Jackson, Ky., Aug. 29, 1916.
"Don't you want to see a nigger die," witnesses report were the
introductory remarks offered by Breck Little, who Sunday shot and
killed Henry Crawford, colored, 17 years old, on Old Buck Creek
in Breathitt County. The shots were fired from a barn door which
Crawford was passing while going up the road, and the victim fell
dead in the road.
This illustrates the lust for blood. "Don't you want to see a man
killed?" If you do, say so and you may be accommodated.
We have pointed out heretofore in a former history that there is much
similarity between the old Scottish feuds and those of Kentucky; that
the clan spirit is yet alive; that Kentucky feuds are nothing more
nor less than transplanted Scottish feuds. This view has been adopted
by other writers and sociologists as furnishing the solution of the
riddle: What is the cause of these feuds?
But can such incidents as the one cited above be attributed to the
clannishness of the people. No. Such individual acts of savage ferocity
can have but one source--an inborn, natal craving for blood. This and
this alone can furnish us any sort of explanation why men slay without
provocation or purpose.
Bad Tom Smith, of Perry County feud fame, slew to satisfy this craving
for blood. According to his own admission, it had made itself felt when
he was a mere youth. He was a degenerate pure and simple. His last
murder, that of Dr. Rader, was committed without any motive whatever.
"I just raised up and killed him while he was asleep!" That was the
only statement he would ever make concerning that bloody deed.
Environment has, of course, much to do with it. Yet if we look about
us, we find that counties in the very midst of feud-ridden sections
have remained free of the murder craze.
Many years ago Breathitt, along with practically all the other mountain
counties of the State, decided to abolish the saloon. Local option has
been in force there now for years. It was hoped that the elimination
of the legalized liquor traffic would eradicate crime, or, at least,
enormously diminish it. Prohibition is supposed to exist in Jackson
and the county at large. It will not do to say that notwithstanding
the local option law is in operation, liquor is still at the root
of the evil. We must presume that the prohibition of the sale of
liquor is enforced. To presume otherwise would be to acknowledge the
inefficacy of prohibition laws. Doubtless the local option law is
enforced in Breathitt as much so as anywhere else where similar laws
prevail, or, better said, the laws in this respect are enforced as far
as is possible with interstate shipment of whiskey into local option
territory remaining unobstructed.
The "liquor argument" is no solution of the sociological question in
hand. During all those years that prohibition has existed in Breathitt,
ostensibly so, at least, without apparent diminution of crime, without
any receding of the murder wave, other counties, neighbors to it, we
might say, have rejected local option laws, and permitted saloons
without any apparent increase in the crime rate.
Reverting again to the spirit of the Scottish Highlander as responsible
in part for the murder lust: Nearly all of southeastern Kentucky is
peopled by the same stock. Jackson and Laurel counties have never been
contaminated with the feuds which have raged on their very borders.
Jackson County in all its history has not seen as many murders
committed as have stained the soil of Breathitt in less than one year.
Jackson County has never had a feud; its chief lawlessness has been the
promiscuous sale of whiskey, illicitly, of course.
The argument has been advanced that the lawlessness which has disgraced
Breathitt and other mountain counties is directly traceable to the
contempt for law instilled in the growing up generations during the
period immediately following the Civil War.
It doubtless furnished the foundation for the deadly feuds which have
in times passed ravaged the border counties of Bell and Harlan. These
counties were frequently subjected to invasion by rebel and Union
troops, with their attendant elements of lawless camp followers,
deserters and guerillas.
Kentucky attempted to remain neutral at the outbreak of the war.
But the people divided sharply. The State Guards and Home Guards
frequently clashed. They ravaged the country without regard to military
proprieties or discipline. The civil authorities had been superseded
by military courts which often dealt more harshly than wisely with the
people they attempted to govern. In Harlan and Bell Counties bad blood
was caused by these retaliatory invasions of rebels and Home Guards.
Many men took advantage of the opportunity to wreak vengeance upon an
enemy they had feared to attack single-handed and did so under the
protection of the mass. Crimes went unpunished because committed under
the guise of military operations. But in Breathitt County there did not
exist a border war.
