[Little Rock] Old-Line Democrat, September 13, 1860
We have been permitted to extract from a letter received by one of our citizens from Camden, Wilcox county, on yesterday, the following startling intelligence: “We heard yesterday of an occurrence that took place near Coffeeville, Clark county, last week, that should put us upon our guard. A party purporting to be Gipsies, went to the house of a gentleman of that neighborhood, informed him that one of their number had died, and requesting permission to bury him upon this gentleman’s land, and also the assistance of his negroes. The permission was given, the negroes sent, and the coffin interred. On the next day one of the negroes remarked to his master that the coffin that had been buried was exceedingly heavy. This excited inquiry, and the coffin was dug up by a committee, when it was found to be filled with arms and ammunitions! A party had left Coffeeville in pursuit of the “Gipsies,” as these scoundrels called themselves. When such things are taking place it sounds well for Southern men to be abusing the Military Bill.”
If there is any who can longer doubt the existence of a deeply laid plan to involve us in the most fearful perils, we do not envy them their skepticism. How long will we slumber over a volcano and yet denounce those who warn us of danger? The source of the above information is the most reliable—Selma Issue.
The Montgomery Mail says:
We learn, through a gentleman just from the up country, that on Tuesday night last (28th August) the citizens of Talladega took from jail, at that place, the white man who was the ringleader in the lately discovered plot among the negroes of that vicinity, and hanged him. Yesterday morning, he was gracefully pendant to a Pride of China tree. We did not learn his name.—Mail.