3. That he was implicated in a nefarious plot to poison wells, fire towns and residences, and, in the midst of conflagrations and death, to run off the slaves. This fact rests upon much oral and documentary evidence.
4. That a Vigilance Committee had been formed to ferret out the plot, capture the guilty parties and bring them to justice.
5. That this Committee had cause to suspect Mr. Bewley, ascertaining which he fled the country and made his way to Missouri, whither he was pursued by them, captured, and taken back to Fort Worth.
6. That the evidence was so strong against him that neither the Vigilance Committee nor the officers of the law could protect him from the outraged and enraged populace, and about midnight he was taken by force and hung.
7. That if there was a member of the M. E. Church, South, on the Vigilance Committee, or in the mob that hung him, the evidence does not appear.
8. Neither the extremest torture of facts nor the most distorted construction of collateral circumstances can implicate Bishop Pierce, or any other Bishop, minister, or member of the M. E. Church, South, as such, in the murder of Bewley.
9. With all due respect to the character of the Northern Methodist publications of this affair, and to Dr. Elliott in his “Southwestern Methodism” in particular, it may be asked with some degree of consistency, “Was Bishop Ames Bewley’s hangman?” Bishops Janes and Ames are responsible for Bewley’s appointment to Texas; the latter for his re-appointment, after Bewley had made him acquainted with all the facts existing there that would prevent his usefulness and endanger his life. The Bishop sent him upon a missionary appropriation of $400, for which he pledged the Missionary Society of the Church. Bewley and Willet were sent to the Nueces country with specific instructions “not to organize societies next summer, but to correspond with the Missionary Board.”
10. The evidence upon which he stood convicted in the public mind of complicity in the bloody plot to poison wells, burn towns, and, through fire and blood and insurrection, free the slaves, convicted others also, who were not ministers of the M. E. Church. It can not be made to appear, therefore, by any legitimate construction, that he suffered because he was a minister of that Church; but because he was a ringleader in the clandestine scheme of fire and murder, that was too diabolical to discriminate even in favor of women and children, but doomed all indiscriminately who might drink of the wells, or be the victims of midnight conflagrations, or in any way be exposed to the wide-spread negro insurrection thus instigated. For this cause, and not for preaching the gospel, he was hanged.
11. The following letter, written by one Rev. W. H. Bailey, addressed to Rev. A. Bewley, and acknowledged by him to have been received and subsequently lost, was the principal evidence upon which he was convicted. Bewley acknowledged to his brother-in-law, Mr. John Cook, that the latter was genuine, and had been received by him and lost. The letter was dated, “Denton Creek, Texas, July 3, 1860,” and was found by the Vigilance Committee, authenticated, and extensively published by the secular and religious papers of the country, and is as follows:
“Denton Creek, July 3, 1860.