After all the matter sifts itself down to what has been pointed out
in the introduction: Lawlessness can exist only so long as the good
element of a community refuses to rise up against it, and suffers
itself to be intimidated.
It should be needless to say that in a republic the people must rule
supreme. By their formation of republican form of government they have
declared themselves capable and willing to govern themselves, and
to enforce the laws they have themselves made. If a people fails to
discharge the duty of properly governing themselves, they forfeit their
right of citizenship.
If a community persists in its refusal to avail itself of the right
of self-government, that right should be abrogated until such time as
it shall be able to guarantee not only willingness, but capability
for self-government. Where anarchy exists, government has fled. Where
a people supinely lay upon their backs and permit anarchy, are they
longer entitled to the citizenship of a great state and of a greater
nation?
The people of Breathitt County, by their long years of inaction and
submission to terrorization by a few, have shown that they do not or
did not consider themselves longer the most potent factor in the
conservation of order in society. Public sentiment had lost its health.
The people of Breathitt County owe it to their manhood, their county,
their state, to the nation, to redeem themselves. For the horrors of
strife there have been published broadcast to the world. "Breathitt"
has become synonymous with blood, murder, anarchy, the world over. We
have read of it in foreign newspapers.
The United States only recently demanded of Mexico that the disorders
there, especially along the borders, must cease. The Federal government
threatened that republic with war even, unless citizens of this country
and their property are protected. Government might have found as good
grounds for intervention in Breathitt during the past, and may yet--if
the murder mills there do not some of these days shut up shop.
America demands of foreign governments protection of the lives
and property of our citizens. Yet, owing to the complexity of our
governmental structure, it may not extend that protection to its
citizens within her own territory.
The outlawry along the Mexican border within the last three years has
not been as great in proportion to size of territory and population
involved as has been the destruction of lives in Breathitt County
at intervals for years. Yet with regard to Mexico this government
has seen fit to say that conditions along the border had become
"intolerant" and must cease even at the risk of war.
The people of Breathitt County are citizens of the United States,
as well as of their State and county. As such they ought to hasten
to restore the good name and the honor of the country to which they
belong, and of which they should be proud. The murderous, lawless
Mexican bandit is no more a knave than the American guilty of similar
atrocities.
There did come, a few years ago, a wave of reaction, an upheaval
which brought into the limelight of publicity the fearful state of
affairs existing there. Murders in the streets of the county seat and
throughout the county had occurred with such frequency and boldness as
to at last attract the attention of the press of the entire country.
At last a man of wide prominence in the State was struck down. This
man was J. B. Marcum, a United States Commissioner, and a trustee of
Kentucky State College, as well as lawyer of prominence and a leading
Republican.
The circumstances attending this murder and the prominence of the man
slain aroused at last a storm of indignation throughout the land.
Newspapers of other States condemned Kentucky so severely that public
sentiment within the State itself became aroused and forced the
investigations which revealed Breathitt County's history of blood and
crime.
In spite of the most strenuous efforts from certain quarters to hush
the matter up and to block investigations of the damnable plots and
murderous conspiracies by men entrusted with the enforcement of the
law, the public was at last made acquainted with conditions of affairs
in Breathitt County, which presented a picture so harrowing and
degrading that the civilized world stood aghast and for a time refused
to believe.
* * * * *
Breathitt is a beautiful mountain county along the Kentucky River,
scarcely forty miles distant from Lexington, the metropolis of the
Kentucky Bluegrass, famous the world over for the refinement of her
people.
Jackson is the county seat, a small but thriving town on the Kentucky
River, built upon numerous hills, which give it an irregular, though by
no means displeasing appearance.
Commercially, Jackson is prosperous, surprisingly so under the
circumstances. How much more rapid and greater might have been its
progress but for the deplorable epidemics of murder, none can tell.
Jackson is also the terminus of three railroads. The town has good
schools and several churches, but church-going, schools and trading
were sadly interrupted and at times completely stopped during the reign
of terror which held Breathitt in its bloody clutches during the first
decade of the present century.
