The Radical Pow-wow.
On Saturday there assembled at the court house what purported to be a republican mass convention, consisting, on an average, of about one hundred and fifty negroes, for they were continually passing in and out, and four white men, viz: R. B. Chatham, J. S. Montgomery, R. H. Montgomery and W. C. Perry. J. J. Baker was also a very prominent actor in the convention all day; but we do not know of his directly participating in the voting.
R. B. Chatham claiming to be the chairman of the old Republican executive committee attempted to call the meeting to order, a task which neither he nor any one else ever succeeded in accomplishing. Amid great confusion, he said that he had been chairman of their committee since 1876; that the time had now come for the re-organization of the old Republican party; that the object of this meeting was the ratification of Garfield, &c. J. S. Montgomery was elected permanent chairman, and while Tenant Weatherly was presiding and putting a motion to that effect, some one asked, while the hub-bud was raging, who had the floor; and that worthy replied “Day’s is all got it.” Men who were able to write were scarce in that body. In moving for the election of W. C. Perry as secretary Truhart vouched for his Republicanism.
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At every stage of the convention there were one or more self-satisfied orators upon the floor, glorifying themselves upon the fine prospects of reversing the verdict of 1875, and airing their views generally. One declaring that the black people had only been allowed to crawl upon the ground, and make contracts, but now they were fixing things for a great change. Another, Bill Davis as we are told, congratulated himself and those present, upon inaugurating a new era in which black and white children could play together without any fear on the part of the white parents of having their little ones “siled” by the contact.
Truhart gave expression to the great debt due him by the Republican party for disorganizing the Democratic party, through the Greenbackers; and thereby returning Radicalism to such power again that it would give to all of its candidates majorities of from 1500 to 2000; and while having no objection to individual Democrats, he had the greatest dislike to the principles of their party, and wanted to restore the colored man to the rights he had been deprived since 1875. What rights they then had, which they have not now, besides that of political ownership of the county, and the power to legally put their hands in the pockets of the tax payers, of which they themselves formed no part, at such times and for such amounts as their sweet wills might direct, Truhart did not attempt to define.
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The Disorganizers.
In the Republican convention on Saturday a saffron hued gent in a linen duster arose and lauded himself on account of his past services to, and the great debt due him by the Republican party. H. H. Truhart alias Buck Sutton then mounted a bench and in stentorian tones exclaimed, in substance, that “I assert without fear of contradiction, that I have done more to disorganize the Democratic party and as a means, and to thereby, restore the Republicans to power, than any other man in this county; and the debt of the Republicans to me is therefore greater than to any one else; that the return of the Republicans to power and the restoration of the colored man to all his rights of which he has been deprived since 1875, is now assured; we have regained control of this county and our nominee for Sheriff as well as all other offices will receive a majority of from 1500 to 2000; for this you are largely indebted to me and to the means adopted by me.”
By these and other words he clearly conveyed the idea that his previous connection with, and support of the Greenback party was intended to, and had restored to the ignorant and brutal radical horde the control of our county, and forced us into position where we must ignominiously submit to their infamous domination. It means the exclusion from office of every man who shall be favorably regard or indorsed by our white citizens.
This is the fearful prospect that the efforts of Truhart, his co-conspirators, their dupes, and the few conscientious Greenbackers, if there any, have, by attempting to
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