Answer. I think it is more so now. Question. What is the feeling of your old rebel population toward the United States Government? Answer. I cannot tell you that. I suppose there are some rebels in Georgia that do not particularly admire and love the United States Government; they may love the United States, but they do not love the proceedings of the Government and its laws and regulations. By Mr. BAYARD: Question. You spoke of a gentleman by the name of Waltermire, who lived below you; was he not an officer in the Union Army, a Union man who settled among you? Answer. Yes, sir. Question. Has he been prosperous? Answer. I suppose so. Question. He was in the Union Army during the war. Answer. I understood that he was a colonel in the Army. A good citizen would be treated as well there as in New York. Good men can come there with as much safety, in my opinion, as they can go to New York, or to any other State; that is, a good man, and a peaceable man. By Mr. SCOFIELD: Question. Do you not mean by "a peaceable man," a man that does not combat the opinions and prejudices and interests of the people, or of a large portion of the people? Answer. I mean this: That a man of enterprise and energy, a social, gentlemanly man of good habits, may come here, and, let his politics be what they may, would be treated as kindly and civilly as I would be, or you would be at home. I do not know, of course, your State, or your name; but I have no doubt he would be as safe in our town as he would be in your town. Question. And could express his political sentiments, if a republican, as freely as if he were a democrat? Answer. I think so. There is Mr. Sheibly, who lives among us. He has been a very obnoxious man, but I do not know of any violence exhibited toward him. Others have come in our midst, and introduced their money there, and seem to be satisfied; I do not know of any indignity of any kind offered to them; and I do not think any would be offered to any gentleman. [See page 624.] ROME, GEORGIA, October 27, 1871. DEAR SIR: According to promise, I inclose you the general presentments of the grand jury of Floyd County, at its January term, 1871, of which I was foreman, which submit in evidence entire, with my testimony, and more particular so from the sixth page to its close. Also, in answer to some direct interrogatories, whether or not persons of color had been arraigned and acquitted before our court, I submit the inclosed cases under the official signature of the clerk of court. As the inclosed presentment is a document of file in the clerk's office, at your convenience please return. Very respectfully, Hon. HORACE MAYNARD, W. M. SHROPSHIRE. Chairman Committee. We, the grand jury sworn for the first week of the January term of Floyd superior court, beg leave to make the following general presentments: Through appropriate committees, we have examined the books of the various county officers, and find that these officers have discharged their duties faithfully, kept their books neatly and systematically, so as to be able to give to any citizen easily and with dispatch information upon county matters. The manner of indexing and numbering, originated and adopted by Mr. Ross, clerk of superior court, in keeping his books, by which he can readily point out any business of interest to, the citizen, is truly commendable, and shows not only his industry but competency to discharge his several duties. The court-house we find to be in good condition generally, with the exception of some slight repairs needed upon the doors and windows, which we recommend to be done. The present jail is thought to be insufficient, both in extent and security, for a county of our present and increasing population; and we therefore recommend either that the old one be repaired, with additions thereto, or a new one built. As the ordinary's office, by placing under its jurisdiction many duties which formerly devolved on other departments, has become quite an important one, and as thereby the books of the office will necessarily increase in number and importance, we recommend the purchase of an iron safe, of sufficient capacity to hold the books, so that, in case of fire or other accident, they may be preserved. In the poor-house we find fifteen inmates, twelve white and three colored, most of whom are old, feeble, and infirm. We therefore recommend that they be furnished with coffee at least once a day, and flour and rice occasionally, as a change of diet and an addition to their comfort. While the buildings and premises are generally in good repair, we recommend the planting of fruit-trees, the paling in of one acre for a garden, the building of a shed-room to the overseer's house to serve for a kitchen, lofts to be put in the frame cabins, and also the purchase of a good team and two or three milchcows, for the use of the institution. The committee appointed to examine the treasurer's books report as follows: Balance on hand and receipts since last term— According to the statements of the treasurer, there is still due about seven thousand dollars ($7,000) on the taxes of 1870. We therefore congratulate the people of the county upon the healthy state of our finances, for, according to the showing of the treasurer, he will have sufficient funds to meet all just demands made upon him. The subject of public roads and bridges have been duly considered, and we regard it as one of great importance to the people. While the roads are reported as generally in good condition, they yet might all be improved to a considerable extent. If those subject to road duty were required to do even half the work required by law, our highways and thoroughfares would be in much better condition, and inure not only to the comfort and benefit of travelers and teamsters, but reflect honor upon our people. We therefore respectfully recommend to the authorities to require of road commissioners a more strict compliance with the law, so as to secure, if possible, a general improvement in this regard. We call special attention to the road from Cave Spring to the Polk County line, in the direction of Cedar Town, the one from Cave Spring to Haynie's Mill, and the one from Dr. Tilley's to Thomas's Mill, as being in bad order, and requiring prompt attention. The road from Rome to Van Vert, the Pope's Ferry road, and the Bell's Ferry road all need attention. Some places need to be widened, others repaired, so as to make them passable. There being no