“Cordially yours for the Right,
L. F. Whitten.”
“P. S. I said I do not belong to your party. I am a political Prohibitionist, and pray for the day to dawn when the sober and sensible and honest manhood of our country may get together and rule it.
“L. F. W.”
Other instances of this frenzied partisan madness soon abounded. But the most wicked resort of Democratic party passion, be it said to its eternal shame, was made upon Col. J. M. Whitehead, editor of The Living Truth, Georgiana, Ala. Not content with destroying peace, planning and attempting midnight assassinations, hooting and howling at public meetings, these haters of civil liberty and “dying hard” Democrats come forth in their extreme infernalism, and hurl eggs at a gray-haired, one-legged, ex-Confederate soldier and citizen of irreproachable manhood. In response to a request for a statement on this subject, the writer received the following reply from Colonel Whitehead:
“Greenville, Ala., April 3, 1893.
“J. C. Manning:
“Dear Sir,—You ask me to write to you some of my experiences during the campaign last year with our friends, the organized Democracy. Knowing their methods so well, their ‘wild and woolly’ ways did not surprise me. I had some experiences with them in 1884, when I was an independent candidate for Congress in this district, against Herbert. At Ross Hill, Covington county, I was set upon by their tools, who had been organized before to kill me. It was a miracle that the plan failed. As it was, I had an arm broken, a shoulder dislocated and was left for dead on the ground. I had just closed a speech in which I had exposed the unfaithfulness of their Congressman (the nominee), which I had been doing for the past two weeks and he had heard of it. He is now the Secretary of the Navy! I had challenged him to a joint discussion and he had declined. He was a Confederate soldier and so was I. I had lost a leg and he had lost the use of an arm, but nothing of this kind could stand in the way of his ambition. I never had any doubt but that he and his henchmen instigated this cowardly assault upon me. Last year, most of my speeches were made in the ‘white counties’ where our friends are largely in the majority. I went to Union Springs, in Bullock county,—a ‘black county’—to engage the Hon. W. C. Oates in a joint debate. He declined and I made no attempt to speak. As I was leaving on the train from the depot that night, I was honored with a shower of eggs coming through the car window at which I was sitting. They passed within a few inches of my nose and breaking on the other side of the car, fell on the good clothes of an enthusiastic Democrat. Of course he was mad, while I was in the best possible humor. I did the laughing and he did the swearing. It took place as the train moved off, so that there was no chance to investigate who the parties were. They were under the cover of darkness, and doubtless will there remain.”
“Most respectfully,
J. M. Whitehead.”
“They are under the cover of darkness, and doubtless will there remain.” What manner of Democracy (?) is this, which forms a prominent part of the nation’s administration—even entering the make-up of the cabinet of the President! It is no surprise that an opposition cause to such a party as this Democracy (?) would dare to undergo the most trying difficulties in its struggle to maintain freedom of speech and to sustain human liberty; it is no wonder that the Southern champions of reform dare to preserve law, protect home and have honest government.