Shelby County, Missouri - Chapter 5, 1911

Chapter 5

Heterogeneous - Election of 1852 - Political, Campaign of 1856 - Presidential Election, 1856 - The "Know Nothings" - Election of 1858 - Sla\t;ry Days - 1860 Presidential Campaign - The Situation in 1860 - Stirring Times After the Election - Incendiary Talk.

The Shelbyville Spectator, the first newspaper of the county, was established at Shelbyville in the spring of 1853. F. M. Daulton was its first editor and proprietor, later associating with him James Wolff. The office was located near the northwest corner of the north side of public square and the building burned to the ground about a year later.

"The winter of 1856-57 was the hardest winter I ever experienced. Early in Octol)er there fell a great deal of rain, after which it turned cold and the ground froze hard; another rain fell and another freeze followed. Such was the weather during the entire winter. Sometimes the mud was so deep that the cattle could find no place dry enough to lie down on, and there was no spot in the field to place feed for the stock, and consequently quantities of feed was wasted. The feed being expended early, the stock fared badly, especially as the grass was late in coming up the following spring, not making its appearance until about the 25th of May. Many cattle died from exposure and want of provender.

milch cows, as that state was being rajiidly settled, and during the early part of the spring mentioned some men bought up a drove of cows, destined for the Iowa market, but owing to the backwardness of the season, they did not start until about the 10th of June, when, finding insufficient grass to maintain their herd, they were forced to stop at Salt river and remain in the bottoms, waiting for the grass to grow. They finally reached their destination in Iowa, where they realized a good price for their cattle, but having to buy feed for two months longer than they expected, the expenses took up all the profits and the speculation did not prove a successful one.

In January, 1855, snow fell to the depth of twelve inches, followed by a high wind, which kept the snow moving for eleven days, so that breaking or making of roads was a thing impossible. The road that was tracked down during the day was so filled at night that not a trace could be found the next day. On the ])rairies the strong northwester carried the snow skimming along and deposited it in great heaps and furbelows on the soutlienst territory, while the wheat in great fields was left ex])0sed to the frigid weather which followed and left it a des- olate field. In places the "beautiful" was piled up over fences and people in sleighs and sleds could take the shortest cut to their destination.

May 12, 1855, there was a heavy frost, killing all the fruit, and what little wheat had withstood the winter was in heading and the frost killed the greatest part of it.

Records show that in the summer of 1855 (and records differ on the date, some claim 1857) there was considerable agitation on the road subject, wanting a new road to Shelbiua. A petition was presented to the county clerk, praying the court to change the state road from Shelbyville to Paris, its then location, and cause a new road to be made, running from Shelbyville to Walkersville, thence to Shelbiua. The court appointed three commissioners and instructed them to make a study of both roads and report statistics. After deliberation, the committee reported in favor of the established route. The friends of the new road were dissatisfied and a second consideration was given the project. A second committee, all new members, was appointed, and the report was the same as the first. Again the Walkersville delegation succeeded in a new hearing before the court, a new committee was appointed and the report remained unclianged. Then matters were righted by the establishment of a county road crossing Salt river at Walkersville, while the old state road, established by the 1836 legislature, running from Paris to the mouth of the Des Moines river, was left

In July, 1855, the contract was let for the building of the offices of clerks of the county and circuit courts, attached to the court house. J. M. Ennis was made commissioner. The contract was let, satisfactoril}^ complied with, and in 1858 a cupola was built at a cost of $.'525. S. P. Eagle, of Shelbyville, was its builder.

In the spring of 1856 there were extraordinary floods in the county, the water swelling to unusual heights. Salt river and North river were at their maximum heights, though some lay claims North river never exceeded her 181:4 limit.

During the troublous times in Kansas (1854-58) regarding whether it should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, a handful of our men went out under the auspices of the pro-slavery party of Missouri to help make Kansas a slave state. Not more than a dozen went and only to soon return. Thej^ were there long enough to vote, which was their sole purpose in going.

In 1859 the Pike's Peak excitement carried off a number of our citizens, but for only a short stay. From Shelbyville there went forth to Congress M. H. Marmaduke, George Gillaspy, Daniel Brant, Jenkins Bethards and a free colored man by the name of "Jim" Givens.

