Choctaw County AlArchives News.....The Choctaw Insurrection September 13, 1882
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Kenneth Stacy klstacyfamily@aol.com January 2, 2007, 12:02 pm

The Huntsville Weekly Democrat September 13, 1882
The Choctaw Insurrection
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Facts vs. Assertions
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Choctaw Courier.
  A big effort is being made by Republicans all over the district to make 
political capital out of the hanging of Jack Turner; but it won’t do.  People 
at a distance can say what they please with impunity.  They can charge us with 
timidity, cruelty, imprudence or anything they choose.  The facts, however, 
will give the lie to all their utterances.
  We are not only willing to undergo an investigation, but demand one in order 
to be properly understood by the world.
  We do not ask to be believed on bare assertion, because we intend to prove 
the existence of the conspiracy beyond per-adventure.  Everything corroborates 
the statement made by the papers so providently found, and the next term of our 
Circuit Court will convince the most prejudiced that, we not only acted 
prudence but with extreme moderation.
  Since the hanging, numbers of negroes not mentioned in the papers have left 
the county.  Others are hiding out around their homes and can not be 
interviewed by white men.  What does this mean?  “The guilty fleeth when no man 
pursueth.”  The papers themselves are as distinctively and unmistakably negro 
as the kinky head and black skin, and no one having the slightest knowledge of 
negro character would doubt, after reading the papers that they were conceived 
and executed by the brain of a negro.  There are other circumstances connected 
with the general plan, such as the finding of powder, etc., in possession of 
negroes, which makes the papers credible beyond a doubt.  These facts, for 
prudential motives, are withheld until court.
  We expected to be maligned, and would have been disappointed had it been 
otherwise, but we would say to such papers as the Mobile Gazette and Columbus 
Index that they should not indulge in vilification when the opportunity to 
resent is not given.  Let them come to Choctaw, investigate the facts and see 
not only what proof we have, but how coolly and deliberately we acted, and then 
say what they have said about our conduct and we can assure them they will find 
a boot on the outside of a foot that they will adjust itself very quickly to 
some part of their person.  
  Conscious of right we fear neither lies, slanders, misconceptions nor 
courts.  We acted in good faith, with calmness and deliberation, and can set 
ourselves right before the forum of the world. What are the facts?  The papers 
were found Tuesday morning and they disclosed a hellish plot, which it was our 
duty to frustrate with the slightest possible injury to the plotters and their 
victims.  Wednesday a meeting was called, writs of arrest for the ring leaders 
were issued and executed on Thursday morning.  Saturday a mass meeting was 
held, the papers were read to the people, and by a vote of about 998 to 2 Jack 
Turner was pronounced guilty and worthy of death.  He was accordingly hung.  ON 
Monday last the other conspirators were taken before the County Court for 
trial, and demanded a jury trial, which was of course granted.  Their bonds wee 
fixed at $1,000 each and should they live to be tried the verdict of the jury 
will as certainly condemn them as the crowed did Jack Turner.  The evidence is 
too strong to admit of any other result.
  As to the charge of excitement and fear, methinks it falls to the ground as 
meaningless slander when the cool and quiet manner in which the plot was 
suppressed if taken into consideration.  To avoid all hasty or inconsiderated 
action, the bar rooms were closed and except about tow hours Thursday 
afternoon, no whiskey was sold in Butler until after the hanging.  Does this 
look like a frightened or excited action?  No people could behaved better, and 
no people ever showed more magnanimity under excessive aggravation than the 
people of Choctaw county throughout this entire trouble.  In our next issue we 
will show where the real responsibility for the contemplated massacre rests.

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