THE NEW-ORLEANS RIOT.

ITS OFFICIAL HISTORY.

“It was no RiotHt was an Absolute Massacre by the Police—A Murder Perpetrated by the Mayor.”

The Dispatches of Gens. Sheridan, Grant, and Baird—• the President Answered.

Washington, Friday, Aug. 24, 1866. arrived last night, but sides with the Conven- The following ia the official correspondence tion. Move the whole matter before Grand Jury, but impossible to execute civil process relating to the New-Orleana riota. without certainty of riot. Contemplated to Office United States Military Telegraph, ) have the members of the Convention under pro- Hdqrs. War Department. ) cess from the criminal court of this district. Is The following telegram was received at 9.25 the military to interfere to prevent process of p. m., July 27, 1866: court ? ALBERT YOORHIES, New Orleans, La., July 27, 1866. Lieut.-Gov. La. His Excellency President Johnson. ANDREW J. HERRON, Sir: Gov. Wella haa, in compliance with the Attorney.Gen. La. proclamation of R. K. Howell, President pro tern., signed writs of election to fill the vacan- cies in the Convention, and forward the same to [Telegram.] the office of the Secretary of State. Executive Mansion, ) ALBERT YOORHIES, Washington, D. C., July 28, 1866. [ Lieut.-Governor of Louisiana. To Albert Voorhies, Lieut.-Gov. of Louisiana, ANDREW J HERRON, New Orleans, La. Attorney-General of Louisiana. The military will be expected to sustain and not to obstruct or interfere with the pro- Office United States Military lelegraph, ) ceedings of the Court. A dispatch on the sub- Hdqrs. War Department. ) ject of the Convention was sent to Gov. Wells The following telegram, received 2 p. m., July this morning. 28, 1866, from New Orleans, July 28, 1866 • ANDREW JOHNSON. President Johnson: Radical mass meeting composed mainly of large numbers of negroes last night ending in a riot. The Committee of [Telegram.] Arrangements of said meeting assembling to- Executive Mansion, j night, violent and incendiary speeches made, ne- Washington, D. C., July 28, 1866. ) groes called to arm themselves. You bitterly To His Excellency Gov. Wells, New Orleans, denounced; speakers—Field, Dostie, Hawkins, La. « Henderson, Heir, Ward, and others. Gov. Wells I have been advised that you have issued a 2 proclamation convening the Convention elected i Executive Mansion, ) in 1864. Please inform me under and by what i Washington, D. C., July 30, 1866. f authority this has been done, and by what au-. thoritv this Convention can assume to represent | [Telegram] the whole people of the State of Louisiana. To Andrew J. Herron, Attorney-Gen. Louisiana, ANDREW JOHNSON. New Orleans. You will call on Gen. Sheridan, or whomever may be in command, for sufficient force to sus- tain the civil authority in suppressing all illegal Office United States Military Telegraph, ) or unlawful assemblies who usurp or assume te Hdqrs. War Department. ) exercise any power or authority without first The following telegram, received 8.30 p. m., having obtained the consent of the people of the July 28, 1866, from New Orleans, July 28, 1866: State. If there is to be a Convention, let it be President Johnson : Your telegram received. composed of delegates chosen fresh from the I have not issued a proclamation convening the people of the whole State. The people must be Convention of 1864. This was done by the first consulted in reference to changing the or- President of that body, by virtue ot a resolution ganic law of the State. Usurping will not be adjourning the Convention subject to his order, tolerated. The law and the Constitution must and in that case also authorizing him to call on be sustained, and thereby peace and order. the proper officers to issue writs of election in ANDREW JOHNSON. unrepresented parishes. My proclamation is in response to that call, ordering an election on the 3d of September. As soon as the vacancies can (Copy.) be ascertained, an election will be held to fill Office United States Military Telegraph, ) them, when the entire State will be represented* Hdqrs. War Department. j Your obedient servant, The following telegram was received at 4.46 J. MADISON WELLS, p. m., July 30, 1866, from New Orleans July 30, Governor of Louisiana. 1866: To Hfs Excellency President Johnson. Convention met. A riot broke out in the city. Office U. S. Military Telegraph, ) i So far the police have the upper hand. Several Hdqrs. War Department. ) ' white and colored persons killed. Called on The following telegram, received 10.20 p. m., Gen. Baird for assistance, which is cheerfully July 28, 1866, from New Orleans, La., July 28, tendered. Intense excitement. Convention 1866: broken up ALBERT VOORHIES, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Lieut.-Gov. Louisiana. A Convention has been called, with the sanction of Gov. Wells, to meet here on Mon- Office U. S. Military Telegraph, } day. The Lieutenant-Governor and city au- Hdqrs. War Department. [ thorities think it unlawful, and propose to break The following telegram, received 12.46 p. m., it up by arresting the delegates. I have given July 31, 1866, from New' Orleans, La., July 30, no orders on the subject, but have warned the 9 p. m., 1866 : parties that I could not countenance or permit To Secretary of War. such action without instructions to that effect A serious riot has occurred here to-day. I from the President. Please instruct me at once have been in full consultation with the city au- by telegraph. thorities, and have kept my troops well in hand A. BAIRD, for such an emergency. The riot commenced Brevet Major-General. unexpectedly, and before the troops could reach the scene of action a number of persons were killed and wounded. I have felt compelled to Office U. S. Military Telegraph, ) declare martial law. and have appointed a Mili- Hdqrs. War Department. ) tary Governor of the ctyy. All is quiet now. The following telegram, received 4.40 p. m., Several prominent gentlemen connected with the July 30, 1866, from New Orleans. July 30, 1866: Convention are killed or wounded. A. BAIRD, To the President of the United States. Brevet Major-General. We are in the midst of a terrible riot, caused by the assembling of the Convention. Owing to the mixed condition of affairs among the State Headquarters, Department of Louisiana, ) officers. I see no hope of quiet without you give New Orleans, La., July 30th, 1866., \ us a Military Governor. Cannot Gen. Granger To the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of be sent here ? War, Washington, D. C. F. J. HERRON, Sir: Late Major-Gen. U. S. A. I have the honor to inform you that a very • 4 * * I - M * 3

1 had n0t : From the evidencc of bad Wrbeer'applied Ln.vJT to Kby Mthe nConTenti™ on ,for protec- of the citizens, and of sympathy withon themthe part on b the L,euttD t Gov hadK?MV. freely | consulted with' ?f -me, and«™or I wasand soMayor fully : martialthe part law of thein thepolice, city, I feltand compelledappoint a to Military declare convinced that it was so strongly the intent of Governor, fiom which I hope, good results wif! the city authorities to preserve the peace in or- flow. I inclose herewith, copies of my corres- der to prevent military interference, that I did pondence with the Mayor, and a dispatch which hendef d 8,1 0Utbreak aS a thmS to be aPPre- i ^e Lieutenant-Governor claims to have received yr r ■ , , , „ , , J , j mom the President. I regret that no reply to 0 rn rb aas ured rae that evL if a writ of Brr e'st ° , ”7 dispatch to you of Saturday has yet reached thehI SheriffcihoV wouldof arrnotft attempt was issued to serve by the it court,with- remain,me. Gen. Sir, Sheridan very respectfullyis still absent your in Texasobedient I out my permission, and for to-day they designed servant. ^ ^ to suspend it. I ordered a steamer to be at a BAIRD Jackson Barracks, three miles below the city, at Brevet Mai nr an early hour in the morning, and a tug to be i ' Pn^«Jn Jinyfn ’ * ♦ ready to bear orders to the commanding officer ^ dmg Department ■of the First Infantry, stationed at that point. At 11.30 o’clock, A. M., Lieutenant-Governor Voorhiescame to see me, and after conversation, Washington, D. C., July 28, 1866. he feeling confident at the time of the ability j To At, , • , ,, , , of the policenolice to preservenreservo order,nrden I proposed"I totI ' To. Albert Voorhies, Lieut.-Governor of Louis bring to the city four companies, an hour in ad- vance of the proposed meeting of the Conven- The military will be expected to sustain and tion, at. 6 o’clock P. M., to be kept near by in not obstruct or interfere with the proceedings case they should be required to keep clear the of the courts. A dispatch on the subject of the streets in the vicinity of the hall in which the Convention was sent to Governor Wells this Convention was to meet. He agreed with me morning. that it would be very desirable, but left, not ap- ANDREW JOHNSON. prehending difficulty. At 12 o’clock M., I drove too see Judge How- ell, President of the Convention, to request that Office United States Military Telegraph, ) arrangements might be made to keep any crowd ffgdrs. War Department. ) that might assemble to protect the Convention The following telegram received 4.30 P. M., out of the streets, so as to avoid an accidental July 31, 1866, from New Orleans, dated July 31 collision. When I reached his house I learned 1866: * ’ that the Convention was to meet at 12 o’clock Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: M., and that he had gone to it. Returning to All is now quiet inn tliethe city,cit bbutu I1 stillsti11 haveb my headquarters. I soon received a letter from | t ' , 7’ * the Lieutenant-Governor, informing me that e F trooPa under arms, and shall keep them so large parties of' negroes were collecting-S - from- for some days.vT -Nearly J all unite in cauu*attributing XASUIUU2' all quarters and coming into the center of the the chief blame to the police for the troubles city. Yet, he was not sure of his information. yesterday. Thirty-seven persons are reported However, I at once sent for