Report of the Committee on Outrages in Mississippi

7 yards from my house, and we held all our club meetings there, and in the absence of Mr. Haifa I attended to the business of the 'colored people; was their secretary part of the time, and I did various other things for them. During the election of McKee the colored people waited on me and asked me if I would persuade them to vote for McKee. They left it all to me whether he was the right kind of a man for them to have to represent them in Congress. I had heard Mr. Haffa speak very happily of Mr. McKee, as well as several of his intimate friends, at Jackson, one of whom, I think, was Captain Fisher; so I said to them, “Vote for McKee; vote the republican ticket straight through ; don’t allow anything to influence you against voting that ticket.” They had. implicit confidence in me from the fact of my being there so long; and they' always consulted me in every respect during Mr. Haifa’s absence. I taught day school and night school up to the day of Mr. Haifa’s murder. He came back, I dont remember exactly what time, but I think it was in May—April or May, somewhere. MR. HAFFA TEACHES SCHOOL. Q. How long ago was that? A. I think it was three years ago last May, if my memory serves me right. The colored people waited on him and asked him if he would take their school to teach, about seven miles from there. He said he did not know whether he would or not. They asked him whether he would take an office at the next election. Said they, “We are determined to have you somewhere, because we are afraid we are going to lose you. We are very much afraid of that, and you have got to remain here with us.” He always consulted me in every question. Said he, “Ivlamma, what would you advise me to do?” Said I, “Do just as you think best. If you think it will be remunerative, perhaps you had better take the school.” He said he would give them an answer. So they came again, and he finally determined to take the school, and he taught the school up to the time he was assassinated. WARNED OF IMPENDING DANGER. The school closed on Friday, and the public school was opened the following Monday, the 6th of September—I have forgotten whether it was between two and three or three and four o’clock in the morning—but my affidavit that I made out in Jackson has the precise time, but I have forgotten now. There was a number of colored people waited on Mr. Haffa on the Sunday before. He attended their Sunday school, and always preached there Sunday for the colored people; and he came back and they said to him, “Squire, don’t you feel afraid of your life ? Don’t you feel timid?” He said, “No, I am not timid.” They said that the white people said they were going to destroy very many, and that they were not going to escape a limb, and that he was mentioned as one of them. Said he, “O, no; there is so much bragga- docia about them, I don’t suppose they will harm me now, after we have been living here so many years, and they have attempted it so often.” A FEDERAL OFFICER APOLOGIZES FOR HIS NEGLECT OF DUTY. I neglected to say that when we were first struck how he would take it to court, and a gentleman that has a United States position he came to him and apologized for not doing his duty to him. I think he is now United States marshal. When we first went there he was sheriff, and the Bushes were wealthy, and he said, “Mr. Haffa, it is no use for you to be butting yourself against the bricks while you have no money and the Bushes are wealthy, and you might as well drop the case right away, for you can’t gain anything.” But Mr. Haffa laid his damages at $10,- 000. I heard Mr. Haffa say that myself; and he got defeated out of it. Through Mr. Lake not sending the papers to the proper place at the circuit court our damages were all lost and we never got anything. When the election came around again Lake came to Mr. Haffa and apologized to him. He said, “I am very sorry for what has happened; it was my fault that those papers did not reach their destination.” Says Mr. Haffa, “Is it so?” Says he, “Yes.” Q. Do you remember Mr. Lake’s first name? A. No, sir. They told me that he had a position there when I was in Jackson. THE ASSASSINATION OF MR. HAFFA DESCRIBED. We were aroused by the barking of our dog furiously on the morning of the 6th of September. I halloed, “Who is there?” and no answer. I repeated it, and there was no answer. And then Mr. Haffa got up and said, “Who is there?” They said, “We will let you know who is there ;” or, “You will know who is there,” or something to that effect; and I said, “My God, they have the yard full of men.” I presume there were from fifty to seventy-five men barricading the whole house. And they had not only armed themselves with one or two weapons, but they had, some of them, half a dozen, because I could see them. They had them buckled around them, besides the musket that they carried. They tried to unfasten the door to get in, but we had a small crevice where we could insert »ur foot between the door and the sill, and I inserted my foot between th®

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