Navarro Express [Corsicana, TX], August 11, 1860
By a letter from Dallas, of the 21st of July, to the Houston Telegraph, we learn more of the details of the conspiracy on foot in the up country than heretofore. A few days after the destruction of Dallas, the out houses, granaries, oats and grain of Mr. Crill Miller, near that place, were burned. This led to the belief, for the first time, that all of these fires were the work of incendiaries. Several white men were arrested for the burning of Miler’s out houses, granaries, &c., whose innocence was proved. But several negroes of Mr. Miller being arrested and examined, made developments of the most horrid character. A plot to destroy the country by fire, murder and poison, was detailed even to minutiae. A great many other negroes were arrested, examined separately and apart from each other, who confirmed the existence of the plot in such a manner as to place the matter beyond all doubt.
It seems that it was intended to impoverish the country by fire—destroy the arms and ammunition by the same means, and have all things prepared for a general servile insurrection on the 1st Monday in August. The plot was planned and headed by abolition emissaries from the North and some in the country. It is stated that “each county in Northern Texas had a supervisor in the person of a white man whose name is not given,” each county laid off into districts under the sub-agents of the villains who control the action of the negroes in said districts by whom the firing was to be done. Prominent citizens of Dallas had been selected for assassination when they made their escape from their burning homes. Poisoning was to be used among other means of destruction. Old females were to be slaughtered with the men, while the young women were to be saved for parceling out between these black scoundrels. The emissaries of abolition preachers who were expelled from Dallas County last year, are said to have been the head of the plot. Some of them have been identified, but fled before they were arrested; others still remain and will be dealt with soon. The negroes state that on the first Monday in August a large reinforcement of Abolitionists, aided by recruits from the Indian tribes were expected.
The jail of Dallas is filled with the villains, many of whom will be hung soon.