the troops. as killed, all belonging to the Convention or Very soon afterward, I learned that a riot had friendly to it. taken place near the Convention hall, and I sent A. BAIRD, a staff officer to investigate the facts. On his Major-General. return, he reported having met Judge Howell. ! who said the Convention had adjourned for want ■ of a quorum, but would meet again at 11.30 P. Office United States Military Telegraph, ) M. This reassured me, but I again sent to has- Hqdrs. War Department. ’ f ten the arrival of the troops. The following telegram received 8.50 P. M„ Immediately after this riot assumed a serious July 31, 1866, from New Orleans, La., July 31, character, the police, aided by the citizens, be- 1866: came the assailants, and from the evidence I am To the Adjutant-General United States Army, forced to believe, exercised great brutality in Washington: making their arrests. Finally they attacked the Comparative quiet has been restored in this Convention hall and a protracted struggle en- dty by the military, who still occupy the streets. sued. The people inside the hall gave up some There is, however, apprehensions of slight dis- who surrendered, and were attacked afterward turbances in the lower faubourg of the city. and brutally treated. Quite a large number In consequence of the limited force at my were injused; I cannot say how many—Gov. command, I am compelled to make use of the Hahn, Dr. Dostie, Mr. Fish, and perhaps others, city police, whose conduct in the riots of yester- members of the Convention, among the number. day is most reprehensible. There is every rea- On the arrival of the troops I soon cleared the son to fear the imminent peril to which the lives streets, and quiet w-as restored. and property of Union men of the city will be •i subjected by restoration of the reins of power ner so unnecessary and atrocious as to compel to the present civil authorities of the city. me to say that it was murder. About forty r A. BAIRD, whites and blacks were thus killed, and about Major-General. one hundred and sixty wounded. Everything is now quiet, but I deem it best to maintain a military supremacy in the city for a few days Office United Stale* Military Telegraph, ) until the affair is fully investigated. I believe Hqdre. War DeprrtmerU. j the sentiment of the general community is great The following telegram received 11.15P.M., regret at this unnecessary cruelty, and that the July 81, 1866, from New Orleans, La., July 31, police could have made any arrests they saw fit 1866 : without sacrificing lives. P. H. SHERIDAN, Major- Gen. 0. 0. How akd : Major-General Commanding. The riot has been suppressed. I have de- clared martial law in the city. About 40 per- sons have been killed and a large number Office U. S. Military Headquarters, ) wounded, nearly all being friendly to the Con- War Department. \ vention. A. BAIRD, The following telegram received at 6.40 p. m., Brevet Major-General. August 1, 1866, from New Orleans, La, August 1, 1866: Office U. S. Military Telegraph, ) U. S. Grant, Hdqrs. War Department. \ General: You need feel no uneasiness about The following telegram was received at 11.15 the condition of affairs here. I think I can arrange matters without difficulty. p. m., July 81, 1866, from New Orleans, July P. H. SHERIDAN, 31, 1866: Major-General Commanding. His Excellency Presidknt Johnson : Your dispatch received. Gen. Baird has de- clared martial law in this city. The Grand Jury War Department, ) has indicted the members of the Convention who Washington City, August 1, 1866. j met yesterday as an unlawful assembly. The Major-General Baird, New Orleans: process for their arrest in the hands of the Sher- Please report immediately the condition of iff is suspended by Gen. Baird until he receives things at New Orleans, in cypher. direct instructions from Washington. I showed 6 EDWIN M. STANTON, him your dispatch to me. Secretary of War. ANDREW J. HERRON, Attorney-General. Office United States Military Telegraph, ) Hdq’rs. War Department. ) Office U. S. Military Telegraph. ) JIdq're. War Department. j [Cypher.] The following telegram received 6.15 p. m., The following telegram was received at 9 a. m., August 1, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August August 3, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August 1, 1866: 2, 1866 : • U. S. Gbant, To the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of General: You are doubtless aware of the War: serious riot which occurred in this city on the All is quiet upon the surface, but there are 30th. A political body, styling itself the Con- still slight disturbances in some localities. The vention of 1864, met on the 80th, for, as it is police are still afraid to go up there singly, and alleged, the purpose of remodelling the present some Radical citizens are afraid to sleep in their Constitution of the State. The leaders were houses. The proclamation of martial-law was political agitators and revolutionary men, and necessary, because the police are regarded by a the action of the Convention was liable to pro- large portion of the community as the rioters, duce breaches of the public peace. and were feared. I had made up my mind to arrest the head I am confident it saved many lives and great men, if the proceedings of the Convention were excesses. Its administration extends only to calculated to disturb the tranquillity of the De- holding the city authorities and the police under partment ; but I had no case for action until the supervision of the Military Governor. It they committed the overt act. In the mean should be kept until military investigation can time, official duty called me to Texas, and the determine whether any of the city officers are Mayor of the city, during my absence, suppressed guilty. I would then advise its withdrawal. the Convention by the use of their police force, The Governor felt compelled to ask for a military and in so doing attacked the members of the 6guard for his protection. Convention and a party of two hundred negroes, A. BAIRD, and with fire-arms, clubs, and knives, in a man- Brevet Major-General. 5

Executive Office, ) to our knowledge conferred with by Gen. Baird Washington, August 1, 1866. j as to propriety of declaring martial law. Civil To Major-Gen. Absalom Baird, Commanding authorities could easily enforce the law and pre- New Orleans, La.: serve order, with the aid of the military. Mar- You will not interpose any obstacle in the tial law wholly unnecessary. Order fully re- way of the civil authorities, but render what- stored before arrival of troops. The rioting at ever aid may be required by them for the pre- most entirely confined to immediate vicinity of servation of public peace. Mechanics’ Institute, and suppressed by the Police The foregoing telegram is transmitted to you in less than two hours, and before the arrival of the by order of the President. You will acknowledge troops. Left copy of your dispatch at Gen. its receipt Baird’s headquarters. E. D. TOWNSEND, ALBERT VOORHIES, Assistant Adjutant-General. Lieut.-Governor. ANDREW J. HERRON, Attorney-General. War Department, Adjutant- Generate Office, ) Washington, August 14, 1866. j Deceived 6 p. m.—{Cipher.] The following telegram, received 6 p. m., August 2, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August Office United States Mil. Telegraph, ) 2, 1866: Headquarters War Department, j Office United States Military Telegraph, 1 The following telegram received 9.20 a. m., Hdqrs. War Department. J August 3, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August 2, 1866: [Cipher.] To Brevet Major-Gen. E. D. Townsend, Assistant IT. S. Grant, General, Washington, D. C. • Adjutant General: The mare information I obtain of the affair of Your dispatch received. No obstacle will be the 30th in this city the more revolting it be- imposed in the way of the civil authorities. comes. It was no riot. It was an absolute A. BAIRD, MASSACRE BY THE POLICE, WHICH WAS NOT EXCELLED Brevet Major-Gen. IN MURDEROUS CRUELTY BY THAT OF FoRT PlLLOW. It was a murder which the Mayor and Police OF THE CITY PERPETRATED WITHOUT THE SHADOW [Telegram.] OF A NECESSITY. Executive Office, ) Furthermore, I believe it was premeditated, Washington, August 1, 1866. ) and every indication points to this. I recommend To Albert Voorhies, Lieut-Governor, or An- the removal of this bad man. I believe it would drew J. Herron, Attorney-General, New be hailed with the sincerest gratification by two- Orleans: thirds of the population of the city. There has Were the civil authorities, State or Federal, been a feeling of insecurity on the part of peo- conferred with by Gen. Baird before he declared ple here on account of this man, which is now so martial law ? Could not the civil authorities, much increased that the surety of life and property State or Federal, enforce the law and preserve does not rest with the civil authority, but the mili- order with the aid of the military, without the tary. aid of martial law ? I hope that order has been P. H. SHERIDAN, restored and the riot not as disastrous as repre- Major-General Commanding. sented. Please show this dispatch to Gen. Baird. The foregoing telegram is transmitted to you by order of the President. You will please Office U. S. Military Telegraph, 1 acknowledge its receipt. Headquarters, War Department, j E. D. TOWNSEND, [Cipher.] Assistant Adjutant General, The following telegram, received 10 p. m., War Department, Adjutant-Generats Office, August 3, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August Washington, August 1, 1866. 