The party started for Denver, but meeting hundreds who had been there and found only fairy tales had been told, they turned back at Cottonwood, Kansas, and returned to Home, Sweet Home.

309 '^02 "^t his death, in 1858, there was general sorrow, and though during his polit- This was the last year that the Whig i^^i career some men had fought him party, as a party, put forth a Presiden- ]^^^,^ j^^^j i^^g^ ijj ]^ig fie^th they reversal ticket. enced his name as a great man.

didates m this district, Hon. .James J. A most intensely exciting political con- Lindley, Whig, Know Nothing, &c., and test was that of this year, especially in Hon. James S. Green, regular Demo- Missouri. Not only was it a Presiden- crat, of Lewis county. The Germans of tial year, but a gubernatorial year, and Bethel township voted solid for Benton, besides there were congressmen and The result follows:

Native American or "Know Nothing," McAfee, 382; G. H. Edwards. 450. Sherheaded by Millard Fillmore, of New iff - J. ]\r. Ennis, 447; E. L. Holliday.

Buchanan and Breckeuridge, and the nominees of the Native American or "Know Notliing" party, Filhuore and Donelson. The tight was an aggressive one. Enthusiastic meetings were held and a large vote was polled. The Native American or "Know Nothing" partj', since it has become extinct, deserves special mention, as it once had a strong grip on this county.

It was organized sometime in the decade of 1830, but remained in an embryonic stage for years, or until 1853, the year the Whig party went overboard, the "Know Notliings" embi'aced this opportunity and forged their way to the fore ranks. In 185-1: the first lodge was organized in this county, but in 1856 they were quite umuerous. The party was an eccentric one, a secret, political order, its members oathbound, involving in the order its passwords, signs, grijjs, signals and salutes - all the paraphernalia of the secret order. They worked secretly to accomplish all that they publicly professed. It carried in its membership chiefly ex-Whigs, although it also made some inroads on the Democratic party. Its chief cornerstone or plank in its platform was that "Americans must rule America" or that none but native born Amei'icans and non-Catliolics can hold office and favored a radical change in the naturalization laws. It is said that the hailing salutation of the order was "Have you seen Sam!" If answered by the inquiry "Sam who?" the response came "Uncle Sam." Such a boost did the party have that they carried many counties and districts. The 1856 platform of the "Missouri Know Nothings" was:

2. A full recognition of the rights of the several states, as expressed and reserved in the Constitution, and a. careful avoidance by the general government of all interference with their rights by the legislative or executive action.

3. Obedience to the Constitution of these United States as the supreme law of the land, sacredly obligatory in all its parts and members - a strict construction thereof and steadfast resistance to the spirit of innovation of its principles - avowing that in all doubtful or disputed points it may only be legally ascertained and expounded by the judicial powers of the United States.

4. Tliat no person should be selected for political station, whether native or foreign born, who recognizes any allegiance or obligation to any foreign prince, potentate or power, or who refuses to recognize the federal or state Constitutions (each within its sphere) as paramount to all other laws or rules of political action.

5. Americans must rule America : and to this end, native born citizens should be selected for all state and federal offices in preference to naturalized citizens.

6. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued residence of twenty-one years an indispensable requisite for citizenship, and excluding all paupers and persons convicted of crime from landing on our shores; but no interference witli the vested rights of foreigners.

8. An enforcement of the principle that no state or territory can admit others than native-born citizens to the rights of suffrage, or of holding political office, unless such persons have been naturalized according to the laws of the United States.

9. That congress possesses no power under the Constitution to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the states where it does or may exist, or to exclude any state from admission into the union because its Constitution does or does not recognize the institution of slavery as a part of its social system and (expressly pretermitting any expression of oi)inion upon the ])ower of congress to establish or prohibt slavery in any territory), it is the sense of this meeting that congress ought not to legislate upon the suliject of slavery within the territories of the United States ; and that any interference by congress with slavery as it exists in the District of Columbia, would be a violation of the spirit and intention of the compact by which the state of ceded the district to the United States, and a breach of the natural faith.

10. That we will abide by and maintain the existing laws on the subject of slavery as a final and conclusive settlement of the subject in spirit and in substance, believing this course to be the best guarantee of future ]3eace and fraternal amity.

