To the Polls Ye Sons of Freedom!
The editorial below dealing with Murray County (Georgia) elections appeared in a Milledgeville paper in January 1837 – when the journalist creed was more commonly practiced. Ironic that the New Black Panthers, et al have adopted the same political terrorist tactic in recent elections:
“It is a matter of painful regret with us, at all times, to be called upon by a sense of duty as a faithful journalist, to expose the lawless and outrageous conduct of anyone however obscure the individual may be. Upon the present occasion we should consider ourselves highly culpable were we to withhold from a scrutinizing public the information we have recently received from the highest authority.
It has been reported to us, the Truth of which we have not the least doubt, that Colonel William N. Bishop, on the day previous to the recent election, collected his “friends” to Spring Place, and armed each man with a musket for the sole purpose of conducting the pending election in his own way. That on Sunday evening some fifteen or twenty country people, unarmed and unprotected – known, however, to be opposed to the Bishop party – came into town intending to remain until the election was over. Before they had procured shelter for the night, the Colonel, at the head of his company, charged upon them and informed them that they could not remain there, and at the same moment ordered his men to fire upon them, wounding four of them, one mortally. The Colonel and his right-hand man, that pink of purity and truth, George W. Wacaser, next attacked two gentlemen riding in a carriage, and with the butts of their muskets, in a most shocking manner, bruised and mangled their heads and bodies.
On the day of the election, several travelers were refused and actually prohibited from voting at that place, for no other reason than that the name of Colonel Alford was on their ballots. When the election was over, the returns from several other precincts of the county were excluded from the Spring Place election, and that one precinct alone, made out and certified to the executive department (Governor’s office), appeared that the “friends” of Bishop were elected justices of the inferior court. The law makes it the duty of the justices of the inferior court, the sheriff, and the clerk of the superior court to revise the jury box and draw a jury.
Murray County has been in existence for three years, but from the fact that Bishop has heretofore exercised entire control over the inferior court, a jury has never been drawn for that county; consequently, the superior court has never transacted any of its business except that of calling the appearance docket and disposing of bar motions. There are fifteen or twenty debt cases returnable to that court against Bishop, and as many indictments against him for high offenses against the laws of the state. Hence it is, if he can again elect a court subservient to his will, a jury will not be drawn for the next four years, or, if drawn, it will be a packed one.
We also understand that the opponents of Bishop, for several days after the election, were engaged in collecting a force, arms, etc. for the purpose of reducing that lawless bully to submission. How the affair has, or will terminate we are unable to conjecture; but trust, for the honor and reputation of our state, such a state of things will no longer be suffered to exist.” – Federal Union, January 24, 1837; Annals of America, Vol. 6. p. 296-7
