refrain from retorting: "That,
sir, is the only truth I have heard from you to-night." My friends,
yet few, and feeble in the advocacy of my cause, seemed slightly
encouraged by this rebuff, and gained the ear of the rabble for a
little. Cavins could not be silenced. "This is a fine lariat, boys;
it has swung two abolitionists. I guess it will hold another. Come
on, boys," and a general gathering up in the form of a semicircle,
crowding nearer the counter, occurred. At the same moment jumping
back off the counter and displaying two six-shooters, I said, "If
that's your game, come on; some of you shall go with me to the other
world! The first man that makes another step toward me is a dead
man." There was one moment of dread suspense and breathless
stillness; hands were tightened on daggers and pistols, but no hand
was raised. The whole pack stood at bay, convinced that any attempt
to take me would send several of them to certain death. My friends,
who had kept somewhat together, now ranged themselves against the
counter before me, facing the crowd, and Buck Scruggs said, "He has
not been convicted, and he shall not be touched." James Niel and
Dempsey Jones, the other two who had aided in my arrest, joined
Scruggs; and their influence, added to the persuasive eloquence of
my pistols, decided the wavering. In twenty seconds, more than
twenty votes were given for my acquittal, and the chairman declared
in a triumphant voice, "He is unanimously acquitted." The unanimity,
I confess, was not such as I would have desired; but all agreed the
youngster had pluck, and would soon make as good a fighter as any of
them. With a forced laugh, which on some faces ill concealed their
hatred, while others made an unseemly attempt at coarse wit, they
adjourned, voting themselves a drink at my expense, which I must
perforce pay, as they had generously acquitted me! I confess to an
amiable wish that the dollar I laid on the counter of Cavins for a
gallon of whiskey might some day buy the rope to tighten on his
craven throat, though I did not deem it wise to give expression to
my sentiments just then.
As the bottle passed for the last time, the change of feeling was
most rapid, and I was greeted quite patronizingly by some who had
been fierce for hanging me. The more malignant shrunk away by twos
and threes, and soon the grocery was empty. My special friends, who
were now more than ever friends, having risked their own lives to
save me (I even then thought of One who had given up His life to
save me), advised, in earnest words--"Now, S., put thirty miles
between you and these fellows before to-morrow; for some of them are
enraged at their defeat, and if you stay here you are a doomed man."
My first impulse was to return home, attend to my regular business,
defy them, and, if necessary, sell my life as dearly as possible.
But what could one man, and he a youth and a stranger, do against a
corrupt and reckless populace? When suspicion was once aroused, I
knew that the least spark would kindle it into a flame. Society
there was completely barbarous in its character, so far as law was
concerned. The mob has ruled for years, and the spirit of rebellion,
now rampant all over the South, had taken form and expressed itself
in these vigilance committees, constituting as cruel courts of
inquiry as was ever the Inquisition.
Instances of recent occurrence of most atrocious character were in
my mind, showing that these men would persecute me to death, sooner
or later, if I remained. Only two nights before, a part of this same
gang had murdered a Mr. Crawford, who was a native of Sullivan
county, New York, but had lived in Arkansas sixteen years--a man
against whom no charge could justly be brought. A few days previous
to this murder a man named Washburne was whipped to death by four
ruffians, of whom Cavins was one. His only crime was that he was a
Northern man. His body was thrown into the St. Francis river, after
the diabolical deed was consummated. I had heard these horrible
recitals until my blood curdled, and I saw there was no hope but in
leaving this hell upon earth.
The simple knowledge that I had ever lived in New York would, I
think, have hung me without fail that night.
The causes of this mad lawlessness I may not fully understand. Some
of them lie upon the surface. Reckless men settled there originally,
and, living beyond the control of calmly and justly administered
law, they gradually resolved themselves into a court, the most
daring and active-minded becoming the self-elected leaders.
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