abutments to the bridge crossing the railroad, near Forestville, it is reported in a dangerous condition, subjecting life and property to hazard, and should receive immediate attention from the proper authorities. Other bridges in the county are also needing attention. To remedy these evils, in part at least, if not entirely, we suggest to the ordinary, in issuing road commissions, to accompany them with specific instructions to the commissioners requiring them to ride over their several roads, both before and after they are worked, and exercise more watchfulness in requiring their overseers to do a sufficient amount of work to put the roads in such order as to meet the demands of the law. There certainly has been here tofore too great laxity on the part of those whose duty it is to render this public service, and we therefore respectfully urge upon them all more strict attention to this subject. Having done with these special items, which the grand jury is always expected to examine and report upon, we beg leave to call attention to some matters of general interest to tax-payers and all-citizens. Our people seem naturally, some of them unconsciously, perhaps, to have glided into an extravagant use of the public money. They seem to have lost sight of the time-honored and well-established rule, that those having charge of public funds should exercise the same vigilance, economy, and discretion in its use as if it belonged to them individually. We venture to affirm that if public officers would exercise the same prudence and economy in the expenditure of public funds that they do in that of their families, at least half the money now used to support the government of the State as well as the several connties would be saved, and thus reduce the taxes one-half. The straightened circumstances of our people necessarily require the observance of this rule in the family, and we see no reason why it should not be in public affairs. As communities and nations are only families aggregated, the same sound discretion applies with equal force to both. We, therefore, most respectfully and earnestly call upon our people, and our public officers in particular, to revive the good old times of the past, before the war, when taxes were much lower, money more plentiful, and the country in a vastly more prosperous condition; and we invite a return to the old paths and the setting up of the old standards, by observing which greater prosperity and more happiness will be our reward. Another subject of greater and general importance, to which we beg leave to call attention, is strict obedience to the laws. While we mention with pride and pleasure the fact that there are but few violations of law and commissions of crime, considering the number of our population, and while peace, order, and quiet are generally prevalent in our midst, we feel it incumbent upon us as guardians of the public weal to notice some violations of law dangerous in their tendencies and hurtful to the public interests. We allude to secret, disguised parties of men, going about over the county at night for the supposed purpose of correcting existing evils in the community. As law was made in part for the punishment of offenders, and as every county has its officers sworn to execute the law, it follows, as a clear proposition, that these disguised bands are acting not only without lawful authority, but are actually offenders themselves against the laws of the land. This proposition we regard as not only clear, but incontrovertible. But we are sorry to say that in our judgment these parties do not propose to act under the law, but outside of and independent of it. They assume to take the law in their own hands and to punish those whom they may deem offenders without court or jury, without a hearing or trial, and to visit upon them such degree and kind of punishment as their bias, prejudices, or inclination may suggest. If we are correct in these statements, and we think we are, the natural tendencies and legitimate results of such organizations are dangerous and hurtful in the extreme. They are calculated to intimidate and frighten the ignorant, weak, and helpless, to disturb the peace and quiet of the community, to render uneasy and dissatisfied the laboring population, to drive the laboring class from the country to the towns, and thus unsettle and seriously injure the farming interest, besides increasing the chances of pauperism in our towns. Even supposing their intentions to be good, their secrecy and disguise open the way for wicked and malicious persons to band themselves together for purposes of theft, plunder, violence, and bloodshed, and thus the harm growing out of their organization outweighs the good they propose to accomplish. But such is the malice and revenge known to lurk in the human heart that when such occasions are offered, under circumstances so favorable to the gratification of the bad passions, the innocent and good are very liable to suffer. Therefore, when we consider the erroneous foundation upon which these organizations rest, their unauthorized, hasty, and ex parte proceedings, their pandering to all the evil passions of the human heart, the dangerous precedents they set up, and the untold evils of every kind which must finally result to the community, the family, the helpless women and children, to the labor of the country, and to every interest dear to us as a people, we feel it our duty as grand jurors to condemn in unqualified terms all such organizations, and urgently call upon all good citizens to discourage, discountenance, and frown down all such, and use their influence to banish them from among us. And we even go so far as to recommend any person or persons, if any there be in our county, who may belong to such secret bands to abandon them at once and throw their influence in favor of vindicating and enforcing the laws. In conclusion we beg leave to commend and indorse the conduct of Justice Perry in his courage, firmness, and promptness in issuing a warrant for the arrest of parties supposed to be guilty of an assault, with intent to murder, upon the person of an innocent negro, who was shot in Rome on Friday night, the 13th instant. His conduct on this occasion is worthy of honorable mention, and we take pleasure in giving to it our unqualified indorsement. In taking leave of his honor, Judge Harvey, we take pleasure in making mention of his courtesy to us as a body, and the firmness, ability, and