[Marshall] Texas Republican, August 26, 1860
The two German Jew pedlars , noticed in our [illegible] undergoing an examination before the Vigilance Committee of our town have been disposed of. Friedman was turned loose several days ago, the Committee not finding anything against him. His partner, however, Rotenburg, has been under close examination for the past week. Several negroes implicated him as inciting them to insurrection. His case was finally submitted to a jury of fifty men selected from various parts of the county—men who were believed to be free from exciting prejudice and who would see coolly and dispassionately. After a patient hearing of the evidence which had been taken from the confessions of the negroes, the accused being allowed counsel, a vote was taken as to whether he would be hung. There were eighteen votes for hanging and thirty-two against it. The jury believed that the accused had been guilty of very improper conduct towards our negro population, but did not believe that the evidence was such as to warrant putting him to death. The sentence of the court was unanimous, however, that he should leave the county, within forty-eight hours, and the State within four days. He left the same afternoon, and we doubt much whether he will ever again be found peddling among a slave population. His family resides in New York. This is not exactly a safe location for Dutch peddlers just at this time.
We have been informed that a Yankee abolition school master was hung on Thursday last in Anderson county, within ten miles of the Neches river. He had been convicted of inciting the negroes to insurrection.—Rusk Enquirer.