A full vote swelled the ticket in each party and election returns showed the "Know Nothings" in the majority in this county. The returns were: Filmore ("Know Nothing"), 432; Buchanan (Dem.), 37.3. The leading "Know Nothings" in the county were James Gooch, John Dunn, Leonard Dobbin, John S. Duncan, George Gaines, James Foley, Dr. J. Bell, Henry W. Sheetz, Joseph M. Irwin, Thomas 0. Eskridge and others. Prominent among the Democrats were Alex ^IcMurtry, AVilliam E. Strachan, J. M. Ennis, John McAfee, "W. J. Holliday, John F. Benjamin, John Dickerson, Perry B. Moore, Lewis Jacobs, Henry Louthan and J. B. Marmaduke.

Election Of 1858

The August election of 1858 attracted little attention in Shelby county. The state Democratic ticket and John B, Clark for congress had no opposition here, neither had Democrat J. M. Ennis for sheriff. There was some contest, however, for the legislature. The Democratic candidate was William Kichmond Strachan, who four years after became notorious throughout northeast Missouri as General McNeil's provost marshal. The Democrats swept everything and Strachan was elected by a large majority over the Whig candidate. Singleton, the Whigs losing much ground in this county as well as territory throughout the entire state.

Slavery Days

In order to perpetuate the history of the past for the coming generations, some things are dwelt upon in these pages that the future may come in touch, actually know and feel just what the life of their forefathers was of other days. Children are educated in the day schools, but they too often are taught the foreign incidents of life. It is all in an outside world and is not brought within our own lionie laud, coimtry and county. "What child does uot kuow that slavery actually existed in other days, but how many men, women or children know the history of slavery in our own county, and the history of slavery in our own county is an integral part of the history of slavery as it existed.

In the early part of the year 1860, there were 724 slaves in Shelby county, which was the maximum number ever in the county at any one time. The majority of the slaves were in the south part of the county and were employed in agricultural pursuits. It was transplanted here from ^"irginia and Kentucky, from whence came so many of our first settlers. They owned the slaves there and when they moved westward, to a new country, they knew they would have need of them and, as a rule, the slaves wanted to come along with ' ' Massa. ' ' Few were ever brought into this county and sold on speculation, as there was no profit in the business, but many were taken into the far South and they sold there for a good profit, and were trafficked in large numbers. Under some of the loose moral workings of the system of the slave negro the race increased rapidly, some of the slave girls becoming mothers at fourteen years of age. The slave owners worked the slave system for profit, not for social power and supremacy alone. The slave holder then planned his slave holdings as we plan any speculation of the present day to the best possible advantage of gain. They were provided with comfortable cabins (which were cheap in that day), with coarse but comfortable clothing (the kind that would preserve health was, of course, economy), with substantial food and medical attention was promptly administered when they were sick, but it was not always humanity nor a big heart which prompted this attention, though oftentimes it was, but in lack of kindness, selfinterest ijrompted the act. As a rule, the records of the county bears witness that as a rule the masters were kind, considerate and loyal to their holdings. Slaves were personal property and rated in a man's estate as horses and other personal possessions. To be sure, they were considered not in part with such possession, yet nevertheless they rated according to their power of increase. There was no avoiding the issue. A man had a right to the fruit of his orchard, and it justly followed the owner of a female slave had a right to the offspring of his property. In some states, as Louisiana, slaves were real estate, but in Missouri they became chattels. Little or no attention was given during slavery days to the education of the slaves, but their religious teachings were not neglected, and they were encouraged to have prayer meetings and to institute and conduct revivals, and especially were they drilled to a finish on the Pauline precept, "Servants, obey your masters," as one of the foremost principles and teachings of Holy Writ.

In regard to the domestic relations of slaves, convenience, in a degree, was the system adopted and the regulations of that day would wholly shock jDropriety of today. Marriages were not exploits to be recorded. Indeed, most often, there was no ceremony at all, but they just "flocked together." Sometimes the husband belonged to one master and the wife to another, but in most cases the family tie was imitated and propriety

They not only did not have to provide for themselves, hut they did not have to provide for their children. That was the master's business and duty. And the husbaud was usually satisfied with one wife - one at a time at any rate. The laxity in morals in regard to the connubial tie which existed in the South was not practiced here. Tales and tales have been told and repeated by both sides of the slaverj' question, tales which are too depraved and licentious to bear auy but evil fruit - which have no bearing on the history of Shelby county, and we pass them up, to only remark that while some looseness of morals may have existed, yet, as a whole, the history of our county was a clean one along that line, aud often, no doubt, could the fathers of some of the mulattoes be known, they would have been traced to depraved, disreputable white men who were not slave holders.