3, 1866: Deceived 6.10 p. m. ; sent 6.60 p. m. H. S. Grant, General, Washington; I have the honor to report quiet in this city, but considerable excitement in the public mind. Office U. S. Military Telegraph, 1 There is no interference on the part of the mili- Hdqrs. War Department. ) tary with the civil government, which performs The following telegram, received 3.40 p. m., all its duties without hindrance. I have per- August 2, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August mitted the retention of the Military Governor 2, 1866: appointed during my absence, as it gives confi- Brevet Major-Gen. E. D. Townsend, Acting dence and enables the military to know what is Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, occurring in the city. He does not interfere D. C.: with civil matters. Unlees good judgment is exer Dispatch received. Civil authorities were not cised, there will be an exodus of Northern capital 6 and Union men which will be injurious to the city information as he may be in possession of? and to the whole country. I will remove the Mili- Please answer by telegraph at your earliest con- tary Governor in a day or two. I again strongly venience. advise that some disposition be made to change ANDREW JOHNSON, the present Mayor, as I believe it would do more President of the United States. to restore confidence than anything that could be done. If the present Governor could be changed also it would not be amiss. Office U. S. Military Telegraph. P. H. SHERIDAN, The following cipher telegram, received 4.30 Major-General Commanding. p. m., August 6, 1866, from New Orleans, La., August 6, 12 m., 1866: Headquarters Armies United States, ) His Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of Washington, D. C., Aug. 3, 1866. j the United States: Major-Gen. Sheridan, New Orleans, La.: I have the honor to make the following reply Continue to enforce martial law, so far as may i lo your dispatch of August 4. A very large be necessary to preserve the peace, and do not I number of colored people marched in procession allow any of the civil authorities to act, if you i on Friday night, July 27, and were addressed deem such action dangerous to the public safety. [ from the steps of the City Hall by Dr. Dostie, Lose no time in investigating and reporting the I ex-Gov. Hahn, and others. causes that led to the riot and the facts which The speech of Dostie was intemperate in lan- occurred. guage and sentiment. The speeches of the others, U. S. GRANT, as far as I can learn, were characterized by mod- General. eration. I have not given you the words of Dostie’s speech, as the version published was denied ; but from what I have learned of the man, Executive Mansion, ) I believe they were intemperate. The Convention Washington, D. C., Aug. 4, 1866. J assembled at 12 m., on the 30th, the timid mem- To Major-General Sheridan, Commanding,

testimony of wounded men and others who were many of them arrested and held to bail. As to inside the building, the policemen opened an indis- whether the civil authorities can mete out am- criminate fire upon the audience until they had ple justice to the guilty parties on both sides, I emptied their revolvers, when they retired, and those must say it is my opinion, unequivocally, that inside barricaded the doors. they cannot. Judge Abell, whose course 1 have The door was broken in and the firing again closely watched for nearly a year, I now con- commenced, when many of the colored and sider one of the most dangerous men that we white people either escaped through the door have here to peace and quiet of the city. or were passed out by the policemen inside, but The leading men of the Convention, King, as they came out, the policemen, who formed Cutler, Hahn, and others, have been political the circle nearest the building, fired upon them, agitators and are bad men. I regret to say that and they were again fired upon by the citizens the course of Gov. Wells has been vacillating, that formed the outer circle. and that, during the late trouble, he has shown Many of those wounded and taken prisoners, very little of the man. , and others who were prisoners and not wounded, P. H. SHERIDAN, were fired upon by their captors and by citizens. Major-General Commanding. The wounded men were stabbed while lying on the ground, and their heads beaten with brick- bats. In the yard of the building, whither some of the colored men had escaped and partially Office U. 8. Military Telegraph, ) secreted themselves, they were fired upon and Hdqrs. War Department. J killed or wounded by policemen; some men [Cipher.] were killed and wounded several squares from The following telegram, received at 4.10 p. m., the scene. Members of the Convention were Aug 7, 1866, from New-Orleans, Aug. 6, 1866: wounded by the policemen while in their hands U. 9. Grant, General: as prisoners, some of them mortally. I have the honor to report a rapid change for The immediate cause of this terrible affair the better, throughout the city. There was was the assembling of this Convention. The re- much excitement on Sunday and Monday, in mote cause was the bitter and antagonistic feel- consequence of an unfounded rumor that there ing which has been growing in this community would be a collision between the whites and since the advent of the present Mayor, who, in blacks yesterday. There was no good reason the organization of his police force, selected to expect such an event, however. many desperate men, and some of them known P. H. SHERIDAN, murderers. Major-General. People of clear views were overawed by want of confidence in the Mayor and fear of the “Thugs,” mamy of whom he had selected for his War Department, 1 olice force. I have frequently been applied to Washington, D. C., Aug. 7, 1866. ) y prominent citizens on this subject, and have heard them express fear and want of confidence [Telegram.] in Mayor Monroe ever since the intimation of To Major-Gen. P. H. Sheridan, Commanding, ? this last Convention. I must condemn the course etc., New Orleans, La. of several of the -city papers for supporting, by The President directs me to acknowledge your their articles, the bitter feeling of a bad man. telegram of the 6th inst., in answer to his in- As to the merciless manner in which the Convention quiries of the 4th inst. On the 3d inst. instruc- was broken up, I feel obliged to confess a strong tions were sent you by Gen. Grant, in conformity repugnance. with the President’s directions, authorizing you It is useless to attempt to disguise the hos- to continue to enforce martial law so far as might tility THAT EXISTS ON THE PART OF A GREAT be necessary to preserve the public peace, and MANY HERE TOWARD NORTHERN MEN; AND THIS ordering you not to allow any of the said au- UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR HAS SO PRECIPITATED MAT- thorities to act if you deem such action danger- TERS THAT THERE IS NOW A TEST OF WHAT SHALL ous to the public safety, and also that no time be BE THE STATUS OF NORTHERN MEN WHETHER lost in investigating the causes that led to the THEY CAN LIVE HERE WITHOUT BEING IN CONSTANT riot and the facts which occurred. DREAD OR NOT ; WHETHER THEY CAN BE PROTECTED By these instructions the President designed IN LIFE AND PROPERTY, AND HAVE JUSTICE IN THE to vest in you, as the chief military commander, COURTS. a full authority for the maintenance of the public If the matter is permitted to pass over without peace and safety, and he does not see that any- a thorough and determined prosecution of those thing more is needed pending the investigation engaged in it, we may look for frequent scenes of with which you are intrusted; but if, in your the same kind, not only here but in other places. judgment, your powers are inadequate to preserve No steps have, as yet, been taken by the civil the peace until the facts connected with the riot authorities to arrest citizens who were engaged are ascertained, you will please report to this in this massacre, or policemen who perpetrated Department, for the information of the President. such cruelties. The members of the Convention EDWIN M. STANTON, have been indicted by the Grand Jury, and Secretary of War. omitted by the President in the regular publi- WHO IS TO BLAME FOB THE cation of the official correspondence, puts the Pres- GABBLED DISPATCHES! ident in a still worse predicament. [Special Dispatch to the N. Y. Tribune.] Washington, Aug. 30, 1866. Extract from the Proceedings of a Special Meet- The following dispatch from the Tribune Bu- ing of the State Central Executive Commit- reau of New Orleans, has just been received at tee of the Republican Party of Louisiana, The Tribune Bureau here: August 8, 1866. New Orleans, La., Aug. 80, 1866.—It may yet Whereas, On the 30th day of July, 1866, at appear officially that Gen. Sheridan’s dispatches New Orleans, La., an organized band of assassins have been further tampered with at Washington. did maliciously and brutally murder a large The following important telegram to Gen. Grant number of unarmed and unsnspecting Union has been for some reason omitted in the pre- citizens; and, whereas, in our opinion the same tended publication of all the correspondence. spirit which caused the late Rebellion against Investigation way prove the suppression of the the Government of the United States animated dispatch: the perpetrators of the atrocious murders of July 80; and, whereas, under circumstances equally Headquarter* Military Division of the Gulf. ) favorable, other murders and outrages may be Aug. 13, 1866. f repeated from the same assassins; therefore, Gen. D. S. Grant, Washington, D. C.: Resolved, In the name of the loyal people of The Military Board, called by Gen. Baird to Louisiana, that we respectfully ask the Com- investigate the occurrences in this city of July mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the 13, is progressing as rapidly as possible. I see United States to maintain martial law over the in the papers, by reports of an official character city of New Orleans, at least until the authors here, that an attempt was made to cast blame on and aiders and abettors of the late massacre shall the military for not being present on the 13th have been brought to such punishment as will ult There could have been no object in its be- secure the observance of law and order, and pro- ing present, except to prevent the police from tect the lives of the Union citizens of New perpetrating a revolting massacre. Its absence, Orleans. for this reason, I