Semi-Weekly Mississippian [Jackson, MS], August 31, 1860
New events almost daily occur in some parts of Texas to keep alive the excitement that exists. We glean again the most important from our exchanges.
The Jefferson (Cass county) Herald has the following paragraph:
A guard of twenty-four men is nightly stationed around the place, and not an individual passes through the streets after dark without being hailed and made to give an account of himself. Several suspicious individuals have recently been arrested, and some are now in custody.
A man named Pearce has been arrested at Clarksville charged with burning Henderson:
The proof against him is almost positive.—He hired a negro woman at the hotel to do the work. His brother, also implicated, has fled.
The Jefferson Herald says:
The citizens of Lamar and Fannin counties have ordered a certain James R. Brown to leave the State in less than 24 hours. The evidence against him was sufficient to justify more severity.
They are now driving from all the upper counties every individual upon whom rests the least suspicion of abolitionism. It will, no doubt, fall pretty hard on some parties, but the peace and safety of the country demand it.
We learn that the flourishing little town of Mount Vernon, Titus county, was burned down a few days since. It was the work of incendiaries, one of whom, we are informed, has been caught and hung.
A letter from Sulphur Springs, dated the 10th inst., says:
Last Saturday a plan to burn this place was discovered. A negro preacher belonging to Mr. Goodson, acknowledged that he and others had set apart last Tuesday night as the time to burn all the stores and dwellings, commit all other depredations they could, and then take horses, in case they could not whip out the white men, and fly for the Indian nation. One Taylor, who has been loafing about here for the past sixteen months, was partially implicated as a confederate. He has made the negro his only companion and associate during the whole time he has been here. But as several negroes were implicated and the prospects good Taylor and two negro men to hang, a “self-constituted” committee of six (the owners of said slaves) held a second investigation and the negroes being permitted to talk together the result was contradiction and confusion, and the whole posse were let off! But this has not satisfied the citizens, and yesterday we organized a regular vigilance committee, to exist as long as any fears of burning are entertained. Mr. Taylor will get his traveling card to-day, or be hung; and if the negroes suspected are not taken from our midst, they will be dealt with according to justice.
The 13th inst., an attempt to burn Indianola is said to have been discovered in time to prevent serious loss.
A suspicious looking young man, a loafing stranger, named Edward King, who was seen about the premises a few moments before, was arrested and given to understand that a change of locality might be better for his health. He went to New Orleans on the first steamer. The citizens of Indianola have since formed a vigilance committee.