It became quite a common practice for a slave owner to hire out his slaves to those who had no slaves, and a good slave will l)ring in to his master $250 per annum and his keep. It was made an indictable ofl'ense for a master to ]iermit a slave to hire his own time, aud it was also an offense to deal in them unless you had a permit.

hire belongs to me. You can have her a year for seventy dollars by clothing her as well as she gets at home - two winter dresses, one summer dress, two shifts, one blanket, two pair shoes and stockings, and for the child two winter dresses, two summer dresses and two shifts. You'll have to lose the time lost in sickness by the woman, and I'll pay the doctor bills. You'll have to send for and return her when her time is out.

Chaeles Leip

As we have stated, as a rule, the relation of the slave holder to his slaves was a peaceable one. As we have unkind and harsh fathers and mothers, so we had masters more or less cruel, but as a rule the slave owners were both reasonable and just.

In every municipal townshi]) there were ])atrols appointed by the county coui't, whose duty it was to patrol their respective townships a certain number of times every month and "keep tab" on the movements and aml)itions of the slaves.

There was ever creeping forth that ambition for freedom, whose designs had to be nii^iied in the bud. In sultordinate ones they had to be quelled, and loahng, prowling and quarreling had to be sup- ))ressed and broken up. To prevent these disorders was the business of the ])atrols. They were organized under their leaders and captains, and it was their duty to make their rounds at unexpected times and as suddenly as in his ]iower lieth. No slave was allowed off the premises of his master after 9

And the negroes had a pleasant lot, and perchance many of them were better off temporally and physically than today ; but who is there that does not prize freedom above temporal blessings ! Then they had their social pleasures, their dances, their frolics, and various assemblages.

(^orn-huskings were a diversion at which many of them gathered and laughed and chatted and husked and threw corn at each other. Then there originated a custom, after the huskingbee, to hoist the master to the shoulders of the men and carry him about the premises, singing songs improvised for the great occasion.

In the Civil war there were about seventy-five enlisted colored men from this county. The great part of them enlisted in the 2d Missouri and 1st Iowa "African Descent."

In 18G5, when the slaves were freed, many of them were anxious for a taste of liberty, and left their mistress and master and "set up" for themselves. Many of them had a distaste for country life and made a "bee line" for Hannibal, Palmyra and Macon.

Others left the state, going where antislavery people lived, expecting to receive therefrom much substantial sympathy and assistance, but few ever realized their fond ambitions. ]\[any of them got into their "noggin" that when the country freed them it would make them a donation, - and they are still looking for their "forty acres and a mule."

The Civil war was a death blow to slavery. In 1862-63 hundreds of slaves left their masters. No one can imagine the change that the tui-n of the wheel wrought. Even the slaves of the Unionists ran away. When by legislative enactment and the adoption of the thirteenth amendment the state set all slaves free, there was a great deal of discontent. Men vowed they would not rent the colored people a foot of ground nor lift their hand to aid them; but time has dealt kindly with us, obliterating all that feeling, and now very few would restore slavery to our country if they had that power. In 1860 the poimlation read : 6,565 ; slaves, 724 ; free colored. 1 2 ; grand total, 7,301.

The 1860 presidential campaign was one that will ever be kept fresh in the minds of oncoming generations, because, for its remarkable surroundings and cliaracteristics, its history will ever be per]ietuated and kept before the minds of the people. Not only was its character affected by preceding events, but it was the pivot on which swung succeeding history. Among the events which preceded the election and gave color to the results, were the inflammatoiy speeches of great leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in both the North and the South ; the enactment in the various northern states of the "personal liberty bills," which rendered inoiierative in those states the fugitive slave law; exciting and printed debates in congress over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; also the Kansas- Nebraska controversy, the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, Ya., in the fall

