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Arrested.

A week or two since a party of thoughtless young men, in Gaston County, on a public day, while in a drunken frolic, blacked and otherwise maltreated a straggling fellow, who hailed from South Carolina, and had been for a short time in that county teaching a negro school. No Superior Court having intervened where cognizance could be taken of the offense, the matter was left to rest, when some officious individual, who was anxious, we suppose, to make capital out of it for his friends of the Radical party, reported the case to the military authorities at Raleigh, adding that the civil authorities sympathized with the wrong-doers. On the first of the week an order came from headquarters, and on Friday the parties were arrested by a guard of twenty-five men, who had been sent to Gaston for the purpose, and brought to this city and incarcerated in the Military Institute, where they were kept in close confinement under guard. Generals R.D. Johnson and R. Barringer, their counsel, called on Captain LaSall to induce him to release them on bail.  The Captain, a gentlemanly and intelligent West Pointer, stated to the prisoners' counsel that all he wanted to know was, that the omission was not designed on the part of the civil authorities to screen the parties, and that the court would proceed to investigate the affair.  He was informed that it was the custom of our people, in such cases, to leave the iniatory [initiatory] steps to a Grand Jury, and that at the first term of the Superior Court, which would hold its regular session in October, that the whole matter would come up for judicial investigation, and that the parties would be dealt with according to law.  Upon being fully satisfied on that point, he admitted the parties to bail, after having them bound over to court to answer the charges against them.

Colonel Bynum, the Solicitor on that Circuit, is an able lawyer and a fearless prosecutor, and will do his duty.  While the innocent have nothing to fear from him, the guilty seldom escapes.  

This was altogether wrong - but we apprehend all right-minded men will make some allowance for the prejudices of their people.  This fellow was a suspicious character, which, added to his teaching a negro school, inflamed those thoughtless young men, already excited by bad whiskey, to do an act which no law-abiding citizen will attempt to justify, and we know the more steady and substantial citizens of Gaston deeply regret.

We must learn to control our feelings, and curb our passions and prejudices.  Prejudice must give place to tolerance.  These acts are not creditable, and not only engender bad feeling in the County, but do a vast deal of harm abroad.  "A word to the wise," &c.

Transcription Notes:
Per instructions, left the incorrect spelling in, but noted the proper spelling to clarify the word. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-26 09:46:15 initiatory in American English 1. introductory; initial. an initiatory step toward a treaty. 2. serving to initiate or admit into a society, club, etc. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-26 14:27:54