regret. From accounts of my Resolved, That a copy of the above preamble own scouts, who saw theadfair from first to last, and resolution, which was unanimously adopted, from my own officers, from disinterested and be forwarded to Andrew Johnson, Commander- faithful persons, I believe that at least nine-tenths in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United of the casualties were perpetrated by the police States. and citizens by stabbing and smashing in the heads of many who had been already wounded or killed by policemen. THE NEW ORLEANS MASSACRE. P. SHERIDAN, Major-General Commanding. It is not often we have as sad a story as that told in The Tribune this morning. A company of American citizens, holding representative positions in Louisiana, members of a Convention THE GUILTY PARTY. elected in 1864 by the loyal people of that The personal friends of General Grant here in- State, legally assembling in pursuance of a call dignantly deny the charge in The New York of the Governor, are besieged by a mob and Times of to-day, that their Washington corres- some of them massacred. A riot in New Or- pondent sent to The Tmes the garbled dispatch leans is not an unusual occurrence. Now it is of Gen. Sheridan to Gen. Grant just as he, the not a riot, but the uprising of the Rebel popula- correspondent, received it from Gen. Grant. The tion against loyal citizens of the United States, aforesaid dispatch was not received from Gen. engaged in the performance of loyal duties. Grant by TTie Times correspondent. Gen. Grant, The accounts we have are mainly from Rebel after receiving the dispatch from Gen. Sheridan, sources—the agent of the Associated Press in took it immediately to the President, and that is New Orleans having been, we are informed, the last he saw of it. The Times correspondent formerly a soldier in the Rebel army. His got the dispatch from the President, he being! statements show hi- full sympathy with the riot- the only correspondent here who is admitted into i ers. We are told that the outbreak was occa- the ring of the White House. All here agree | sioned by an assault of a negro upon a white that the dispatch was garbled at the White | man—a white man having been pushed along House. When the dispatch in its garbled form j the sidewalk and tripped up during a procession! first appeared in The 7\mes, Gen. Grant was Considering how men are frequently pushed and heard to say by persons here, that an important tripped up whenever a militia regiment parades sentence had been left out in the dispatch as on Broadway, we can imagine the extent of the printed in The limes. This, together with the provocation necessary to excite Rebel malignity. dispatch of Gen. Sheridan to Gen. Grant, dated The action of Mayor Monroe is more intelligible. New Orleans, Aug 18, 1866, and which was We see him seriously proposing to arrest the 9 members of the Convention for daring to come Washington—nor as the armed commanders of together at the call of the Governor. Then he armies—but as plain citizens devoted to the issues a proclamation which reads to us like an flag. It was to reward such men as the mur- incentive to riot. He begins by speaking of the dered Dostie that we took the outlawed loyalist, Convention as the Extinction Convention of Andrew Johnson, from the dust, and stamped 1864, and specially calls upon the young men to him with a diadem. And in return we have our keep quiet and not molest said Convention, for brothers and friends—more than brothers, in- he is satisfied by “recent dispatches from Wash- | deed, by reason of their devotion during the ington, that the deliberations of the members I War—butchered by a Rebel mob, in broad noon, thereof will receive no countenance from the with a Rebel Mayor inspiring the massacre, President, and that he will sustain the agents of j Rebel soldiers acting as “ police,” and Union the present civil governments and vindicate its soldiers, under Union officers, compelled to laws and acts to the satisfaction of the good peo- stand silent, by order of Andrew Johnson. The ple of the State.” In other words, every Rebel hands of the Rebels are again red with loyal in New Orleans is told by a Rebel Mayor that blood; Rebel armies have once more begun the the President of the United States is in sym- work of massacre, and the President of our pathy with him; that the members of the Con- choice, who has sworn to defend the laws and vention are outlaws and not under Executive protect the people of the United States, is si- protection, and that whatever the rebels might do lent. Is it too much to say that this silence is to vindicate the “ Reconstruction Policy,” would a crime.—From Daily Tribune, July 31. meet the President’s approbation. Still, do nothing scandalous 1 Gen. Baird’s patriotic de- termination was promptly overruled by a dis- PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S RESPONSI- atch from the President, Edwin M. Stanton eing Secretary of War. Every Rebel saw that BILITY. the Mayor was sustained, and that the President If any doubt existed as to President Johnson’s was the Rebel’s friend. connection with the massacre in New Orleans, it Read the dreadful story! The Convention will be removed by reading his dispatch to At- meets. There are no soldiers in the assembly. torney-General Herron of Louisiana. This dis- The police—Rebel soldiers many of them—are patch, written with the knowledge that loyal “ exemplary,” and try to prevent “ lynching and citizens of the United States were dying from mobbing.” One prominent member—a citizen wounds received by a Rebel mob, assumes the of many years’ standing—is dragged to jail. full responsibility of the deed. The policy that The President and members are gradually ar- prompted Mayor Monroe and his followers found rested and imprisoned. A procession of negroes its inspiration in Washington. approach. “Some whites” endeavor to “dis- This conclusion fills us with inexpressible sad- perse ” them, but are “ repulsed.” Shots are ness, but we cannot resist the facts. It is a dread fired. “ Three negroes are killed on Dryades-st., ful thing to arraign the President of the United and two on Common-st.” The Rebel mob sur- States as being in any possible sympathy with rounds the hall where the members are in ses- the unlawful shedders of blood, but when a plain sion. A regular siege begins. “ Every visible fact is to be stated the plainest words are the head in the ouilding is fired upon.” “ Ur. A. P. best. In the first place the President recognizes Dostie and John Henderson, Jr., are brought out a usurped power to communicate his wishes. of the building dead, and carried off in carts.” James M. Wells is the Governor of Louisiana, The first was an eminent physician, the second and the official representative of the State. To a well-known lawyer of New Orleans, conspic- him the President should have spoken. But uous for their loyalty during the dark days of Gov. Wells, a duly elected governor by Rebel rebellion. They were carried off in carts, and votes, had called this Convention together, and it is doubtful if “ many have gotten out of the the President steps over the theory of State hall alive.” All this time Andrew Johnson Rights, and sends his commands to an officer of President, and Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of his Cabinet—his Attorney-General—one Andrew War ! J. Herron—a conspicuous Rebel in the days of We are telling this story as it is told by Reb- treason. The President directs him to call upon els. We can make but one comment. For all the Gen. Sheridan for “sufficient force to sustain blood shed in New Orleans we hold the Execu- the civil authorities in suppressing all illegal or tive power responsible. The President knew unlawful assemblies.” If the President really the temper of these men. He had but to recall believes that States have rights, and Governors a very few years of his own history to find him- of States privileges, then his course in recogniz- self flying before a mob like that which murdered ing an officer of Gov. Wells’s Cabinet as the A. P. Dostie and his loyal associates. These riot- proper authority to call out troops is a usurpa- ers were precisely the manner of men that tion. What would have been said if Congress President Johnson claimed to be. They were had requested Attorney-General Speed to call loyal like him. They opposed Secession as he out the troops and perform the highest executive opposed it. They dared social ostracism and functions. Yet Mr. Speed had as much right to Rebel vengeance, not from the safe distance of call out the troops of the United States as Mr. 2 10

