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There was a sale of lots at Fort Pickering, which did secure the terminus of the La Grange railroad. But the collapse of the road ensued, and with it the collapse of its rivalry to Memphis, which had already been placed be- yond danger by its founder. .
1 His death was characteristic. An eye-witness wrote, " I heard him request Doctor Hogg to say to General Jackson that he died like a man and a soldier, so you see he clung to the general to his last moments."
CHAPTER XXXII.
JOHN A. MURRELL AND THE REIGN OF DISORDER.
STRANGE as the statement may sound, one of the most important events in the making of Tennessee was the hanging of five men in Vicksburg in July, 1835. To per- ceive the relation which this event bears to the history of this State, it is necessary to understand the general state of society which existed during the years just preceding. One of the most striking contrasts to be met with in the study of American institutions is the ease with which a thorough system of laws is introduced and the difficulty of having them enforced. The relation between the min- isters of law and the people upon whom they are to be administered is so personal and intimate, that it is impos- sible to obtain that rigidity which is a characteristic of European countries. The enforcement of law and espe- cially criminal law, therefore, depends rather upon the character of the individual than upon the general system. The result is a laxity which offers direct inducement to law-breakers. Where the population is sparse, and in re- gions of country where the interval between a state of nature and civilization is in process of being bridged, this laxity attains its highest development. The pioneers who open the way are, as a rule, brave, honest, uncouth, but quick to repel the invasions of others by a prompt resort to violence. They may be said to clear the field. The first growth is generally one of tares, and then comes the labor of the husbandman.
After the departure of the Indians from Tennessee, as
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the country rapidly settled up. the field for brigandage in the State was a peculiarly favorable one. The state of society was generally rough, and the newly introduced laws frequently failed to command respect. The thief, the robber, the horse-stealer, the negro-runner, the high- wayman, the burglar, and the counterfeiter profited by the opportunity, and a reign of lawlessness began. But it was frequently tempered by lynch-law, and was over- ridden at times by superior force. It was the glory and the boast of a native Tennessean to have organized these scattered elements of recklessness and crime into a " no- ble band of valiant and lordly bandits," as Murrell styled his following.
It is beyond the power of historic research to separate the false from the true in all that has come down to us about John A. Murrell. Still all that we know is equally characteristic of the times, and if all did not happen, it can be as truthfully asserted that it all might have hap- pened. Murrell was born in Middle Tennessee in the
earlier part of the century. His mother was a woman of evil disposition, and taught him his first lesson in vice. By the time he was of age he had become a confirmed evil-doer, and formally adopted robbery as a profession. He soon became noted among the fraternity of " specula- tors." as all of that profession were called by themselves, for the boldness and success of his ventures. The distin- guishing feature of his methods was their thoroughness. After the commission of an offense, nothing was stickled at to prevent detection. He knew no degrees in crime. and regarded murder as in no wise more heinous or repugnant than the theft of a watch. He never robbed a man, unless by stealth, without killing him, and he never robbed by violence where the person robbed could not be killed. The following incident, told in his own words, gives an idea of his methods: "While I was seated on a log, looking down the road the way I had come, a man came in sight
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riding a good-looking horse. The very moment I saw him I determined to have his horse if he was in the garb of a traveler. I arose from my seat and drew an elegant rifle-pistol on him and ordered him to dismount. He did so and I took his horse by the bridle and pointed down the creek and ordered him to walk before me. We went a few hundred yards and stopped. I hitched his horse and then made him undress himself, all to his shirt and drawers, and ordered him to turn his back to me. He asked me if I was going to shoot him. I ordered him the second time to turn his back to me. He said: If you are going to kill ine, let me have time to pray before I die.' I told him I had no time to hear him pray. He turned around and dropped on his knees, and I shot him in the back of the head. I ripped open his belly and took out his entrails and sunk him in the creek. I then searched his pockets and found four hundred and one dol- lars and thirty-seven eents and a number of papers that I did not take time to examine. I sunk the pocket-book and papers and his hat in the creek. His boots were bran new and fitted me very genteelly, and I put them on and sunk my old