It is impossible in a limited space to give more than passing
notice to all of the feudal wars which have been fought from time
to time in Breathitt County. To do so would fill a volume. What the
reader finds detailed in this chapter relates principally to the
Hargis-Cockrell-Marcum-Callahan vendetta. It is the most recent feud.
What transpired during it is but a repetition of what had occurred in
others.
The first widespread feud in Breathitt County originated immediately
after the Civil War. In that national conflict the county furnished
soldiers to the South and to the Union. John Amis and William (Bill)
Strong raised a company for the Federal cause. It became a part of the
so-called "Greasy Fourteenth," and was commanded by Col. H. C. Little.
It was in this regiment that the noted Amis-Strong feud arose. It was
the first of a series of bloody internecine strifes in that county.
The hatred engendered during the Amis-Strong feud was more bitter than
the sectional strife between the armies of the North and of the South.
A feud between the two factions was not recognized to have existed,
however, until about 1878.
In that year open and serious hostilities were precipitated by a fight
during Circuit Court. In the battle Bob Little, a nephew of Captain
Strong, was killed, and an Amis seriously wounded.
From that time on fights grew more numerous. Charges and countercharges
were made on both sides. The county was in a ferment. Finally, nearly
every family became involved in one way or another.
How many men were killed in this feud will, perhaps, never be known,
but many graves were filled. In this connection it may be well to state
that the county has rarely had a coroner and no records were kept of
deaths. It is thus an impossibility to ascertain the number of violent
deaths which have occurred in the past.
John Amis himself, the head of the faction of that name, was killed in
1873. The feud finally "burned itself out."
A few years after the termination of this one another started, under
the name of the Strong-Callahan feud. Some of the members of the
factions in the Strong-Amis feud also participated in this one. In this
war Capt. Bill Strong headed his faction. Wilson Callahan, the father
of Ed. Callahan, who figures so prominently in the Hargis-Cockrell
feud, commanded the opposing forces.
A number of men were killed off before Wilson Callahan's death by
assassination put an end to it.
The Jett-Little feud next stained the history of Breathitt County. It
was brought to a close about fifteen years ago, and after the principal
participants therein had all been killed off. As bad as conditions
had been prior to 1878, they grew decidedly worse in that year, when
Judge William Randall, the presiding judge of the Criminal Court of
the district, was compelled to desert the bench in the midst of a
court session to seek safety in flight. The county was in a state of
revolution brought about by the assassination of Judge John Burnett,
then the county judge. This crime was laid at the door of the Gambles
and Littles. The uprising of the factions was precipitated by Judge
Randall's declaration that his court would see to it that the criminals
were punished. Judge Randall never returned to Breathitt County during
his term of office.
During the latter part of the eighties another reign of terror was
initiated, and continued until the close of the decade.
Lest we might be accused of exaggeration and sensationalism, we insert
here the acrimonious, bitter correspondence between Governor Buckner
and Judge Lilly, the presiding judge of the Criminal Court of the
district which included Breathitt.
The letters are a matter of public record, and are instructive,
interesting, and will no doubt materially aid the reader to understand
the nature of frequent clashes between state, district and county
authorities.
_Judge Lilly to Governor Buckner._
Frankfort, Ky., Dec. 5, 1888.
To his Excellency, the Governor of Kentucky.
Dear Sir:--From a full investigation and inquiry into the condition
of the affairs in Breathitt County, I am fully satisfied that the
civil authorities cannot hold a circuit court in that county and
enforce the law without the aid of the State Guard. That the people
are divided to such an extent that a sheriff's posse will not be
sufficient. Several murders have been committed in the county since
the last term, and the offenders are not yet indicted, and cannot
be, unless the witnesses can be protected. Charges are made against
a brother of the sheriff, and the son-in-law of the jailer, and the
witnesses cannot be induced to go before the grand jury unless
they have assurance of protection. There is a number of felony
cases in the court, which I think will be ready for trial....
_Governor Buckner's Reply._
Hon. H. C. Lilly, Judge 19th Judicial District,
Irvine, Kentucky.