Herron has to take command of the troops in j flags in New Orleans. His construction of Presi- Louisiana. dential duty has led him to commit an act of This is a small point in our argument, but it direct usurpation in Louisiana. His oath to shows the tendency of the President. His dis- protect and defend the nation finds expression in patch recognizes a usurpation, and proceeds to the unavenged assassination of men whose loyalty defend the massacre. All “ unlawful assemblies ” was as conspicuous and self-denying and sorely must be suppressed. Well, this particular as- tried as his own. All that we have gained by sembly was suppressed—and very effectually— the war comes to this: that in Louisiana an for its leaders were murdered, and those who es- illustrious General of the Union army is com- caped murder are either lying in the prison or pelled to accept the orders of a notorious pun- the hospital. According to the President, this ished Rebel. The time has come for the people Convention had riot “ obtained the consent of to speak—and let it be in tones so distinct and the people of the State.” If it at all entered unmistakable that even Andrew Johnson will into our argument we might ask him what right not dare to disobey the warning.—From Daily had the President to determine this fact ? Gov. Tribune, August 1st, 1866. Wells thought the Convention was legal, and, as he is Governor, what right has President John- son with it? Who gives the President of the United States the power to traverse the decision We to-day surrender space that we can ill of a State Executive, or to decide upon the com- spare to a reprint verbatim of The Times's report petency of a State Convention? Would he be of the New Orleans massacre from the pen of its authorized in sending a dispatch to Gen. Barlow witnessing correspondent. We entreat every declaring the New York Legislature to be un- reader to take time to thoughtfully peruse and lawful, and calling upon Gen. Hooker to disperse thoroughly master this statement. It may be its members? According to the President’s no fuller or clearer than others already given in own theory—the theory that Louisiana is a these columns; but it is The Times's, and there- sovereign State and her officers competent to fore is free from even the suspicion of partiality govern it—he is guilty of the most flagrant as- for the martyrs and their cause. Here is an eye- sumption of executive power. witness whom our adversaries cannot impeach, We pass beyond this theory, or indeed any and he fixes the guilt of that awful deed on the theory of Presidential prerogative. The facts author and upholders of “ My policy ” beyond are that certain Union men—conspicuous for question or cavil. The unchanged Rebels of their loyalty during years of war—have been New Orleans deliberately conspired to murder murdered by Rebels, who were conspicuous for the leading champions of Equal Rights in their treason in years of war. The men who did the city, and they achieved their fell purpose with a deed are enabled to show warrant for their crime demoniac ferocity and fiendishness rarely paral- from the President of the United States.— leled. Again we say, Read the letter of The When Gov. Brownlow asked for troops to com- Times's correspondent! pel the obedience of Executive commands, and to protect the Legislature in its legislative power, he was petulantly refused. In Tennessee THE LATE RIOT. the majority was loyal, and the President threw his influence with the minority. In Louisiana What The Times' Eye-Witness Says of the Af- the majority was Rebel, and the President not only sustained it, but placed in its hands the fair.— The Massacre Preconcerted by Rebels. army of the United States. If it was right to refuse aid to Brownlow in seeing that “ the law Correspondence of The N. Y. Times. and the Constitution were sustained, and thereby New Orleans, La., Tuesday, July 31, 1866. peace and order,” then it was wrong to refusQ With the origin of the riot yesterday the aid to Gov. Wells and his Convention. If that readers of The Times are well aware. The ap- Convention was unlawful, there were remedies pearance of the colored procession on Canal in the Supreme Court. We have had a dozen Street, composed of about 100 freedmen, was the Fenian Conventions in the last year—all unlaw- signal for its commencement. Some white by- ful—as organizing war upon a friendly power. standers attempted to take away the national fag The President permitted them to assemble, and which they were carrying, and a shot was fired. sent no troops to disperse them. Why make an The blacks claim that the whites fired it. Thr exception of loyal men in Louisiana, who, at the whites tell a contradictory story. I have seen very worst, and accepting as truth the charges responsible men who were present, but they fail of the President, were no more illegal than the to give an authoritative statement about this firs' Senate of the Fenian Brotherhood. shot. Immediately after it was fired, however, a It is folly to use soft phrases in speaking of bright yellow boy commenced haranguing his this appalling crime. The policy of Andrew comrades in the procession, advising them to Johnson engendered the demon fury which has clear the streets of the “white shed blood in the streets of the Crescent City. He was arrested by an aid of the Chief-of-Police. His statesmanship has once more raised Rebel This was the first arrest made. The processio . 11 then moved on, and turned into Dryades Street, fell on their faces, and after the police had ex- halting in front of the Mechanics’ Institute, now pended their shots, got up and drove them used as the State Capitol, where the Convention out of the room with chairs,

peculiarly ministerial, one which distinctly black man, had it not been for a few gallant and marked him as a clergyman, he came down chivalric policemen. From what I have already stairs with a white handkerchief on his cane, in- said, however, you must know that some of the tending to surrender himself peaceably. He force were the worst rioters present. A gentle- was met, knocked down, trampled upon, kicked, man of my acquaintance spoke to one of them and beaten nearly to death, while begging for in the act of killing a freedman, asking him, mercy. The police and their rioting friends “ Why don’t you arrest him !” “ Don’t kill him.” were his assailants. Dr. Dostie, intending to The reply was, “ Shut your mouth, you nigger- surrender himself, also came down. He was loving , or I’ll kill you.” The force seems shot, stabbed, and treated in the same manner to be a mixture of cowardly brutes and respect- as Horton, although he implored the ruffians to able men. The few officers that I have con- take him prisoner and spare his life. It is prob- versed with since the riot do not pretend to de- able that both Horton and Dostie will die. ny what I have here stated about them, and I These details suffice to show how the arrests am willing to affirm that I have told nothing were made. R. Kin^ Cutler and Judge R. K. but the truth. Howell escaped without much injury, and, I saw a colored Corporal of an artillery rai- chancing to fall into the hands of humane po- ment, apparently, walking in the middle of Ba- licemen, were conveyed to prison almost unin- ronne-st., while on his right hand an infuriated jured. crowd were chasing a freedman down the side- On Common, Baronne, Dryades, St. Charles, walk, and on his left hand another crowd were Rampart and Carondelet Sts, freedmen were mur- chasing one up the sidewalk. Each crowd were dered by the police and the mob in cold blood. firing pistols, and throwing clubs and stones at Standing in the door of the telegraph in Ca- their victim. The Corporal walked in the mid- rondelet, I saw about 200 men chasing one ne- dle of the street, in full uniform, with side arms gro along the sidewalk. Six policemen were only, as steadily and soldierly as if on drill He nearest to him, and in advance of his pursuers. had been sent on an errand by one of his officers, They emptied their revolvers into his back, and and was returning. It was a scene that made finally another one, when he was near enough to his my heart thrill with admiration for a brave man, victim to lay his hand on his shoulder, shot him in although he was as black as ink. the-head, and he fell dead in an alley. Another I heard a Union man in the midst of a crowd freedman trying to escape from the Institute, : of Rebel rioters, who were pounding a negro was climbing over a fence, when I saw him fall and shouting for Jeff. Davis, swear at them and from a policeman’s shot. As he struck the ground call them traitors, and every epithet of igno- at least a dozen police and rioters surrounded him miny that his tongue could command. Strange and fired their pistols into his head and breast, at to say they allowed him to escape unhurt. the same time pounding him with clubs and canes. \ An old gray-headed Irishman, member of the The blood flowed from wounds in his scalp, cov- Convention, named Haynes, did the same thing ering his entire face; but they continued their while passing through the crowd under guard brntal assault until he breathed his last, although although they had ropes ready to hang him. He he several times raised his feeble and wounded defied them to do their worst and threatened them arms to gesticulate for the mercy his tongue to haunt them “ wid his ghost” if they harmed could not ask for. I saw a white man draw a a hair of his head. stiletto and strike it into the heart of a dying ne- When Fish, the first member that I saw ar- gro on Common St. The blood spirted out in great rested, was passing down Canal Street, a ruffian red jets, staining the murdered s clothing, face and mounted a piece of scaffolding in front of a new hands. He got up and displayed the gory marks building and attempted to throw a rope over his as though they were proud emblems of a praise- i head. Another one hit him in the back with a worthy deed. These and other incidents which 11 brick-bat, whereupon he turned around and de- saw, suffice to show you how the freedmen were j fied them in language remarkable more for its treated in a majority of cases. It is due to jus- abusiveness than politeness. tice, however, to say that some of the policemen I saw negro draymen, and other colored men, treated ?ven the freedmen with moderation, and pursuing their regular business avocations, pass rescued them from death at the hands of the through the crowd of rioters unharmed. One mob. old colored man attracted my attention particu- The police behaved, as a general rule, with larly. He walked through the mob on the side- extraordinary bravery and extraordinary cruel- walk with a bundle under his arm and an iron ty. Probably 60 of them were wounded, sev- bar in his hand. His chin was firmly set and his eral of them mortally. They were nearly all eyes looked daggers. No one dared to molest doubly armed, and used their arms with great him. effect and indiscriminate execution. As I nave The Institute is now under guard of Com- before remarked, some of them did their duty in pany A, 1st United States Colored Troops. It is protecting their prisoners, and all the prisoners a large turreted brick building, located, as I tele- who are now alive owe their lives to this fact. graphed you yesterday, on Dryades Street, be- The mob would have lynched every white man tween Canal and Common. Since the destruc- in the building, and