shoes in the creek to atone for them. I rolled up his clothes and put them into his portmanteau, as they were quite new cloth of the best quality. I mounted as fine a horse as I ever straddled, and directed my course for Natchez in much better style than I had been for the last five days." Having met with some congenial spirits in New Orleans, men possessing, like himself. a certain degree of force, Murrell conceived the design of organiz- ing "a clan." As subsequently developed, the plan of organization appears to have been the formation of a kind of general central committee, called Grand Council of the Mystic Clan, to direct the operations of local thieves and robbers called strikers. These latter were not ad- mitted to the general meetings, and were simply tools in the hands of Murrell and his council. The strikers exe-
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cuted the plans of their superior associates, running most of the risk and dividing the profits with them. The een- tral place of meeting was an enormous cotton-wood tree in Mississippi County, Arkansas, said to be still standing. There existed among them a system of signs and counter- signs and the usual paraphernalia of a clandestine asso- ciation formed for deeds of secrecy and violence. After the organization had been placed on a proper basis, Mur- rell, who had hitherto led a roving life, married the sister of a former confederate, and bought a farm near Den- mark in Madison County, Tennessee. Here he lived in apparent quietude. but in reality carrying on the most extensive and elaborately devised schemes of rapine and plunder.
Murrell was undoubtedly a character for whom nature had done much. He possessed a quick mind and a re- markably pleasant and gentlemanlike address. He had great natural adaptability, and was as much at ease among people of refinement as among his clansmen. He had a certain frank, cordial manner that enabled him at times to convert his bitterest enemies into his warmest admirers. He was not altogether unread, and had made a special study of criminal law in order to avoid its dangers. He knew enough of theology to palm himself off as a minis- ter of the gospel, and at one period of his life attempted medicine with some degree of success. He frequently assumed the disguise of a preacher in order to pass coun- terfeit money. He had a cool, clear-headed judgment, and was utterly without fear, physical or moral. His ascend- ency over his men never waned, and they were ever ready to sacrifice their lives in order to save his. Within the ranks of his clan, he was just, fair, and amiable. He was a kind husband and brother and a faithful friend.
Murrell had a nefarious ambition that took a pride in his position and in the operations of his followers, inde- pendent of the love of gain. He was vain and eager to
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lead. As a soldier he would have been a brilliant, though probably a temporary success. His conceit was the only weak spot in his armor, and it was the eanse of his down- fall. During the period of Murrell's reign there was no security to life or property in West Tennessee. The favorite operations of his elan were horse-stealing and negro-running, so ealled. The latter was accomplished by promising the negro freedom in the North if he would leave his master, accompany his new friend, and allow himself to be sold several times on the way. The negro consenting, the runner carried him through the country, selling him in the daytime, recovering him again at night, and pushing on until another favorable opportunity pre- sented itself. It required a certain address to gain the negro's confidence, and this Murrell possessed in a super- eminent degree. But he never failed in the end to mur- der the negro, open his stomach, and sink him in water deep enough to hide all traces. This was in obedience to his rule that no man should live who could implicate him without implieating himself. His only violation of this rule, which was caused by his vanity, caused his de- tection.
The man who brought Murrell to justice was Virgil A. Stewart. Stewart himself gives a detailed account of this transaction, which is so filled with glaring inconsist- encies and even contradictions that it is safe to accept only that which coincides with known facts. Stewart was a young Georgian who had removed to Madison County, Tennessee, when young, and from there had gone to the Choctaw purchase in Mississippi. Before Murrell settled in Madison County, Stewart, being on a visit to Denmark, was told by a friend that he suspected Murrell of having run off some of his slaves. Hearing of Murrell's in- tended departure, Stewart followed him, made his ac- quaintance on the road in the disguise of a horse-hunter, and wormed himself into Murrell's confidence by playing
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upon his vanity. Murrell eventually gave him a history of his life and an insight into the character, organization, and workings of his elan. Stewart accompanied him to the celebrated cotton-wood tree in Arkansas, and was pres- ent at a meeting of the Grand Couneil. Returning, he had him arrested and was the instrument of having him sent to the Penitentiary, from which he emerged an imbe- cile and an invalid.