The coimtry was up in arms with excitement, and right in the midst of the enthusiasm on came the presidential cam^jaign, which added fire to the flames already aglow. Everywhere the slavery question was the all-absorbing topic. The populace was wrought into a frenzy. The Republican party, which as yet had not received a single vote in Shelby county, had carried by a large majority the North states in the 1856 canvass and since that time added new strength to its ranks from year to year, and as there was strife in the Democratic ranks, encouraged by the gains they had continually made, they fought like tigers to win their tickets. Enthusiasm had struck both parties, but the Democratic party could not unite its forces, and at the Democratic convention at Charleston, S. C, on April 2.3, after a stormy and discordant session lasting several days, the ranks remained as they were at the beginning, a divide that could not be bridged, and two sets of candidates were nominated. Stephen A. Douglas and Herchel B. Johnson were the names for president and vice president of the regulars, and John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane by the southern or states' rights division of the party.

The "Constitutional Union" party was one composed of old Whigs, Know Nothings and conservatives from different parties. It nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of :Massachusetts, on the following brief but comprehensive platform: "The Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws."

front with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, declaring principally in their platform that each state had the absolute rigiit to control and manage its own domestic institutions, denying that the constitution, of its own force, carried slavery into the territories whose normal condition was said to be that of freedom. Summarized, their platform declared hostility to the extension of slavery, but non-interference where it did not exist.

Missouri's situation was indeed a peculiar one. She was the only neighboring slave state bordering on the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and she was deeply concerned, from a selfish if not a sentimental motive. She was both ! Her people or their ancestors came largely from Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, primitive slave-holding states, and many owned slaves or were otherwise interested in the preservation of an institution against which the Reiniblican party had dealt a blow. From a sentimental view it was thought to be unmanly or cowardly to yield to the coercion or dictates of tlie northern abolitionists.

The struggle was a memorable one. Politics were stirring. Each side fought for added strength. The canvass in the state was a spirited one. The division in the Democratic party was manifest in Missouri. The state convention nominated Claiborne F. Jackson, of Saline county, for governor. The Bell and Everett party first nominated Robert Wilson, of Andrew, and on his withdrawal, Hon. S. Orr, of Green county. Then ])oliti('ians commenced to sound Afr. Jackson as to his personal views on the ])rinci)inl rjuostion over which the states were contending, and, last bnt not least, which of the Democratic nominees did he favor. For a period of time the wily politician succeeded in eluding their strategic efforts, bnt at last thej' cornered him in snch a manner that he came and fairly and squarely announced himself for Douglas because he believed him to be a regularly and fairly chosen nominee of the party, but also announced himself as in utmost sympathy with some of the Breckenridge ^^rinciples, which called forth again much criticism and dissension ; and soon thereafter the Breckenridge men called a state convention and nominated Hancock Jackson, of Howard, for governor, and Monroe M. Parsons, of Cole, for lieutenantgovernor.

Encouraged by the widening gulf in the Democratic party, the Bell and Everett party had high hopes of electing their gubernatorial candidate at the August election and then carrying the state for Bell the following November.

To this end they used all possible means of widening the breach in the Democratic party to further the success of the cause they promulgated ; but their tactics were foreseen by the enemy and they made it uji to disagree on the presidential nominee but to support, as a whole, C. F. Jackson and Thomas C. Eeynolds at the August election, and the outcome was their election by 10,000 majority, C. F. Jackson (Douglas Democrat), 74,44G; Sample Orr (Bell and Everett), 64,583; Hancock Jackson (Breckenridge Democrat), 11,41."); J. B. (Jardenhire (Repul)lican), 6,135.

Nothing daunted by their defeat in August, the Bell and Everett contingent of Missouri kept up their fight for their l)residential nominee, and only fell short a few hundred votes of electing their man in the November election. The vote as recorded was;

Records say that many Democrats cast their lot for Bell as the only candidate who could defeat Lincoln. In the October elections the Republicans had carried Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Lincoln's election looked almost inevitable. Fusion tickets against the Republicans had been formed in New York, New Jersey and other eastern states, and it was predicted the Tennessee statesman might be elected after all.

The result for president in Shelby county stood: Bell, 702; Douglas, 476; Breckenridge, 293 ; Lincoln, 90. Bell received almost the Douglas and Breckenridge vote combined. The Republicans restored to Lincoln all the votes but one that had been cast to Gardenhire; and the Rejiublicans cannot yet compute the loss of that vote, so systematically were they organized. Some jocosely say "ho died" and some contend "it died," while others contend that the official record of 1860 was surely erroneous, contending that ninety Lincoln votes were not to be found in the county of Shelby in 1860.

