SHOEMAKE’S OBJECT WAS ASSASSINATION.
A character so infamously conspicuous as Shoemake’s is, should not ordinarily be passed over. It should be thoroughly understood so far as his diabolical conduct is known; and this, in all probability, is only a small part of his treacherous and bloody career. Well might James Copeland remark to the Sheriff in prison: “This said Shoemake is a big dog among us.” The foregoing reports of Shoemake’s operations are not all; he will again be introduced as playing a distinguished part on the subsequent trial of the Sheriff, and when he will there be pointed out as the main witness for the prosecution, with his oath invalidated, and the worst features of perjury attaching; these, in conjunction with the facts established on trial, sufficiently proved him to be the author of the “John R. Garland letter.”
The human machine, as a whole, because of common appearance, does not strike the attention with that force which is essential to a full comprehension of the grand and mighty work produced by an invisible and inscrutable agency of an unseen power. It is dissection, analyzation, and physiological researches which only can reveal the wonderful structure and astounding recovery of the human system. Shoemake’s vast fields of diversified operations—mixed, complicated, and clothed in every external form of delusion, when viewed as a whole, but a very imperfect idea can be reached of this covert and monster man. Dissection and analyzation are necessary. The main-springs of his movements must be brought to light. The veils and curtains must be torn away so that the internal workings of his soul can be seen.
Let the reader go back to the time of his writing the John R. Garland letter. There will be found a master-piece of dissimulation. Under a fictitious signature, he describes himself, in some particulars of crime and lawlessness, with astonishing accuracy. He gives instructions for the reply to be sent without name to a numbered box in the post office, at DeKalb, under the pretensions of favoring the spread of the printed “confessions” and of dealing heavy blows against Shoemake—the most desperate of human characters.
Some two or three weeks after, this followed by his visit in person to the sheriff of Perry county. Here, suddenly and unexpectedly, he reaches the door of the apartment where the sheriff was seated, unnoticed by the watch dog or by any member of the family. Opens the door and puts on the airs of gentlemanly civility. Pretends to have important official business, so much so as to require secrecy in the sheriff’s office. There exhibiting high authority, but feigned and spurious, for capturing a renowned thief, who had succeeded in getting away with eleven negroes; and wants the sheriff to accompany him on such an important expedition over roads wile and desolate. Failing in this object, he next introduces the subject of his own, the John R. Garland letter, and said it had been written by a d——d rascal by the name of White—urging with all his powers of solicitation to see the letter, but without success. He furthermore attempts, by all the arts of sophistry, to induce the sheriff to make changes in the “confessions,” and, failing in this, then tries the weapons of intimidation by declaring that trouble more or less must fall on the sheriff if something were not done to relieve George A. Cleaveland and others in Mobile.
The reader perfectly understanding the above, must certainly come to the following conclusion, that Shoemake had a threefold object in view by this visit to the sheriff. First, and the most preferable, was assassination, and, if no opportunity offered for this in his office, to get him off, under false pretensions, on solitary and dreary roads for the better accomplishment of the same. Secondly, to get hold of the John R. Garland letter, which he knew must be very dangerous in any other hands but his own. Thirdly, to publicly kill the sheriff and the “confessions” by inducing him to make changes.
Shoemake when next he appeared in Augusta, it was on a different mission. This time, he was armed with real authority from the Governor of Mississippi for the arrest of the sheriff. But finding him absent, he assiduously and very ingeniously sets to work to gather all possible information as to his whereabouts and the time for his return. This done, in hot pursuit he makes his departure for the seizure of his object. He travels forward with alacrity until he reaches an extensive morass; then, with his colleague, ambushes both sides of it, for a day or two, so as to close in from both ways, if opportunity afforded, on his object, and make escape impossible—ready with a convenient horse for any emergency which might occur. Despairing of meeting with the sought after prize, onward he goes until he reaches the ferry—the distance of a day’s ride from Mississippi City, where he expected another opportunity for getting hold of the man he wanted—so arranges as for one to remain on each side of the ferried river—again rendering passage impossible without discovery. Again disappointed, onwards he proceeds, and in a short time comes in contact with the person in pursuit of, but in such a situation as to mar his purposes at that point. They pass, both sides knowing each other. He travels a short distance forward—then turns back after his object, who has fled at the rate of about eight or nine miles the hour—succeeds in reaching Augusta only two hours behind his object. Then makes known his mission of arrest—seeing the tremendous public excitement prevailing which threatened his existence, politely agrees to wait a reasonable length of time for his nominal prisoner—four days waiting for in making preparatory arrangements to have a sufficient protective force to accompany, when all set out for Mobile—here reached, then, the sheriff in the buggy with him, then drives rapidly down one street, up another, and round the corners with a velocity that kept some three or four of the protective force in a gallop to keep up with the speed.
The reader will once more draw his own inferences. He will plainly see that the principal aim again was assassination as the better method among outlaws of disposing of troublesome persons. The lying in ambush for one or two whole days on both sides of the morass, on both sides of the next river, the hurried rapidity of the return to overtake the sheriff before reaching Augusta, and the last effort to get clear of the “protective force” in the city of Mobile by forced speed through complicated streets; all these facts in connection are plain to the unprejudiced mind as to the ultimate object in view. Indirectly corroborative, there is another fact, which will be further noticed in the sequel, to the effect of one by the name of Cornelious McLamore from Kemper county, an important witness on trial, who crushingly and effectively broke down the testimony of the said Shoemake, but in all probability his life paid the forfeit; for McLamore from that time to the present has never more been heard of—his remains likely burnt or buried in some dismal swamp—another victim to the vengeance of the “clan.”
Shoemake, the big dog among the band, this is the man, this the agent from the Governor of Alabama, from the Governor of Mississippi, employed to execute the highest of delegated State authority! If the then Governor of Mississippi can reconcile the rectitude of such action to his mind, the public is very far from approving the same. At the time the press from almost every quarter was loud in its denunciations against the conduct of the Governor. He must have known that the extensive ramifications of the Wages and Copeland Clan had produced a reign of terror almost everywhere, and he must also have known that the “confessions” had done more for its dismemberment and final dissolution than anything else; then why did he attempt to play into its expiring hands, against public sentiment and justice, when the imputed but misnamed crime of publication was done in New Orleans, La., and the author, who had only committed the “confessions” to paper, residing in Mississippi, and more especially while hundreds were satisfied of the truth of the narrations? However, from these revelations, the fact is made patent that wealth and a few distinguished persons can wield mighty influences against reason and justice; against common sense and the best interests of society.