Among the assertions made by Stewart was that Mur- rell had revealed to him a plan which he had originated for a general insurrection of the slaves on a day appointed. He represents this as in a manner the climax of Murrell's ambition - the scheme nearest his heart. There may have been a seintilla of truth in this, as some members of his band were arrested and confessed that such a plan ex- isted. It is probable, however, that Stewart elaborated the idea in order to attract attention, for notoriety was the breath of his nostrils. Another statement of Stewart's which is preposterous on its face was that many men high in social and official life were members of the gang. They were used by Murrell to give an air of respectability to any impeached member, to laugh down rumors of the existence of such an organization and to help the elans- men escape the toils of the law. But in spite of having received and published a list of Murrell's gang, the name of no one high in social or official life was ever produced.
Murrell's conviction in 1834 acted as a great elarifi- cation of the atmosphere. It discouraged the marauder class and it gave heart to the citizens. So strong had the elan been, that no one was willing to run the risk of need- lessly offending them.1
In Memphis their most unrelenting enemy, M. B. Win- chester, had felt the weight of their anger in slanders that eventually drove him to his cups. Isaae Rawlings,
1 This probably was the grain of truth in Stewart's statement in reference to the members who stood bigh in the esteem of the public.
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who was mayor at the time of Murrell's conviction, and who had enforced the law where he could find transgres- sions, without regard to consequences, was only protected from personal violence by the fear of lynch-law. But the members of the lawless class were bold, defiant, and in- solent.
The towns upon the river banks were peculiarly exposed to evil influences. The rivers were almost exclusively the channels of trade, and the entire traffic of the lower Mis- sissippi valley passed by Memphis and the places farther south. New Orleans was the great Southern mart or emporium, and the products of the Valley States were brought down to New Orleans as to the market of the world.
The forms of the boats used would baffle any attempt at accurate classification. Everything that could be made to float was forced into service. Those chiefly used by people whose circumstances permitted choice were the barge, the keel, and the "flat " or flat-boat, also called Kentucky-flat or broad-horn. Pirogues, canoes, skiffs, and dug-outs still remained as relies of earlier days, but were only adapted to light work. The keel was a slender and rather stylish looking boat, capable of carrying about twenty tons. The barge was a heavy, ponderous wooden structure with a hulk raised above the surface of the water, and was not unlike a schooner of the present day. It had a possible capacity of very nearly one hundred tons. The flat-boat or "broad-horn " was the one in most general
use. It was easy to make and was sufficiently durable and cheap. At the end of a voyage it was generally sold to saw mills. The barge and the keel were occasionally worked up stream, by means of tread-mills, sails, and ropes tied to trees so as to pull along the bank from tree to trec, but the greatest speed gained was about ten miles a day. From New Orleans to Cincinnati in three months was a good trip. The flat-boat never attempted to do
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more than float with the current. The life upon the river would appear to the steamboat traveler of to-day as phan- tasmagorical. On the large barges two or three families with all their household effects, poultry, produce, hogs, horses, mules, and cows would sometimes embark, intend- ing to change their place of habitation. On the keels, pleasure - seeking parties would sometimes descend the river on a jaunt to New Orleans with the expectation of returning by land. There were bedrooms, a dining-room, and a platform for dancing. The fiddle, flute, banjo, and bones furnished rhythmical and appropriate accompani- ment. At each large village or town a landing was made, followed by a sojourn of several days. On the flat-boats traveled those who were lower in the scale, the needy, the desperate, and the adventurous. It was made by fastening together logs as large as could be procured, erecting two immense paddles at both ends or sides, sometimes both, making a rough flooring and building a roof. The neces- sities of the maker decided its length. Upon this, the poor man with his family would live for months, drifting leisurely down when it suited his convenience, and oeca- sionally stopping over to make a crop on shares for some one living upon the banks. His chickens, pigs, cow, dogs, wife, and children lived together in daily association. More frequently, however, these flat-boats were tenanted by the rough elements of society, carrying the produce of the year to market, eager for amusement, generally well supplied with whiskey and fire-arms. At times several of them would fasten their rafts together. As a rule the sober, staid citizen who undertook a trip of this kind down the river threw off all restraint, and became as boisterous as the most hardened. When two flat-boats passed each other, a continual fire of jest, taunt, insult, and ribaldry was exchanged, sometimes ending in blows, pistol shots, stabs, and death. Occasionally a raft would be seen to drift by vacant and apparently deserted. The fate of
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the former proprietors was easily guessed. Fish-like they preyed and were preyed upon. When a crowd of these aquatic rovers found themselves together in a town, they instinctively banded together against the stationary being as a natural enemy. The fights between flat-boat men and citizens were often fatal.
