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Phillips and Girard Smith, assisted by Seward, Hale, Gidding, and Greely. The result of this abolition crusade is too well known. It brought a murderous war upon the people of the South for no other reason than that negro slavery did not prove profitable in the Northern States. It will be remembered that at the time Stevens, Phillips, Smith and others commenced their abolition crusade, the New England ministery had an eye on heathern China, and they succeeded in doing exactly what they set out to accomplish:	to make merchandise of
the word of God by which to accummulate money.
It is clear to my mind that the Republican party and the foreign missionary society go hand in hand; one faction for political notoriety while the other is for that dollar you have in your pocket.
I am reminded just here that the New Englander has an eye similar to an exray: he can look through a man and tell him how much money he has, and if he fails to get it by legerdemain or otherwise, he will beat him out of it by the process of selling him patent medicine.
I hope to be excused from digressing from the main subject, but as it comes in line of 65 years ago, it may not be out of place. The subject naturally presents	itself to	me	in this way.	Our
forefathers handed	down to	posterity the	great
principles of self	government,	which had the	same
bearing to the people as the Holy Writ to the salvation of men's souls.	Both	have	been
perverted. The Holy Writ has been made merchandise of, and the great principle of self government has been trampled under foot. There is a cause for this and responsibility must rest somewhere. I can trace it to none other than New England. I will say this much for New England. She is susceptible of a high degree of education, and while this is the case, she is devoid of principle to back it up.
I charge New England with all the trouble that ever existed in this country, and before the country can be brought back to its mooring of 65 and 70 years ago, the black Republican party and New England must step down and out of it.
I pass now to some of the early history of Clarke County.
In the toils and hardhips of a pioneer life, such as clearing up the forest and opening lands
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for agricultural purposes, the young boy of tender age took an active part and was content with his lot. He would rise at or before the first dawn of day and be ready to go to the field and do all he could in the way of helping on the farm. Never in the history of this country in that day and time, did any boy ever leave his parents to go and hunt a job, by which to make some money, as is the case of 3/4 of the boys of the present period. In many instances now a boy leaves home to seek employment, gets into bad company, and winds up in trouble.
In the thirties there were no postal routes in Clarke Co. ; there was a stage line from Columbus, Miss, to Winchester, Miss, which carried the U. S. mail. The latter place was our post office, and was 25 miles away. I went to the post office once a month. The postage was 25 cents on each letter in these olden times and had to be paid on delivery of the letter. Simien R. Adams of Paulding, Jasper Co., Miss., and editor of the Eastern Clarion,, got up a postal route from Paulding to Quitman, Miss, as a means of circulating his paper. Later on in the early forties there was a mail route from Quitman to Carrolton, Washington Co., Ala., now called Barryton, and in the Co. of Choctaw. I may be a little off as to the dates regarding postal routes in Clarke Co. as I write from memory only, but I think I am nearly or quite correct.
After the	organization	of	the county in 1832,
David Thompson	was	elected	sheriff; Roland B.
Crosby was the next and Larkin Evans succeeded Crosby. During the administration of Larkin Evans the	first man	was	hanged	in	Clarke Co. His name
was	Thompson.	The	hanging	took place on June 8,
1838, and as it may be interesting to the reader to know the cause and history of the incident, I will proceed to relate it.
Thompson and a free negro were traveling together on the road from Mobile to Paulding, Jasper Co., Miss, and stopped overnight at a Mr. Overstreet's in Wayne County.	Thompson	was
entertained by Overstreet and the negro directed to go to the negro quarter of Overstreet's. After supper, Overstreet's son, a boy of 14, went where the negro was and while there traded knives with him. Next morning the negro called to settle his bill and Overstreet charged him and the white man one dollar, 50 cents each. The negro took from his pocket a dressed deerskin pouch from which he
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