brutally murdered every tion of the Capital building at Baton Rouge, it % 13 has been used by the officials of the State than usual. When the fire-bell rang the Fourth Government for offices. The main hall, in which District force appeared, moving toward the In- the Convention met, was capable of holding stitute, and in a short time every available about 700 persons, being in the second story and policeman in the city was on the ground. Young embracing the full extent of the structure, ex- men deserted their business everywhere, and cept a large double stairway in front. The hall hurried to the scene of action. The signal in- was erected for the use of public meetings, and, tended for the police was adopted by the rioters. therefore, is surrounded on all sides with low The affair commenced at 12.45, and, lasting windows, which reach up nearly to the ceiling. three hours, ended at 3.45. It did not end until At the rear end of the hall is an elevated plat- every negro and while man in the Institute had form, on which the speaker’s desk is located. been either killed or wounded and captured, with The furniture in the room consisted of ordinary the exception of three or four whites. As there were cane-bottom arm-chairs and a few desks for sec- but 100 men of both classes in the building, and retaries. A. railing, called the “bar of the about 50 wounded outside, the total casualties will house,” divides the room in half, partitioning off amount to 125, of whom 50 were killed or have the lobby from the space in which the members since died of their wounds. This estimate is mod- had their seats. The office of the Governor and erate. his retinue are in the first story. Yesterday The military force Was encamped at Camp morning everything about the building was Jackson, five miles from the scene of the riot, scrupulously clean. At night it was blood-stained and in the morning were told to be ready for and smeared with clots of human gore from one end any emergency. They did not arrive until quiet of it to the other. The stairway, the halls, the had been restored, and it was only restored when offices, in fact every apartment shows conclusive there was nothing left to kill or maim. It is cer- evidence of the desperation of the mob and the tain that somebody was very derelict in order- cruel violence of their slaughter. Tangled and ing the troops into town. Gen. Sheridan was bloody knots of hair and crisp wool show how whites not in town, and Gen. Baird had command. 1 and blacks died together, struggling against infuri- understand that one of his staff reported every- ated implacable enemies. The sidewalk in front of thing quiet when, at the time he was making his the Institute and on both sides of the street report, the massacre had begun and progressed along the whole block is also bespattered with for a quarter of an hour. His dereliction should blood and brains, and the fences and even the be investigated. sides of some of the dwelling-houses are in the The police impressed the baggage-wagons of same condition. A refreshing shower, which an express firm in this city, to carry off the dead ; fell this morning, washed away some of the one load, consisting of eight or ten bodies, had two marks; but enough remain to shock even the living men at the bottom. They were wounded, casual passer by. The chairs and furniture in and perhaps would have died; but they had life the Hall are broken in pieces, and the window- enough left in them to struggle for air. An eye- panes are shivered and shattered from the per- witness, whose name I can furnish, says that a fect rain of bricks. The building stands now, policeman mounted the cart, and shoving his revol- smoking under the rays of the hot sun which ver down between the bodies on top, killed the poor has followed the rain, a monument of disgrace to fellows, with one shot for each. The fiendish the city, the State, and the country in which thirst for blood which seemed to possess some of such scenes can be enacted. the rioters was too brutal for even the imagina- It is asked, was the riot preconcerted ? It tion of a savage. Their eyes gleamed with it, and plainly was ! There was no regularly organized rolled in their sockets; their tongues protruded remeditated attack at any one point of time, from their mouths, parched and shriveled almost, ut there was a general understanding among and their voices grew husky from demoniac yells. all of the young bloods about town that a riot I have no doubt but that some of the policemen would occur, and they promised each other to be and rioting whites were wounded by members of present and do their “duty” when the time their own party, as some of them seemed pos- came. I heard, for days before the occurrence, sessed with a desire to shoot at human beings, just such talk in the hotels and restaurants, and regardless of caste, color, or sex. No females on the streets. I did not think the speakers were hurt, that I know of. Houses were pil- were in earnest, nor do I now believe that they laged, but the outrages were mostly confined to were; but, circumstances happening just as they the immediate vicinage of the Institute. One did, they started for the Institute, revolver in man in a livery stable deliberately took up a rife hand, on the impulse of the moment, and the and killed a negro who ran through the door look- whole affair seems now to have been regularly pre- ing for a place of refuge. arranged. Just before 1 o’clock, when the firing It is impossible to give you any more details had progressed but a short time, the fire-bell than I have without going beyond the limits of rang. A man in the street cried at the top of his my desire to furnish only authoritative state- voice, “ Now the devil is to pay.” Another said, ments. I saw, with my own eyes, almost everything “ Look out for hot work.” What authority those that I have described, and have responsible witnessm men had for the statements I know not, nor who for all the rest. I have not accepted any rumors ; rung the bell. The police were partly taken off but as I was fortunately “ on the spot," I am able duty the night before, and were armed better to give you the facts. E. P. B. 14

JUDGE HOWELL’S STATEMENT. condition would be established, and the usual forms of State action become possible and To the Loyal People of the Country: regular. Bv virtue of a military order, the people of All this rested upon the fact that these at- Louisiana were called upon, in 1864, to elect tempts to establish civil governments in the in- delegates to a Convention to revise and amend surrectionary States were necessarily attended the Constitution of the State, so as to conform to with irregularities growing out of a state of civil the Constitution of the United States, and restore war. Louisiana to the Union. This Convention was Nothing, in regard to government, has been to consist of 150 members, but only 93 or 96 regular or usual in the Southern States since the were voted for, as, at the time, a large portion residential election in 1860, which was followed of the territory of the State was in the posses- y a total subversion of all the State Govern- sion of the rebels, in which no such election ments by reckless conspirators and a four years’ could be held. Some who were elected never at- war to subvert the National Government; and it tended. The Convention assembled in New Or- is very difficult to conceive any mode of restor- leans on the 6th of April, 1864, organized, fixed ation which would be free from most glaring ir- 76 as a quorum, proceeded to work, and adjourned regularities, when tested by our former experi- on the 26th of July following, after adopting the ence in State and National functions. Charges following resolutions: of irregularities, revolution, and conspiracy “ Reeolted, That when this Convention adjourn, it shall come with a bad grace from those who inaugu- be at the call of the President, whose duty It shall be to re- rated the troubles and confusion which have con- covoke the Convention for any cause, or in case the Con- stitution should not be ratified, for the purpose of taking vulsed and well-nigh destroyed our nation. such measures as may be necessary for the formation of a Those who are now making all the noise are the civil government for the State of Louisiana. He shall also, authors of all the trouble, all the sad results. in that case, call upon the proper officers of the State to cause elections to be held to fill any vacancies that may They should recollect the deception, fraud, and exist in the Convention, in parishes where the same may be violence used by them in effecting secession, practicable. and the hundreds of thousands of lives and mil- “ Reeolveet, That in case of the ratification of the Con- stitution, it shall be in the power of the legislature of the lions of property destroyed, for which they are State, at its first session, to reconvoke the Convention, in justly held responsible by an impartial world. like manner, in case it should be deemed expedient or ne- cessary, for the purpose of making amendments or additions The government thus established in Louisiana, to the Constitution that may, in the opinion of the legisla- and not yet recognized as in harmony with the Gen- ture, require a reassembling of the Convention, or in case eral Government, was conducted by loyal men, of the occurrence of any emergency requiring its action. until the summer and fall of 1865, when, after “ ReeoLted, That no per diem of members shall be allowed during the adjournment.'