[Marshall] Texas Republican, November 10, 1860
Now that the election is over, doubtless the vast majority of our people can regard dispassionately the course pursued by the Opposition party and Governor of Texas, relative to the recent incendiary movements in this State. They have contended through the press, in their public speeches, and by every means through which the public mind could be reached, that the reports of an abolition raid in Texas were without foundation; that there was not a particle of proof to justify such a belief, and that these reports were originated and circulated for no other design than to make political capital for Breckinridge. Gen. Houston in his Austin speech, which was republished in the Flag, to the surprise of every right-thinking, intelligent man in the State, made the same statement, denying that there had been, at any time, cause for alarm. Judge Evans, we learn from our exchanges, occupied similar ground, assuming the position that the numerous fires which have occurred in Texas were the result of accident, and out of these causalities, the Breckinridge party set afloat thousands of unfounded rumors calculated and designed to influence the public mind, with a view to manufacture political capital.
What are the facts? The fires alluded to commenced in July last, and, in the short period of one month, property to the amount of over a million of dollars, was destroyed, including two of the largest and most flourishing towns in Eastern Texas. Eleven fires occurred in Northern Texas in one week, involving a loss of upwards of seven hundred thousand dollars. There was scarcely a county in the State that claimed an immunity from these outrages. Farm houses, gins, mills, and stores were destroyed in almost every county. Every newspaper that reached us during those exciting times, contained from one to a half dozen accounts of these burnings.
The people became alarmed, and, as we contend, there was just reason for the liveliest apprehensions. Vigilance committees were formed in every neighborhood. No one ever thought then of denying that it was necessary to adopt measures for our safety. Men met without distinction of party. That there should have been a great deal of excitement, that many reports should have been circulated having no foundation and that acts of unjustifiable violence should have taken place, were perfectly natural. Such results have followed similar excitements everywhere else, and why should Texas prove different from the rest of the world?
But if the number, frequency, and the accounts given of these fires were insufficient to dispel the idea that they were [illegible line] elicited by committees appointed to examine into the facts, is sufficient to show that that they were caused by incendiaries. We are free to admit that testimony elicited by violence or fright is not to be depended on, but, in this case, it is a noted fact, that negroes, over a hundred miles apart, in a number of counties, all concurred in the general outlines of this abolition movement. In addition to this, we have the Bailey letter which the notorious abolitionist Buley who was hung near Fort Worth, acknowledged to be a genuine document. At the time that letter was published in our columns, it was regarded as a document that had been manufactured. Now that it is known to have been written by an active abolitionist, who was in Texas, it may not be uninteresting to give it a more searching examination. It here follows:
Denton Creek, Tex., July 3d 1860.
Dear Sir—A painful abscess on my right thumb is my apology for not writing to you from Anderson. Our glorious cause is progressing finely as far south as Brenham. There I parted with Brother Wampler; he went still further south; he will do good wherever he goes. I traveled up through the frontier counties, (a part of the time under a fictitious name.) I found many friends who had been initiated and understood the mystic red. I met with a good number of friends near Georgetown. We held a consultation and were unanimously of opinion that we should be cautious of our new associates—most of them are desperate characters and may betray us, as there are some slaveholders among them, and value the poor negro much higher than horses. The only good they will do us will be to destroy towns, mills, &c., which is our only hope in Texas at present. If we can break Southern merchants and millers, and have their places filled with honest Republicans, Texas will be an easy prey if we only do our duty. All we want, for the time, is the control of trade. Trade, assisting by preaching and teaching, will soon control public opinion. (Public opinion is mighty and will prevail.) Lincoln will be elected; we will then have the Indian Nation—cost what it will; Squatter Sovereignty will prevail there as it has in Kansas. That accomplished, we have but one more step to take, one more struggle to make, and that is free Texas. We will then have a connected link from the Lakes to the Gulf. Slavery will then be surrounded by land and water, and soon sting itself to death.
I repeat, Texas we must have, and our only chance is to break up the present inhabitants in whatever way we can. It must be done. Some of us will most assuredly fall in accomplishing our object, but our Heavenly Father will reward us for assisting him in blotting out the greatest curse on earth. It would be impossible for any of us to do an act that is as blasphemous in the sight of God, as holding slaves. We must have frequent consultations with our colored friends— let your meetings be in the night—impress upon their clouded intellects the blessings of freedom; induce as many to leave as you can. Our arrangements for their accommodation to go North are better than they have been but not as good as we would like. We need agents, both local and traveling. I will send out traveling agents when I get home. You must appoint a local agent in every neighborhood in your District. I will recommend a few that I think will do to rely upon, viz.: Bros. Leak, Jones, Evans, McDunley, Victory, Cole, Nugent, Shaw, White, Guilford, Ashley, Drake, Meek, Shultz, and Newman. Brother Leak, the bearer of this will take a circuitous route, and see as many of our colored friends as he can. It is also recommended that a different match be used about towns, &c. Our friends sent a very inferior article, they emit too much smoke, and don’t contain enough camphene. They are calculated to get our friends hurt. I will send a supply when I get home. I will have to reprove you and your co-workers for your negligence in sending funds for our agents. But few have been compensated for their trouble. Our faithful correspondent and industrious agent, Brother Webber, has received but a trifle, not as much as an apprentice’s wages, neither has Brothers Willett, Mangum and others.
You must call upon our colored friends for more money, they must not expect us to do all. They certainly will give every cent if they knew how soon their shackles will be broken. My hand is very painful, and I will close. Yours truly,
Wm. H. Bailey.
