The shocking murder of this gentleman is still fresh in the minds of most
readers of the daily journals, North and South. Mr. Ashburn was a sterling
patriot, who entertained radical opinions, and through his fluency and
ability, as well as his outspoken friendliness towards the colored race,
had gained their confidence and support alike, with that of the Republican
whites of the vicinity.
He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Georgia which met at
Columbus, in the winter of 1867-8, and during his stay there, was refused
admittance as a guest at the principal hotels of the place on account of
the political prejudice existing against him. He occupied private rooms
upon one of the main streets of the city, where he lived in an
unostentatious and unpretending manner.
He was a man of extraordinary natural talents, a good speaker, of fair
educational qualifications, and a most earnest defender and supporter of
true Republican principles. On all occasions, and wherever he appeared, to
discuss the political situation of the trying times he moved in, he spoke
his sentiments unreservedly. He was far from ever having been a huckster
or trickster in politics, but he was fearless and able, and his enemies
doomed him!
At midnight, on the 31st day of March, 1868, a band of about forty men,
who were armed and thoroughly disguised, made their appearance in an open
lot of ground near his residence, and just opposite his private quarters.
He had gone to bed in his room, and the door was just closed, when a
summons from without called the servant, who opened it, and the Klan burst
into the hall. Mr. Ashburn heard the noise, sprang out of bed, struck a
light, and opened the door of his sleeping apartment. He did not fear
death at the hands of these intruders, but he was alarmed at the rude
demonstrations they made, and demanded to know what was their purpose.
With an oath and a brief exclamation of unwarrantable abuse, the foremost
members of the Klan immediately fired upon and shot him down in his tracks
like a dog. A white and colored woman in the house recognized three or
four of the leading assailants, whom they subsequently identified, and
these were among the first residents of the city of Columbus. The names of
these parties, whose identity was sworn to, and who were afterwards placed
on trial, are as follows:
Elisha J. Kirksey, Columbus C. Bedell, James W. Barber, William A. Duke,
Robert Hudson, William D. Chipley, Alva C. Roper, James L. Wiggins, Robert
A. Wood, Henry Hennis, Herbert W. Blair, and Milton Malone.
The morning after the assassination, a coroner's jury was summoned, and,
as was usual in such cases, the verdict of these men--who were all members
of the Ku Klux Klan--was, that Mr. Ashburn came to his death "from wounds
received from parties to the jury unknown." The local authorities made a
faint show of investigating the matter, but really did nothing towards
actually ferreting out and bringing to justice the murderers.
This outrage was so revolting in its inception and consummation, that the
military authorities considered it right that they should undertake to do
what the local police and citizens of Columbus had apparently been so
indifferent in performing.
In the then condition of affairs nobody dared to appear against the
suspected parties, and consequently witnesses could not be had in the
ordinary way.
At this juncture General Geo. G. Meade, then in command of the Military
Department there--for the State of Georgia was at this time under martial
law--telegraphed to Gen. Grant, in Washington, that he desired the
services of a competent and able detective to assist in bringing the
guilty parties to justice. A second dispatch was sent by Gen. Meade,
requesting that Col. H. C. Whitley, of the United States Internal Revenue
service (then absent under Department orders in Kansas), should be
directed to report to him in person for the duty indicated. In pursuance
of this request Col. Whitley went to Columbus and commenced his labors,
which resulted in the arrest of the parties above named.
A military commission was at once convened to try the accused. The
witnesses for the Government gave their testimony in a straightforward
manner, their evidence being fully corroborated by that of the people in
the house where the deed had been consummated, and the conviction of the
parties seemed inevitable.
The citizens of Columbus raised a hue and cry; the local newspapers
sharply criticized the proceedings; a furore of excitement was engendered;
the ablest legal counsel to be had for the defence, with Alexander H.
Stephens at the head, were engaged, and large sums of money were expended
in behalf of the prisoners.
All parties were astounded, however, at the evidence which was produced
against the accused. Its preparation showed a skill and ingenuity such as
had never before been exhibited in working up a case before the courts of
the district, and it was necessary that some measures should be devised to
save the participants in the fearful tragedy from their justly merited
punishment.
This could only be accomplished in one way--by the adoption of the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, it being a clause in
the law that, upon the adoption of this amendment by the legislature of
any State, all cases of civilians pending before military tribunals
organized in said State, should be taken cognizance of by the civil courts
therein.
The Democratic members of the Georgia Legislature were between two fires;
the 14th Amendment was a bitter pill, but the necks of their confreres
were in danger, and they were compelled to vote solid with the
Republicans, and thus end the proceedings before the military tribunal. By
this means, the trials of the Ashburn murderers were taken out of the
hands of the military authorities, the prisoners put under bail, the
witnesses compelled to flee for their lives, and there the matter rests.
To the unobserving mind the murder of George W. Ashburn would seem totally
unavenged; but to him who sees in every great event the hand of an
over-ruling Providence, evolving good from evil, a different conclusion
must be arrived at. In his life, he fought manfully for the establishment
of civil rights, and the political equality of the oppressed race of which
he was the chosen champion. In his death that result was consummated, in
the State of Georgia, sooner perhaps by years than it would otherwise have
been without this sacrifice. "Wherever a few great minds have made a stand
against violence and fraud in the cause of liberty and reason," there
shall we find just such sacrifices as this, and there, too, "in the
eternal fitness of things" and the onward march of law and the
establishment of order, shall we find the triumphal vindication of those
principles for which the republic has labored and travailed, and George W.
Ashburn died.