Dear Sir:--I have fully considered your letter of the fifth inst.
in reference to the condition of affairs in Breathitt County in
which communication you say that you are "fully satisfied that the
civil authorities cannot hold a circuit court in that county and
enforce the law without the aid of the State Guard; that the people
are divided to such extent that a sheriff's posse will not be
sufficient; several murders have been committed in the county since
the last term, and the offenders are not yet indicted, and cannot
be, unless the witnesses can be protected; charges are made against
a brother of the sheriff, and the son-in-law of the jailer, and the
witnesses cannot be induced to go before the grand jury unless they
have assurance of protection." And you further say: "I, as judge
of the Breathitt Circuit Court, call upon you to furnish fifty of
the State Guard, properly officered and equipped, to aid the civil
authorities in holding said court and in enforcing the law."
It is needless for me to say that in a republic the employment of
the military arm in enforcing the law is of rare necessity, and
the occasion for its use should not be of doubtful propriety. The
law invests the civil authorities with ample powers to enforce
the observance of law, and expects those officers to exert their
authority with reasonable diligence. When this is done there is
seldom an occasion when the military arm can be employed without
detriment to the public interests and without bringing the civil
authorities into discredit. When a people are taught that they
are not themselves the most important factor in the conservation
of order in society, and that they must depend upon the exertion
of extraneous forces to preserve order among themselves, they
have lost their title to self-government, and are fit subjects to
a military despotism. I do not believe that any portion of this
Commonwealth has reached that degree of political degradation.
As far as Breathitt County is concerned, while there have been
acts of individual lawlessness, I do not find in your statement,
or from any other source, an evidence of any organized opposition
to the civil authorities. On the contrary, I am convinced that
a reasonable exertion of their legitimate power would cause the
masses of the people to rally to their support more effectually
than could be done in the presence of the military force. The
latter, whatever their numbers, could not influence, and ought
not to influence, the character of the testimony of a single
witness before the grand jury, but their presence would be a
confession of weakness on the part of the civil authorities before
they had made any attempt to discharge their duties, and to this
extent would lessen respect for their authority, and render the
subsequent discharge of their duties more difficult. A healthy
public sentiment, and not the presence of an armed force, is the
best support of government; and the powers conferred upon a circuit
judge, both as a judge, and as a conservator of the public peace,
are so unlimited that a firm and judicious discharge of his duties
will almost invariably mould public sentiment in support of his
judicial actions.
Under all the circumstances, I do not believe that the presence of
troops in Breathitt County is necessary to maintain the laws. With
every purpose to support the judicial tribunals in the effective
discharge of their duties, I feel constrained to decline the
request which you make to order a detachment of the State Guard to
Breathitt County. But if my own presence will be of any service
to you, I will take pleasure in accompanying you to the Breathitt
Circuit Court if you conclude, on reconsideration, to hold it.
In your letter, November 13th, you say: "I will not attempt to
hold courts at Letcher, Knott or Breathitt unless you send guards
along." This is a matter on which the Executive can take no action.
It is for the legislative department of the government to judge of
the facts which will justify an official in thus abdicating the
duties imposed upon him by law.
But on this subject I trust you will permit me, without obtruding
on your consideration any views of my own, to invite your attention
to an act passed by the General Assembly at its last session, and
approved March 9th, 1888. Amongst other things this act provides
that "if, at any term of circuit court, the presiding judge thereof
shall be absent ... it shall be lawful for any other circuit judge
of this Commonwealth to attend and hold such term of court, and
while so engaged he shall have and exercise all the powers and
authority of the regular judge of such court."
I am informed that under authority of this act, some circuit judges
have already interchanged courts, and if there are any reasons why
you prefer not to hold the court in Breathitt, I have no doubt that
many of the circuit judges would be willing to interchange with
you. I happen to know that Honorable Lucius P. Little is willing
to hold the Breathitt Circuit Court for you, if you will hold the
McLean Circuit Court for him....
Your obedient servant,
S. B. BUCKNER.
_Judge Lilly to Governor Buckner._
Irvine, Ky., February 4th, 1889.
Governor S. B. Buckner.
Dear Sir:--Your letter dated 14th December, and postmarked on the
18th, was received by me on the night of the 25th, at Jackson,
Breathitt County. On the third page you proposed to accompany me
to Jackson in the following words: "But if my own presence will be
of any service to you, I will take pleasure in accompanying you to
Breathitt court, if you conclude, on reconsideration, to hold it."