An incident of this kind occurred in Memphis in 1842, and marked a distinct advance in the progress of law and order. The damper cast upon the gamblers by the events of a few years before had not spread to the flat-boat men, and in the vernacular of that day " they took the town " when they liked, and flatly refused to pay the city fees for wharfage. Their trade was valuable, and the subject was not pressed until William Spickernagle was elected mayor in 1841. He determined to have a more vigorous admin- istration of law, and appointed the proper man wharf- master, who rigorously collected the wharfage fees despite threats and bloody noses. In 1842 Edwin Hickman, the successor of Spickernagle, carried out the policy of his predecessor. and continued the same officers in power. In May, 1842, about five hundred-flat boats were at the Memphis landing, and among the flat-boat men was one named Trester who had heard of the change which had taken place in Memphis. He had previously passed down the river and landed at Memphis without paying the fee. He cut himself a heavy haw stick set with knots, which, as he said to the wharf-master himself, he had cut on pur- pose to use on any one who tried to make him pay for landing where he pleased. The wharf-master swore out a warrant and placed it in the hands of G. B. Locke with orders to serve it. Being resisted, Locke obtained the assistance of a detachment from the Memphis Guards, a local military company, and again started for the river. Seeing the uniforms and the bayonets, Trester pushed out from the bank, and being pursued, resisted and was killed. For a day, a pitched battle between the flat-boat men and
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the city of Memphis was imminent, but was averted. This event had a salutary effect upon the flat-boat men, in so far as Memphis was concerned, and they never again attempted to " take the town."
During the latter years of Murrell's life in Denmark, the lawless elements of society in the South and Southwest undoubtedly had the upper hand of the law - abiding. The best citizens lived in apprehension. But it is only the kind heart and the liberal mind which is not made in- solent by success. The very fact of their mastery carried with it the proper corrective. This was administered on July 6, 1835. Vieksburg had been overridden by gamblers almost from the time of its inception. A great many of them had their headquarters there, and a stream of them was continually flowing through Vicksburg to and from New Orleans. The citizens had grown very restive under their domineering, but were afraid to take a stand against them. On the fourth of July, 1835, the usual national festivities were being celebrated by the citizens, when a drunken gambler, in imitation of many successful exam- ples, undertook to " run the meeting." He was at once put under arrest and only released in the evening. When discharged he not only uttered insolent threats against his imprisoners, but immediately armed himself to carry them into execution. He was then seized, carried to the out- skirts of the town, given a coat of tar and feathers and dismissed. The gambling "fraternity " were deeply in- censed and were loud in their denunciations. The blood of the citizens being up, they issued a notice to all pro- fessional gamblers to leave the town in twenty-four hours. On the morning of the sixth, committees previously ap- pointed examined the gambling houses and burned all the gambling devices they could find. By this time most of the profession, being frightened, had left the town. A few desperadoes alone remained, and having armed themselves, collected together in a house used by them for gambling
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purposes and refused, to open the door. The door was broken down by a mob of infuriated citizens with Dr. Bodley, a prominent and popular physician, at their head. The gamblers fired and he fell dead. Several shots more being exchanged without results, the citizens made a rush and obtained entrance to the house. They captured three of the inmates in the house and two others who had escaped from the building, and hanged the whole five. Their names were North, Hullams, Dutch Bill, Smith, and McCall.