* the collapse of the rebellion, the policy adopted by President Johnson caused another revolution, It will be observed that the first resolution which resulted in placing each branch of the provides generally for reconvoking the Conven- government, so far as it could then be done, in the tion by the President for any cause, and also, by hands of the “ returned rebels.” A system of using a disjunctive conjunction, in case the Con- social, business, and political proscription and stitution should not be ratified; and that the terrorism severely enforced by them, the secret second resolution authorizes the Legislature, at Confederate organizations, the unconcealed hos- its first session after the ratification of the Con- tility to the Union, and the prospect of restora- stitution, to reconvoke the Convention. Thus, tion thus delayed, forced the loyal people to clearly and wisely contemplating its reassembling look around for some relief and a mode of get- although the Constitution be ratified. ting the State into the Union. The unfortunate The second resolution not being inconsistent split between Congress and the President shut with, did not supersede the authority conferred off all immediate hope in that direction from the by the first, and no limit as to time is fixed for General Government. the reassembling, except at the call of the Legis- The plan of reassembling the Convention was lature, which could be done only at its first ses- frequently discussed, and, in April last, began to sion under the Constitution. This action is un- command attention and approval. President usual, but not wholly without precedent or Johnson was then informed of the proposition, parallel. A constitutional convention was as- and has since been frequently spoken to in rela- sembled in Missouri during the war, which con- tion to it. Members of Congress were consulted. tinued its existence and work from time to time, The President of the body addressed a telegram, subject to call, for at least two years. The con- in June last, to the Chairman of the Reconstruc- vention in North Carolina, called by President tion Committee, asserting, in direct words, his Johnson's Provisional Governor, continued its power and right to reconvoke the Convention, existence and powers for a considerable time by and asking if Congress would act in a certain adjournments. The one in which Mississippi, cre- manner upon certain contingencies. Not re- ated under a Provisional Governor, also continued ceiving a reply, he declined to call the Conven- its existence for six months after its adjournment. tion, for reasons which did not deny its right to It could as well have made the time indefinite, reassemble. limited only by the admission of the State into At a meeting, on the 26th of June, of forty of the Union, after which event the normal State the members convened at the instance of the 15 —i Governor of the State, the undersigned member from Union men in every station of life. Many was chosen to act for them in reconvoking the who had opposed “ equal suffrage,” now expressed body. This raised a question of form, to be de- the opinion that it is the only solution of the cided only by the members themselves, in case question, and there seemed to be a conviction they should answer the call. That they never among all, that the reassembling of this Conven- entertained, for a moment, the insane idea of tion presented the last and only hope of deliver- usurping or overturning the powers of govern- ance from existing troubles, and of the restora- ment is shown by all their proceedings and the tion of the State on just and true republican objects in view, as publicly avowed in the proc- principles, with the rights of all citizens alike lamation of the 7th of July, by the President recognized and securely protected. pro tern., which declares that, “ by the wise, just, It is, of course, impossible to say with certainty, and patriotic policy developed by the Congress what would be the precise action of a body of now in session, it is essential that the organic one hundred and fifty members thus chosen ; but law of the State of Louisiana should be revised the secessionists now in office seemed to appre- and amended, so as to form a civil government in hend that it would necessarily result in their harmony with the General Government, establish displacement, and hence their predetermined, impartial justice, insure domestic tranquility, secure violent resistance, which being directed against the blessings of liberty to all citizens alike, and re- the authority of the Chief Executive, may well store the State to a proper and permanent position be termed rebellion. Whatever the result, it in the great Union of States, with ample guarantees would have flown from the will of the whole against any future disturbance of that Union.” loyal people, and not from any usurpation on the,, Believing that the Convention existed and art of the Convention, whose action would have had the right to reassemble, they contemplated een no more revolutionary than that of any doing nothing more than other constitutional other constitutional convention. conventions had done or could rightfully do, as The loyal people of the State are the proper representatives of the people. Their former arbiters in this case, and the friends of the move- course in submitting their work to the people, is ment had no apprehension as to their decision a guarantee that they would again do so; but in maintaining the Convention and true princi- my position enabled me to know that such was ples of republican government. their determination and that, following the ex- It was this spirit of resitance and intolerance, ample of the Convention of 1845, they would exhibited in originating and prosecuting the late submit it to all who are now legal voters and rebellion against the United States, rekindled also those to whom the right of suffrage would by the policy of the President and inflamed by be extended by their action an incendiary press and the dread of seeing jus- But the Convention had first to assemble and tice to an oppressed people established, that pro- reorganize, before it could do any work. To do duced the fearful massacre of July 30, 1866. this, it was necessary that the Governor and peo- The members of the Convention well knew ple should take some part. It was officially known that violence could result only in the defeat of how many parishes were not represented in con- their objects, and hence could have had n(f part sequence of rebel occupation in 1864. To have in provoking or inviting it. Any attempt to these duly represented, the Governor was connect the Convention with, or hold it respon- called upon to order the requisite elections. sible for language alleged to have been uttered Owing to his temporary absence from the city, by one or two individuals at a mass meeting, bis proclamation for that purpose was not pub- prior to its assembling, will be pronounced vain lished until three days before the day of assem- and preposterous by all reflecting persons. Not bling. This meeting, in advance of the elections, having attended, 1 cannot decide, if it were im- was necessary in order to ascertain what vacan- portant, between the conflicting reports of the cies, by death or otherwise, had occurred in the character of the two speeches referred to at said body since the adjournment under the above re- meeting. solutions, and give official notice thereof to the So far as my knowledge extends, the members Governor, who was to issue special writs, on did not, on the morning of July 30, “ expect, and shorter notice to the voters, so as to have all the they were not prepared for any violent disturbance elections about the same time, and the Conven- of the Convention.” They relied upon the proper tion would then adjourn until after the elections, authorities to preserve peace and order. They when the whole State would thus be represented, had learned that a Grand Jury, in session on that and the Convention be authoritatively recognized day for the purpose, might, under the charge of by the people, if any such recognition were the Judge, indict them as an “unlawful assembly,” necessary. and that the Sheriff might arrest them; and it That the existence of the Convention and the was understood among them that, although there necessity for its reassembling were admitted and was no law against such assemblies, they would sanctioned by the Governor, I need only refer to quietly submit to any attempted arrest, however his election proclamation of the 27th of July last, unwarranted by law, give bail and proceed in and his able, calm address of the 7th inst. That their efforts to obtain a quorum. They were not the Union sentiments of the State favored and aware of the agreement which three prominent demanded the movement, I had satisfactory evi- officials say they had already made with Gen dence in the constant encouragement I received Baird in regard to the arrest. It is well here to 16 state the fact, that the Grand Jury did not find “ dispersed,” there is reason to believe that a “ a true hill" against any of the members until quorum might have been obtained, that the elec- after the adjournment on the 30th of July and tions would tiave taken place, and the “ National after the police and mob had begun their work Democracy” taken part therein, and that the of death. The Jury did not receive a list of those Convention, after having its numbers completed, present until after the adjournment. would have performed its work (including, prob- A few minutes past 12 o’clock the meeting ably, the adoption of “ equal suffrage ”), and sub- was called to order; prayer was offered by the mitted it to the people for ratification; which Rev. J. W. Horton; the roll was called amid would have been followed by the admission of perfect quiet, and, only twenty-five answering to Louisiana as a loyal State into the Union. their names, a motion to adjourn for an hour was It was to prevent this that the massacre of adopted, to procure the attendance of many who that day was perpetrated by the opponents of were known to be in the city. It was expected the Convention and the Union. that several days might be occupied in obtaining But if the “ assembly ” had not attained the a quorum. proportions and authority of a Constitutional When the scenes of violence and bloodshed Convention, it could have done no harm, nor were commenced in the streets, about 1 o’clock, endangered the public peace. Gen. Baird, in the meeting had adjourned and nearly one-half his admirable and unanswerable letter to the of those who answered to the roll-call had gone Mayor, presents the whole question in one sen- out of the room. Upon hearing the pistol shoot- tence : “ If the assemblage in question has the ing outside, I went down stairs to the Govern- legal right to remodel the State Government, it or's office, in the same building, to consult with should be protected in doing so; if it has not, him as to the necessity and means of preventing then its labors must be looked upon as a harm- or stopping the trouble; but not finding him, less pleasantry to which no one ought to and seeing the attack then made by the police object.” on the building, I remained with several other Even if it was “ an unlawful assembly,” there gentlemen, in the Governor’s parlor, expecting was no excuse, no palliation for the course every moment the doors to be burst open and all adopted for its suppression, and the official of us murdered. Providentially Jhe minds of maiming and maesacre of its members and per- the mob were not directed to that room, and after haps hundreds of its friends or supposed friends. the military seemed to have control, I quietly There is no proof yet that one of the assailing walked out (about 5 p. M.), through the private party was killed.