Letter from Congressman John H. Reagan about the Troubles

“A plot has been discovered in Tennessee colony, and extending out from there, between some white men and negroes, similar that in Dallas, Ellis and Tarrant counties. Indeed, it is regarded as a part of the same plot—to poison as many people as they could on Sunday Night before the election, and on the day of the election to burn the houses and kill as many of the women and children as they could while the men were gone to the election, and then kill the men as they returned home.

On last Sunday two white men, who lived up near Catfish Bayou, were hung as the ringleaders of the plot in this county. Our vigilance committees and patrol have active here in guarding against other dangers and in investigating this matter.

One negro has been hung in Henderson and one in Cherokee County, and we are informed that the town of Henderson has burned—supposed by incendiaries—but no particulars yet.

I am strongly persuaded, from all I can learn, that these things must be the result of an abolition plot arranged elsewhere that in Texas, and that its execution has been committed to the desperate set of Kansas outlaws or similar men. And I do not think one of them ought to be permitted to leave the State alive where his complicity can be clearly shown.”