The moral effect of this act cannot be fully appreciated by any one not familiar with the current literature of that day. The news swept like wild-fire throughout the Mis- sissippi valley, and was eagerly discussed by every fire- side, at every cross-roads store, and on every stage coach throughout the South and Southwest. Coming on the heels of Murrell's conviction, it gave heart to the lovers of law and order. Committees were formed in every com- munity from Cincinnati to New Orleans that had suffered from the thief and the cut-throat, and general notices were issued for specified classes to leave in twenty-four hours. Few, if any, lynchings took place, but an end had been put to organized crime in the Southwest forever.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
RISE OF THE WHIG PARTY.
FROM December, 1834, to the loss of Tennessee by Polk in 1844, may be called the decade of partisan fury, though the era of partisan activity continued to the time of the war. The contest between Carroll and Ward in 1821, and that between Bell and Grundy for Congress in 1827, was spirited and full of fire. The gubernatorial strug- gles between the Browns, Trousdale, Campbell, Johnson, Gentry, Henry, Harris, Hatton, and Netherland were obstinate and veliement, but all were tame when compared with the terrific encounters of these ten years. Then every election was the coming together of the Numidian lion and the Arachosian tiger. During this era the Whig party came into existence in Tennessee. In 1834 it was not merely in a minority in Tennessee ; it was, as a polit- ical organization, absolutely unknown. In 1840 it carried the State overwhelmingly for a Whig candidate for the presidency. The history of its gradual development and of the period of its ascendency in the State is curious and instructive. Between Jackson and Buchanan, the Whigs carried Tennessee at every presidential election. The Whig leaders of Tennessee repelled with indignation the charge that their party had its origin in opposition to Jack- son. But such was the fact. Carroll was the only promi- nent candidate who was opposed by Jackson who did not subsequently become a Whig. The Republicans held un- disputed supremacy in Tennessee long after Clay's seces- ion and the annunciation of his American system. Jackson
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was nominated by the legislature of Tennessee on the 20th of July, 1822, for the presidency of the United States. Between the period of the War of 1812 and this date his influence had become paramount, and as far as personal influence, unaided by the machinery of party conventions, could control the politics of a state, he controlled the politics of Tennessee. His prejudices were strong. Ile was devoted to his friends. He hated his enemies, and he was suspicious of those who were indifferent. His final election to the presidency made him politically omnipotent. Those who were excluded from his good-will were excluded from all preferment, not resting upon the direct vote of the people. The politicians of Tennessee have always been singularly tractable to authority, and the people have al- ways been remarkably intractable. Jackson was an old man, and during a long and tempestuous life he had con- tracted many debts of personal gratitude. He became president ; these were now to be liquidated. There was room for no new men, a class of politicians who are fre- quently hated as much in our day as in Cicero's. Young, ambitious spirits were not wanting to see that there was no place for them, unless a new order of things could be
inaugurated. During Jackson's second term, circum- stances arose which opened up the possibility of revolu- tion. The number of those willing and able to lead in this movement had been steadily increasing. Not only were the Jackson men supreme, they were intolerant. Jackson not only proposed to reward his friends, but to punish his enemies. As Crockett said, "to turn against Jackson was the unpardonable sin." Naturally there was much mutiny.
One of the ablest of those who were driven into the Whig ranks by the intolerance of Jackson and his friends, was Newton Cannon. He had been born in Guilford county, North Carolina, educated at a public school, and removed to Williamson County, Tennessee, when quite
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