APPENDIX.
PLANS DEVISED TO PRESERVE THE LIFE OF COPELAND.
THE LAST BOLD EFFORTS TO SAVE THE LIFE OF JAMES COPELAND
PROVED INEFFECTUAL; BUT THE SAME AGENTS SUCCEEDED
BY REFINED MOVEMENTS IN PROCURING THE
ACQUITTAL OF JOHN COPELAND.
The organization of the Wages and Copeland Clan embraced a diversified talent of an extraordinary grade in different departments of operations. It commanded some of the ablest ability belonging to the bar and the medical profession, with other agents who could be hired or engaged for temporary assistance. It requires more than a cursory contemplation to anything like a full comprehension of the lengths, and breadths, and depths of its vast theaters of operations. Many, perhaps, not admitted to the council and secret conclaves of the organization, could be engaged for a stipulated sum to perform important services in defense and protection of its active members, who might inwardly condemn its pernicious fields of operations against the best interests of society. Whether such conduct can stand the test of reason and argument it is for others, with the reader, to determine. The worse the case the richer the fees for the lawyer, and so of the medical profession. As frequently happens, the lawyer scruples at nothing to win a victory for his client. In some places this course is fashionable and not at all odious. As long as the attorney keeps his defense within legitimate bounds, and avails himself of every lawful opportunity for the advantage of his client, no well-balanced mind can be disposed to censure, because on the other side, the prosecution will do the same. But when foul and corrupt means are resorted to; when the most vicious and depraved of actions are brought in play to screen the guilty and make crime respectable, then it is that public sentiment should be loud against such abominations, no matter whether against the medical or legal profession, or against any other class who can be brought to perform the services of infamy.
The period betwixt the imprisonment and execution of James Copeland, three parties from Alabama came and settled in Perry county, Miss., one in, and the other two about Augusta. These three performed their part so well—so concealed and reserved as to pass for gentlemen in the highest degree respectable. But few, if any, had suspicion until afterward of their object to assist the captured in escaping the last penalties of outraged law.
One of the three, who settled in Augusta; a skilled doctor and surgeon, behaved himself so well in every respect—on all occasions exhibiting a winning and an affable deportment—everybody’s friend with the most lavish of generosity—sparing no exertions to gain the confidence and admiration of those in power and of influence; this is the man who proposed to the sheriff the plan to save the life of James Copeland. This proposition was made betwixt the time of his conviction and execution. The particulars are as follows:—The doctor to the sheriff: “There is now a fine opportunity of making one thousand dollars in gold, providing that you will act in concert with me in permitting certain things to be done before the execution of Copeland.” There was something so bland, so expert, and so graceful in the conduct of the strange doctor as to make him friends wherever he went. He insinuated himself into the confidence of the sheriff; and when the proposition was made for certain things to be done before execution, for and in consideration of a thousand dollars, the curiosity of the sheriff could not be otherwise than powerfully excited to learn all particulars of the plan in contemplation, and, accordingly, so far indulged or humored the beginning so as to obtain the whole of what was then behind. The doctor continued, and gave the name of him who had a thousand dollars to pay for the preservation of the life of Copeland; and to be done in the following manner, secure from exciting any suspicion whatever. The doctor to the sheriff: “Allow me about half an hour before the time arrives for your taking him out of jail to the place of execution, to go in under the pretence of shaving and dressing him suitably to the solemnity of the occasion, during which time I will perform an operation in tracheotomy by inserting into the trachea, or wind-pipe, a small silver tube sufficient for the admission of air into the lungs to keep up some degree of respiration, so that when he shall have hung the allotted time, he can be cut down and by an extension of the tube, he can be so buried as to prevent the extinction of life; which, as soon as convenient, he can be disinterred and so cared for by artful means until the recovery so far progress as will enable him to successfully escape.”
The sheriff listened to all this with a smile, and treated the whole as rather a plausible romance than a possible reality; but firm to the duties of his office, he yielded not to the temptation; yet to maintain good faith as to what transpired before the proposition was fully made, and for prudent considerations in regard to his own safety, he has refrained from publishing this narrative at an earlier date, because conscious that the public interests, though delayed, would best be served by so doing in the long run.
Shortly after the execution of James, John Copeland, the brother of the former, was arrested, brought to the same jail, and tried in the same case, and for the same crime of murder.
The State was represented by George Wood, Esq., and the defence by Wirt Adams as principal. Both sides labored hard and wonderfully skillful. The argument of the latter occupied about three or four hours in delivery. The evidence against John Copeland was quite as strong as against his convicted brother, but the juries were of different material. The three strange immigrants from Alabama, who then had recently settled in and about Augusta, managed to get on the jury. This was not hard to do, as the county had pretty much been exhausted before to get an acceptable jury not disqualified by some objections brought forth. When the jury retired, the three here referred to, having the most ingenuity, lead the other remaining part, the consequence of which was a verdict of acquittal. This verdict aroused the indignation of the public both far and near—murmurs everywhere, and satisfaction nowhere. So irritated were the populace that, in all probability, the life of Copeland would have been taken by violence the night after his liberation, but for the timely notice given him for immediate escape.
The following morning he was heard from as being seen on the opposite side of Leaf river, about thirty miles below Augusta, in the direction for Pascagoula river. It is supposed he went almost direct to Angelina county, Texas, where his mother and family settled after leaving Mississippi.
But little time had elapsed after this before the Sheriff of Perry received a letter from Col. Pickering, of this (Angelina) county, warning him of the necessity of being on his guard—that Thomas, another brother of the Copeland family, had left that vicinity for Mississippi; and, according to the general belief there, with a design on the life of the Sheriff; but although he passed through the county of Perry, by the way of Black Creek, to Mobile, Alabama, yet if he made any secret movement for the assassination, he never knew it.
The Copeland family, in Angelina county, instituted a formidable prosecution against Col. Pickering, but his reception of the pamphlet containing the confession, caused the District Attorney of that place to dismiss the prosecution, and for this the Copeland family was heard to swear vengeance against the Sheriff who had published them; therefore, well taken were the grounds of fear entertained by Col. Pickering. Immediately after the acquittal of John Copeland, the three strange immigrants left for parts unknown.