N.B.—Brother Leake will give you what few numbers of Impending Crisis we have; also, Brother Sumner’s speech and Brother Beecher’s letters, &c. Farewell.
From the foregoing it will be seen that there was, and doubtless is yet, a secret abolition organization extending throughout our State, denominated the “Mystic Red,” whose purpose is to drive out the present population of Texas, and supply their places with abolition fanatics. Read this letter again carefully; and consider its import in connection with the alarming events that immediately followed it.
But we are not left to this letter alone. In “Helper’s Impending Crisis,” page 59, will be found the following prediction:
“Ere long, mark our words–there will ascend from Texas a huzza for freedom and for equal rights, that will utterly confound the friends of despotism, and set at defiance the authority of usurpers, and carry consternation to the heart of every slavery propagandist.”
The San Antonio Ledger pithily and forcibly remarks. “That it has been verified, in burning and yet bloody characters, let the wail of those rendered childless and homeless by the conflagrations in Eastern Texas tell!”
Now, in the face of these facts, is it not to be lamented that there should be a party in our own State, so far misled by party spirit, as to contend that there was no reasonable cause for alarm, and that exaggerated reports were originated for the purpose of creating political capital? Is it not to be deplored, that the Governor of the State, instead of taking [illegible line] citizens, should have lent himself to those who are defaming the character of our people? The Northern abolition press, deriving their evidence from the statements of the opposition in Texas, backed by the speeches of the Governor of the State, represented us as a band of outlaws and assassins, thoroughly demoralized and in a state of anarchy, and that our social condition was even far worse than that of unhappy Mexico. These accounts have reached Europe, and there we are held up in colors that ought to make our defamers at home blush for shame. The London Times of Sept. 21st thus speaks of Texas:
“In the pending decennial Census of the United States, Texas is expected to shine, both as regards increase of population and productive capacity. In short, it is predicted that before many years she is likely to stand as the Empire State of the South, as New York is that of the North. For some months past, however, a reign of terror has existed in the country, which at least reached a climax for which a parallel could scarcely be found in the history of the frantic orgies of the early French Revolution. The plea is a fear of insurrection among the slaves. Not a single piece of evidence has been produced to justify any such suspicion, and it is clear that the whole thing arises from the deadly feud between the South and the North, a desire to influence the approaching Presidential election, and also, as Texas is largely indebted to the North, to provide an excuse for the non-payment of liabilities. The State is now entirely at the command of a mob, who burn and destroy at pleasure in order to create a list of ‘incendiary’ acts by the negroes, and who forge ‘intercepted’ correspondence against any person whom they may desire to hang.
Numbers are thus executed every week, and it is plain that each man holds his life only at the will of an enemy who may choose to point to him as an abolitionist. Negroes and white men are tortured with astounding ferocity, and if, in their agony, they consent to charge any number of persons with having incited them to commit offences, these charges are entirely sufficient as a ground for the death of the inculpated parties. The public journals gloat over each instance of cowardly slaughter, and deal with the whole subject as a theme for humor. According to the records by the last mail ‘two white devils were publicly hanged in Anderson county, for having furnished the negroes with more than 100 bottles of strychnine to poison the wells—the ‘incontrovertible proof’ on the point consisting in allegations made by some of the colored people during ‘severe punishment.’ In Williamson county three white men and three negroes were hanged on similar pretences. In Upshur county a man named Morrison was hanged in the presence of 500 ‘citizens,’ for the crime, as it is stated, of having been ‘charged’ with inciting negroes to insurrection. In Cook county three white men were hanged, after having, in their desire for life, implicated 15 others, who will doubtless, in due time share the same fate. The San Antonio Ledger announces that a wandering mapseller who had lately visited that city ‘has been translated to another sphere of action, and that a negro boy accompanied him in his permanent suspension from earthly duties.’ The Galveston News, an old established journal of large circulation, mentions that a Mr. Lemon, ‘an abolitionist,’ who was under directions to leave the State, had been ‘prevented by a material impediment from obeying instructions.’ The editor adds, ‘We presume he climbed a tree and hurt himself in coming down.’ This, it must be observed, is but the record of a single week, and it may be presumed that not a tithe of the events of similar character that occur that find their way into print. The State Government does not make any pretence to check the will of the people, and the federal authorities have not the constitutional right, even if they had the inclination, to do so. In the neighboring States tendencies are exhibited, only in a less extensive form. We thus see that Mexico, although reduced to a pandemonium by its military brigands, may be held up almost as a model of civilization in contrast with the neighbors before whom she is destined to fall. The New York journals denounce with vigor the disgrace thus inflicted on the Union, but it is to be feared that every work they may write will but serve as a stimulus for new horrors in retaliation.”
Comment on the foregoing is unnecessary. Every unprejudiced man must see that the statements which authorized the rational belief that our people were in a demoralized and degraded condition, outraging all law, human and divine, was calculated to do us much more injury than a proper presentation of the facts. In the great struggle through which we have just passed, what effect were it likely to have upon Northern men to be told that in Texas their brethren were hung and lynched for no other crime than being born in a Northern State? Yet such were the statements of Northern Abolition journals, whose positions were sustained by the press and orators in Texas opposed to Breckinridge and Lane. They thus lent aid and comfort to the Republicans, who were enabled thereby to picture the demoralizing effects of slavery. Will our opposition friends, who have been misled by these acts of their leaders, now that the election is over, reflect upon them?