You were advised that the Breathitt court would begin on the 17th,
and I suppose your Adjutant-General had informed you that I had
decided to go and hold court if I could do so. I told him on the
morning of the eighth that I would go to Breathitt court. You must
have believed that I would leave Irvine for Jackson as early as the
morning of the 14th, and before you wrote your letter. Why did you
make such a proposition to me at the time you did? I fear you will
have a little trouble in making people believe that you made the
offer in good faith.
On page 4 of your letter you say "I happen to know that Hon. Lucius
P. Little is willing to hold the Breathitt Circuit Court for you,
if you will hold the McLean Circuit Court for him." I thank Judge
Little for his kind offer, and believe he made it in good faith,
but why did you withhold the information from me until it was
too late for me to confer with him. He lives in the western part
of the State. You must have known that I had no time to make any
arrangements with him. You must have known that the offer was
futile, and that it could not be carried into effect. Can you make
the public believe that you were acting in good faith?
In speaking of the application made to you on the 5th of December,
you failed to make any reference to the papers filed with it. Why
did you conceal from the public the fact that a majority of the
attorneys who practice at the Breathitt Circuit Court ... and
divers other prominent men, had requested you to send a guard, and
gave it as their opinion that the court could not be held without
a guard? I am at a loss to know why you sought to throw the whole
responsibility upon me.
That the public may know something about the condition of Breathitt
County at the time, it is only necessary to say that between the
first day of August and the fifth day of December, 1888, the
following men were killed, to wit: Lewis Taulbee, James Shockey,
David Barnett, and Isaac Combs, "Shooting Ike;" and the following
men were shot and wounded, viz: Crain Flinchem, John Smith, Jeff
Smith, Marion Lawson, Curtis Spicer, Luther Abner, John Campbill,
Jack Barnett, Pearl Strong, Wm. Frances, and Breck Miller. There
were also a large number of other felonies committed in the county,
and all this, in addition to the old docket, which shows a large
number of felony cases. Knowing their system of combining their
strength to help one another, to prevent any one being punished by
the law, I submit to you if it would not have been better if you
had sent a guard there to encourage the good citizens to attend
court. I held court there three weeks, and there was no outbreak,
that is true, and it is also true that we got no verdicts in
important cases. We tried four murder cases and had hung juries
in each case. Except those required to be in attendance, the good
citizens of the county were not there. Why were they absent? I
think it was because they thought it unsafe to be there. For the
same reason nearly all the attorneys who practice at that bar
failed to attend the court.
Theories look well on paper, but when you come to put them in
practice they often fail to work well. What do murderers and
outlaws care for theories. I hope you will not think I put it too
strong when I say that your course has given comfort, if not aid,
to those who are charged with crime. They feel that they are able
to prevent the civil authorities from enforcing the law, and, in
view of your letter, they feel that no help will be given the civil
officers, and hence they will do as they please.
Judge W. H. Randall, Judge Robert Riddle, Judge Cole and Judge
Jackson and other judges have thought it advisable to have a guard.
Judge Finley failed to attend his courts in Letcher, Perry and
Knott for several terms before his term of office expired. They,
like myself, had better opportunities of knowing the real status of
affairs in their counties than people who live far away, and do not
understand the people.
It has been published in the newspapers of the State that a certain
judge of the State held his courts in Breathitt County and had no
trouble. That judge, previous to his election, had been employed
as counsel for nearly every one charged with high crime in that
county, and, as a consequence, did not have to try them. On the
contrary, he was doing all he could to prevent their conviction
and to prevent the laws being enforced upon them. He is yet the
employed counsel of six persons charged with murder and other high
crimes in that court. Of course, he had no trouble. Who can say,
whether, if he had tried to bring them to justice, he would have
gotten along so easily. As the papers pretty generally throughout
the State have published your letter to me, I hope they will do me
the favor to publish this, my answer.
Hoping you will find it easy to answer the interrogations
propounded to you in this letter, I remain,
Yours respectfully,
H. C. LILLY.
_Governor Buckner's Reply._