MILITARY COMMISSION. PROCEEDINGS IN THE CASE OF THE UNITED STATES AGAINST DUNCAN G. McRAE, WILLIAM J. TOLAR, DAVID WATKINS, SAMUEL PHILLIPS AND THOMAS POWERS, FOR THE MURDER OF ARCHIBALD BEEBEE AT FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, ON THE 11th DAY OF FEBRUARY , 1867, TOGETHER WITH THE ARGUMENT OF ED. GRAHAM HAYWOOD, SPECIAL JUDGE ADVOCATE, IN REPLY TO THE SEVERAL ARGUMENTS OF THE COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENCE by [AFRICAN-AMERICANA] HAYWOOD, Ed. Graham - 1867

Raleigh, NC: Robert Avery, 1867. First Edition. Hardcover. Contents toned. Light wear to spine tips. Near Fine. Octavo, publisher's black cloth; [iv], 398 pages. "It appears, from Mr Haywood's argument, that one Archibald Beebee, a colored man, accused of having attempted to commit the crime of rape upon one Elvira Massey, was arrested, and carried to the town hall in Fayetteville, N.C., to undergo a preliminary examination before the magistrates. He was leaving the town hall in charge of the sheriff and his assistants, when he was assaulted by a mob, and, notwithstanding a stout resistance on the part of the of the officers of the law, was brutally murdered. With regard to that part of Mr. Haywood's argument which treats of the evidence against the prisoners, who were a part of the crowd, we need not speak at length here. But the rest of his address, though open to some criticism, on the grounds of diffuseness and unnecessary display of rhetoric, is to be warmly commended, in so far as it is a stand against that lawless spirit of violence which undertakes to punish accused persons on mere suspicion of their guilt, and even when they are in the hands of the officers of the law. Whether the persons tried for this murder of Beebee were innocent or guilty, we, of course, do not know; but we are glad that the trial afforded scope for such a manly advocacy of the supremacy of law over the violence of a mob" (THE AMERICAN LAW REVIEW 1867-1868. Volume II, 1868, pages 542-543).