Warning that Plot is True

“Dear Oze,

The coincidence of the fires at Dallas and other places, caused suspicion with us, and a number of our citizens a short time since, organized a watch and a vigilance committee. Many, including myself, were disposed to consider the whole affair as a needless alarm, until with the last day or two, when authenticated statements came to us, that in several places, poison had been found with negroes, and confessions made, that on the election day, this poison was to be administered in the food at breakfast and deposited in the wells and springs; and that a general plot had been made, for an indiscriminate, wholesale destruction by poison and arms on that day. This caused us to search, and on last night and this morning, poison has been found with several other negroes. We are taking prompt but deliberate measures today, to ferret out the whole matter. News came in this morning that in Anderson and Henderson counties, similar developments on a more excited scale have been made. We are in the midst of considerable excitement and I feel it my duty to write you so that your town and county may be on your guard.

I am opposed, in principle and policy to frequent alarms of this kind, and should not write, if I did not believe there is serious cause of alarm. Some of the most confidential negroes are implicated.

Yours in haste,
M H. Bonner
To Mr. Oze Taylor, Marshall”¹