OFFICIAL TURPITUDE.

On the 21st of May, John W. Stephens, late senator from Caswell county, was mysteriously murdered in open day, in the town of Yanceyville. The news reached this city a day or two afterwards, first in the shape of a rumor, and then by direct communication. 

On the announcement of his death, and before the result of the investigation by a Jury of Inquest was made known, Governor Holden caused to be sent from this city to Pool and Abbott, U.S. Senators at Washington, a telegraphic dispatch, giving an account of the murder, and declaring it the work of the organized band of Ku Klux, in this State. In order to strengthen his statement and make the charge appear as plausible as possible, and at the same time make the impression on Congress that Republicans were the victims of Democratic or Conservative violence in that county, he added the statement that a colored member of the Legislature had been run out of the county to save his life. These dispatches were read before the Congress had the intended effect on its Radical members, as well as on the public mind at the North.