- OUR MILWAUKEE LETTER
Another Outbreak of Mob Law - Affray between Negroes and Irishmen - A Negro taken from Jail and Hung by the Irish, etc.
[correspondence of the Chicago Tribune]
Milwaukee, Sept. 9, 1861.
The telegraph has doubtless appraised you of another period of the reign of mob law in this unfortunate city. And this time, under circumstances more to be deplored and with less provocation, too, than of any previous occasion. The circumstances, as I learn from the best authority, are briefly these. On Friday evening two negroes, one named George Marshall, a well-known barber, and another named James Shelton, a waiter at Anderson's ice cream saloon, started out together for amusement. A little after seven o'clock they were seen in the Third Ward by a couple of Irishmen, named Darby Carney and John Brady. At the time the latter saw them, the negroes were passing a couple of ladies, whom the Irishmen say they insulted; whereupon they remonstrated with the negroes, when the affray occurred in which Carney and Brady were stabbed, the former so severely that he died on Saturday night at eleven o'clock. Brady was not so much injured, and will soon recover. A lamp-lighter near by got mixed up in the affair, and was slightly cut in the side. Carney and Brady were both in liquor, and they allege that the negroes were also, but as they went directly to Dan Rice's show, and were observed to conduct themselves quietly and soberly there, this report is doubted. Nothing more was seen of the negroes until early Saturday morning, when they were discovered and arrested by the police.
The affair created great excitement in the 3d Ward, where Carney has long resided. But among other people the matter was commented upon more quietly. The story of the affray, as told by the Irishmen, was the only one current, and was generally believed; the negroes were in the hands of the law, and were in a fair way of having justice meted out to them through the courts; they had neither sympathy nor friends, and would undoubtedly have suffered the extreme penalty of the law. But the hellish spirit of the mob had become imflamed during the day by frequent potations of raw whisky; and towards evening, as Carney's condition became worse, this spirit increased and it became well known to the police early in the afternoon that if Carney died his friends would demand the lives of the negroes. Carney died at 11 o'clock on Saturday night, and within an hour, by concerted signals, (the ringing of bells) a mob of some three hundred proceeded to the jail, made an onslaught upon it, broke it open, and dragged out the negroes. In the rush, one of them, Shelton, escaped; Marshall was taken to the house of Engine Co. No. 6, and kept some three of four hours, some of the mob being in doubt as to his identity, as there were other negroes confined in the jail. But about four o'clock Sunday morning they determined that, being a nigger, he must die anyway. A rope was put around his neck and in his mouth, tightened by a stick, the same as a farmer 'toggles' a ?. He was then dragged through the streets, kicked and maltreated on the way, and finally hung on a pile driver, within one block of the principal ? street of the city. But the poor fellow must have been nearly dead before he was hung, for several of his ribs were broken, one of his eyes gouged out, and his body otherwise injured. The body was soon discovered by the police, and taken to the station house, where it lay during the day. As people came downtown in the morning, or stopped on the way to church, they soon learned of the horrible affair, and it afforded sensation enough for another feverish and excited Sunday.
I have already stated that the Police was informed, or had strong reason to believe, that a storm was brewing Saturday, of treason. And the question has been asked a thousand times why were not the authorities prepared for it? Chief of Police Beck himself said that he was informed that they would attack the jail; and he was on hand with a squad of a dozen or fifteen men, but they being mostly Irish, ? sympathized with the mob, and would not do anything even if they could. The Chief himself stood in the door with a loaded revolver until he was knocked down and seized by the mob; but I have not learned that he pulled a trigger. The sheriff, whose business it was to protect the prisoner, took no precaution whatever; nor can I learn that he has even been seen since the affair took place. He is an old granny politician, who thinks more of a few votes from the lawbreakers than he does of doing his duty in behalf of good order and decency. The Mayor isn't much better, and his inefficiency, or neglect of duty, both in the case of the bank riot and in the present instance, is commented on in no stinted terms. It is no use to mince matters in regard to our city government any longer. The city and county have been governed by a set of corrupt and thieving politicians for the last ten years. Gardner and Lynch were only a small part of the rescality brought to light. And it is little wonder that while the people have been plundered year after year, that such a spirit of mob law should have grown up, as can only be controlled by cold lead and glistening steel. And a lesson of this nature will have to be taught before we can ever again claim to be a decent community. If every man engaged in the mob of Saturday night had been shot down in his tracks, property would have risen ten per cent in value within twenty-four hours. And as an evidence that such a treatment is urgently necessary, I need only say that there could easily be found a number of political blacklegs and office-seekers, who are setting their pins for the coming election, who are known to have encouraged and pandered to the spirit of this mob, and covertly justify its proceedings during Saturday and Sunday. I can name them, and if they get on the track for office this fall, the public will find out how they did it.
Since writing the above, it is reported that the negro Shelton, who escaped, was arrested yesterday afternoon, a short distance in the country, and brought back to the county jail. This was soon mulled around among th Irish, and the jail was under military guard all night. But Shelton is yet at large. The verdict of the public as to the nature of the affray which led to these occurrences, is generally changing into the belief that the negroes, after all, only acted in self defense. They were not known to have been drunk, and had never before been guilty of any violation of the law. Carney and Brady admitted that they themselves were drunk, and Carney is an old police court bird of ten year's standing, and his misdeeds ahve cost the county more than a thousand dollars. Brady is a worthless scamp, living in Waukesha county; has been engaged in all the small fights that ever occurred in his town, and I personally know of numerous instances where he has been picked up on his way home from this city too drunk to drive his team.
Of course no arrests of the mob have been made, and probably none will be.
Chicago Daily Tribune; 10 September 1861
|
1837 - 1861 (24 years)
Siblings
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