impartiality with which he has presided at this term of the court. We also venture our thanks to the solicitor, Mr. Forsyth, for the faithful discharge of his duties and his kindness to the jury. In addition to our recommendations above, we recommend that the ordinary contract with some practical engineer to make a correct map of the county, defining the militia and district lines, marking out all roads, bridges, streams, and public places in said county, at a cost not exceeding five hundred dollars, and to have a sufficient number of maps made for sale as may be necessary. That the ordinary, with the approval of Judge Harvey, pay the jury two dollars per day for their services until ordered otherwise. That his honor pass an order for the publication of the foregoing in all the city papers, paying for the same fifteen dollars each. SIDNEY P. SMITH. NAPOLEON B. FORD. W. MONROE SHROPSHIRE, Foreman. ALFRED J. KING. WILLIAM W. MYLAM. E. MITCHELL JOHNSON. Question. The committee have summoned you, understanding that you were the attorney general of this State. We have had two witnesses before us, one a man by the name of Columbus Jeter, a colored man, and the other his wife, both of whom testified to a very great outrage having been committed upon them by certain parties in Douglas County, I think. We have summoned you in order that you might give your testimony upon the subject. Those witnesses said that they came here, and that you took an interest in their case and went with them before Judge Wright at Noonan, to have the parties examined and brought to justice. They further testified that the parties after examination were discharged. We have asked you to come here and tell us what you know about that case. Answer. I received an executive order to proceed to Noonan, Coweta County, adjoin ing Douglas County, to conduct the investigation of the matter before Judge Wright, who was the judge of the superior court of that circuit. He consented to constitute himself a court of inquiry in that case. The matter had been before him in Campbell County, another adjoining county, a few days before that, a week previous, I believe. He had continued the hearing of the matter to that day in the county of his own residence. The witnesses were brought there from the adjoining county; I had no witnesses subpoenaed on the part of the prosecution; I knew nothing of the case in fact, until the day before it was to be heard by Judge Wright; I took down there from this city Mr. Jeter and his wife, carried them with me on the train; I examined them; they were rather intelligent colored people, more so by far than the generality of them; the woman was a school-teacher, quite an intelligent colored woman; they testified with a considerable degree of clearness and positiveness, pointing out the parties in the court-room who were sitting about on the benches there, and insisting that they were the parties who had maltreated them on the occasion when they were so badly treated, and testifying also to the character of the treatment they had received. The man was very badly whipped, and I believe she was also whipped. He testified that in endeavoring to make his escape he was shot with a shot-gun, his own gun, I believe; I think he so testified. As well as I recollect, from the evidence, it was a party of disguised men; he thought they were persons living in that immediate vicinity, and that he knew them. He and his wife both testified in a way that impressed me with the belief that they did know them, and that those were the parties, or that they actually believed they were the parties. When I had introduced those two witnesses and closed, the defendants then introduced a number of witnesses, and an alibi was most effectually established in every case except one. Under the evidence I thought that Judge Wright could not do otherwise than discharge the parties, with the exception of that one. I thought that, under the evidence, one man ought to have been committed. The two colored persons who had been badly treated testified that the parties were in disguise; that it was in the night, and that their recognition of them was under such circumstances that they might have been mistaken in regard to them. When the other witnesses all proved an alibi so clearly and effectually, the judge in giving his opinion gave his reasons for discharging them. I thought that perhaps in a judicial point of view his action was correct, the evidence being such as it was. Question. You mean, assuming the testimony for the defense to be true, an alibi was clearly established in every case but one? Answer. Yes, sir. In that case I rather thought that the party should have been committed; but according to the evidence of the two colored persons, he was not one of the principal actors. Question. Was the judge of opinion that the colored man had injured himself by going up the chimney and trying to escape in that way? Answer. I believe the man testified that when the parties came in he attempted to conceal himself in the chimney. Question. Did the judge express the belief that that was the way he received the injury he complained of? Answer. I do not recollect that he expressed himself to that effect. Question. Do you know whether Jeter's person was examined to ascertain the effect of the injury upon him? Answer. I do not now recollect whether he was examined there in open court or not. Question. Was there any attempt made to deny the main fact of the injuries he and his wife had received? Answer. I do not think that there was any evidence before the court going to show that he or his wife had sworn falsely or anything of the kind. But the evidence went to show, as well as I recollect, that those parties were not the parties who had committed the offense. By Mr. BAYARD: Question. How many defendants were there? Answer. There were quite a number of them, six or eight, perhaps a dozen. Question. Was the identity of that number of men all sworn to by these two colored persons? Answer. Not so positively in all the cases, but they swore pretty positively as to several from their voices; I think that they said they recognized them by their voices and by their general appearance, and perhaps the mask of one of them dropped off. But, however, in that respect I may be confusing this with another case. Question. Was there a patient examination by Judge Wright? Answer. Well, I thought that Judge Wright was pretty patient. Answer. Yes, sir. |