OCR Text |
Show ;from the circuit judge of the first judicial district for the arrest of 'Willis Jones wl~o had beeu indicted at a special term of the cir- .cuit court of said district, but had eluded arrest, and was at that, time in the second judicial district. In response to said request he issued an order to one of his light-horsemen to arrest Jones and turn him over to the proper sheriff. Said Jones was arrested on this order on February 12,1593, but r a s rescued by one Albert Jack-son axd others, nho took him by force of arms from thelight-lrorseman who had 11inl in custody, whereupon Governor Jones, on March 11,1893, issued an order oo~mnanding the militia of the nation to wrest said Jones a.ud all others interfering mith the officers. Then said Albert .Jackson and one V. M. Locke, a white man and citizen of the nation by m:trriage, with about 100 Choctaw banded themselves together for the purpose of rcsist,ing the militia in 'making the arrests which their orrlers required. The militia mhile marching in search of said Willis Jo~lecsa nle upon Vie said Loclie at his house and were fired upon by Locke a.nd a fight ensued in which the sheriff of Eiamichi County and three men of the Locke party mere wvonrided. Governor Jones added thw,t 11e had themilitiain readiness, but had suspended operations until he could inform Agent Bennett and throng11 bim thiis Department in regizrd to the situation. He fnrther stated that he was very arlxious to settle the matte,r without further violence and declared that he was ,confideut that he oould, with the aid of the Choctaw officers, manage the difficulties withont the aid of United States troops; but that if he shoulcL need military aid he nrould so notify Agent Bennett. This; statement, with the excel>tion of thatpart which made it appear that the I~ockep arty began the fight, is, it seems, admitted by ail to be correct,. JIr. Locke and his friends, liowever, claini that they did ]lot arm t l~e~nsehteos r esist t l ~ ea uthority of the gover~~meonft t l ~ eC hoc-taw N:&tion lawfillly exercised, but that the action of the kovernor in orderiilgtlle arrest of Jones, first by light-horsemen and then by the militia, mas unlawfhl, operating as a suspension of civil process without suffici~!nrte ason arid a usurpation of power not given the governor by the constit6tion or laws of tho nation; tbat they armed theinselves in defens.e of their lives and of their rights nuder t,l~ceo nstitution as citi-zens oi' the nation; adso that the firing at Antlers was begnn by the militia. In lris report Agent Beunett said that he 11ad carefully listened to statelnents from Goverlior Jones, Captains llnrant and Thompson, Mr. Dukes and others of the militia faction, and a number of Iudians and leading men of the other faction, as also of disinterested eyewitnesses .of the conflict at Antlers, and that after giving to the statelnents each their full credit, and carefully ~veighingt he ia.me in all its bearings he was forced to the following oo~lviction: That the c;illing out of tho inilitis by Gorarnor Jonev to arrest %'illis Jones was unnerrs:inry and nulawful: that the sots of anid so-called milit,ia have been oontrary to the larr-s itnd the cunstitntion of the Choctaw Nation, and that the oonfliotpreoip- |