The Situation In 1860

The troubles in Kansas and the debates in congress on the subject of slavery had given force to the formation of a new party wholly devoted to the work of opposing the extension of slavery. It took in time the name Republican. In 1856 its candidate for the presidency was John C. Fremont, a son-in-law of Thomas H. Benton. He received 114 of the 296 electoral votes; hence the new party had great hopes of success as the camijaign of 1860 came on. Public feeling was hysterical. The whole country was aflame with sectional animosities. The agitation for abolition had stirred the American people as nothing had ever done in the past. A mass of peoi)le in the northern states were determined to destroy slavery at any cost. Many southerners felt that the only way to preserve their own peace and property was to quietly withdraw from the Union.

Others said to remain in the Union and settle their difficulties there. It does seem strange now that a civilized people, who had established and for seventy years lived under a republic of popular sovereigiity, could possibly have desired a perpetuation of slavery. But there were no meliorating circumstances. Slavery had formerly existed in all the colonies. When it became unprofitable in the North the slaves were sold to the soutlicrners, with whom it was profitable. Many slave owners had inherited tliem from their fathers, and slaves were valuable projjerty. The average man is slow to give up valuable property without resistance, and it was a problem to know what to do with them if tliey were freed. Many jjersons feared the consequence if millions of ignorant people should be turned loose, penniless, among their former masters.

Beyond a doubt, slavery had been a benefit to the slaves themselves. They were taken from the savages and barbarians of Africa, and while in slavery they had received many benefits from the habits of civilization. They had learned how to work, and tliat exalted them and made them less dangerous freemen. It had prepared them to enjoy their liberty when it should come, - a desire which was becoming a part of their being.

Stieking Times .4Fter The Election

As may have been expected by the returns from Shelby county, when the news of the election of Lincoln and Hamlin were received, dissatisfaction was evident on every hand; but after the first sting was passed they settled down to abide the consequences and await the result. A number of citizens, however, avowed themselves unconditional Union men, as they had every year since 1850, as in convention they met from time to time, and these were some who voted for Bell, men wlio had voted for Douglas, and even some of Breckenridge's constituency were found among the Unionists. However, upon the secession of South Carolina and some other southern states, many changed their view.

Conservative men were trembling for the republic. There were the North and the South radicals that no terms of peace would appease. They did everything within their power to rend the commonwealth in twain. The northern fanatics did not want to live in a country where one-half depended on the rearing of children for the slave market, for prosperity; the constitution that permitted slavery was classified as an instrument of infamy, and the flag was denounced as an infamous lie.

At the same time, the southern radicals were as pronounced in their vindictive accusations, claiming that they had been and were about to be trampled on by the North, and therefore they were seceders and believed in breaking up a government which they could not control. The majority, however, of this county, believed that the good of ]\Iissouri was identical with the good of other slave-holding states, but they were conservative enough to want to await the developments of the new administration before withdrawing the state from the Union. "Let us await the movements of the administration," was heard on every side; yet a goodly minority thought they could foresee the result and were in favor of secession at once.

At Circuit court on the fourth Monday in November, 1860, the slaves belonging to the estate of George Gaines, deceased, were sold at the court house door, and during the sale there was a little Dutchman who was about half drunk and who swore it was not right to sell negroes. Although he talked very broken, the bystanders understood enough to think he was saying something aliout the divine institution of slavery; and he was arrested, taken before a justice of the ]ieace, and had to give bond for his appearance at the next court, or go to jail to await the action of the next grand jury at the next term of Circuit court.

His was an indictable offense under the statutes of Missouri, which said that if any person should say anything in the hearing of a negro calculated to make him rebellious or insubordinate, such person, on conviction, should be sent to the penitentiary for a term of not less than five years. The Dutchman gave bond for his appearance, but did not appear. If he had he would have stood a good chance for the penitentiary, for the negroes were not allowed to swear whether they heard certain remarks or not, and men were convicted on the testimony of prosecuting witnesses who swore they "believed the negroes heard," etc. This was the way such trials were generally managed.