154   He (Clayton) sometime since declared several counties in this state under martial law. By what authority or where he obtained the power to do so, we are not informed. But his excuse is that a fair registration could not be had in those countries; that some parties had been deterred or hindered from registering and voting. As to this County the charge or excuse is utterly false. No one was hindered from registering or voting. Also he alledges that several citizens had been murdered on account of being Union men. That charge is false. It is true that five or six Freedmen and one white man has been killed within the past twelve months but not because they were Union men. The white man was murdered for his money, and the officers made an effort to arrest the murderer and bring him to justice but he got away and went to parts unknown. The freedmen were murdered by two or three low down, irresponsible parties, some living in this country. One of the 3 we know does not. But the crime was committed not in accordance with the wishes or by the advice or consent of the citizens.   The difficulties causing the murdering of the Freedmen were not because they were Union men but the parties that did the act say (as we are informed) they did it because the Freedmen had made their boast that they intended to have their land. We know that the Freedmen made up a barbecue in Magnolia, many of them saying they were going to make up a malitia company for the purpose of getting their land, or in other words forcing the whites to give them land.   On the evening of the barbecue, Aaron Hick was killed. The sheriff summoned some twenty or thirty of the citizens a few days afterwards, all of them obeying the summons except one, and went in search of the murders, but failed to find them. This was the first freedmen killed.           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next Page