* Secretary’s office, and a policeman standing at The members were perfectly willing to sub- the front door of the building declared me to be mit the legal question to any proper tribunal. his prisoner, and calling another to his assistance, They, in advance, appealed to the Governor and conducted me to the lock-up, amid their rejoic- the people, without whose co-operation they ings over the number who had been killed and knew they could do nothing. They did not ex- wounded (mentioning my name among the lat- pect, however, to be condemned and executed ter). • without a hearing. I did not request the military to protect the As to the reassembling of the Convention, Convention, because I did not think it necessary. about which I am so frequently questioned by I could not realize the necessity nor probability Union men, I must say that I consider the tele- of such a disturbance. Those composing the gram of President Johnson to the State Attorney- Convention had an undoubted right to meet as General, as an ex parte decision in favor of the they did, and they could be properly disturbed rebel side of the question, without citation or in the exercise of that right only when they hearing on our part, and as authority to that abused it by doing something in violation of law officer to use the United States military forces or public order. The simple act of assembling to prevent, for the present, another meeting of a was no offense, and certainly no excuse nor war- body which he has in advance decided fo be rant for their murder. Up to the time of the illegal. attack, these present had done absolutely nothing, But there is a power above even the President except to answer to their names, direct the ab- the loyal people of the nation—to whom, in sent members to be sent for (which by the rules this contest between loyalty and disloyalty. any ten could do), and adjourn. Unionism and Disunionism, we, as loyal citizens, Surely 26 men, one-sixth of a yet unassembled take our appeal, in perfect confidence as to their Convention, meeting publicly in the Capitol decision, and the ultimate establishment of peace, building, could do very little toward overturn- harmony, and good will. ing the government of the great State of Louis- B. K. HOWELL. iana, and it is wonderful how much terror they New Orleans, August 16, 1866. created among the recent destroyers of the State and National Governments ! * One lad wai killed, ae I have since learned. Had they not been so savagely and summarily 17

“ MY POLICY ” IN NEW ORLEANS. Thenceforth no word in favor of the Union, its Constitution, or its flag, was to be lawful within Great Union Meeting in Philadelphia, August the wide limits of the Confederacy. For such 31s/.—Address of the Hon. Thomas J. Durant, transgressions the traitor’s doom awaited the of New Orleans. citizen of the Confederacy, and the tender mer- cies of Jefferson Davis and his creatures awarded Special Dispatch to The N. Y. Tribune. to alien enemies, were to be inflicted on unhappy Philadelphia, Friday, Aug. 31, 1866. citizens of the United States, who, falling into The meeting in front of the Union League their hands, would not forswear their country. House, Broad and Sansom Streets, this day, was By proclamation of the 14th August, 1861, these very large. The crowd stretched from Sansom penalties were denounced on citizens of the to \Yalnut Streets, and was composed not only South who sympathized with the Union men of of prominent citizens, but of many ladies. The the North, and by the commemorative Conven- lowering niffht did not prevent the attendance tion of the 14th August, 1866, banishment from of the loyal masses. The meeting was called to place and power, and the sacred precincts of the order by Judge Kelley in the following speech: White House, with undefined terrors in future, are proposed for citizens of the North who dare judge kelley’s speech. sympathize with outraged Union men of the Fellow-citizens :—Whether designedly or South. Let us thank God that we are yet free- otherwise, the fact stands forth as history, that men, and dare withstand the threats as we are to the Convention of muzzled conspirators against defeat the treacherous purposes of Andrew John- the liberty of the South and peace of the country, son. [Great applause ] Unawed by his power, lately convened in this city, most aptly com- we are here to honor a Southern Union man, memorated the anniversary of an incident of who, having braved the power of the Confederacy, fearful import to the whole American people. found himself unable to withstand the dangerous [Applause.] It assembled on the 14th of August, power of “my policy.” Yes, fellow-citizens, and in three brief sessions, consuming together throughout the war such was the respect of the but about six hours without debate, made a people of New Orleans for the professional formal proclamation to the people in a narrow learning, unbending integrity, and spotless life of circle, in which, under a pain of Presidential dis- Thomas J. Durant, that, notwithstanding his pro- pleasure, vulgar denunciation, and other person- nounced devotion to the Union, he wTas safe among alities, they might think and speak on political them. But Andrew Johnson has subjected that subjects. [Applause.] And the President, in community to new and more aggravated horrors. confirmation of the doings of that Convention, Under his malign influence it is torn by newer is now stumping the country and denouncing as and wilder furies, and on the 30th of last month traitors all who hold opinions which, from every the old home of Mr. Durant was broken into and round in “ Ambition’s ladder,” he has earnestly his life sought by the murderers of the lamented proclaimed. [Some groans for Johnson.] Five Dostie and other Union men. But I detain you years ago, on the 14th of August, 1861, the too long, and must not trespass upon the domain heartless despot and vanquished foe, but the of our distinguished guest. [Cries of “ Go on,” pampered guest of the nation, who organized the to which Mr. Kelley firmly replied “ No.”] Per- horrors of Andersonville, Salisbury, Florence, mit me, therefore, to introduce to you Thomas J. Libby, and Belle Isle, and could have mitigated Durant, Esq., of New Orleans. them by a word, issued a proclamation identical in import with the despotic management and SPEECH OF THE HON. THOMAS J. DURANT. manifestoes of the Davis-Johnson, or, perhaps, in deference to a high office, I should say, John- The Hon. Thomas J. Durant spoke as follows: son-Davis Convention. Let me detain you by a Before this powerful gathering of loyal and recital of its terms. They are brief, but, oh ! patriotic men, I rise, fellow-citizens, with the how ample their scope for evil. Listen to deepest emotions, to express the overpowering them : sense of gratitude I feel for the warm reception “ Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President you have given me on this occasion. I would of the Confederate States of America, do issue be doing injustice to myself did I not in the out- this my proclamation, and I do hereby warn set express the gratitude I feel to these gentle- and require every male citizen of these States of men who have accorded me, with so much kind- the age of 14 years and upward now within the ness, the great privilege of addressing this Confederate States and adhering to the Govern- night so respectable an assemblage of my fellow- ment of the United States, and acknowledging citizens of the State of Pennsylvania. To you, the authority of the same, and not being a citi- too, I tender the acknowledgment of my warmest zen of the Confederate States, to depart from the thanks for the greeting you have given me, and Confederate States within 40 days from the date I know well that I am by no means to attribute of this proclamation ; and I do warn all persons it to any humble merit which I may have ap- above described who shall remain within the peared to possess, but that I am to attribute it Confederate States after the expiration of the to that noble influence of Unionism in the South said 40 days, that they will be treated as alien which, for the moment, finds in me a most qn- enemies.” worthy representative. [Applause.] A great 3 IS

statesman of Pennsylvania, one who illustrated The main objection to the mQvement was, that the walks of politics and science, one whom it was an emanation of the Executive will, and Pennsylvania sent to the Continental Congress that it did not flow from an act of Congress; for to aid the immortal Jefferson in framing that these men said at that time that the reconstruc- declaration which has become a charter of hu- tion of the Union and the restoration of the in- man rights, that illustrious statesman once said: surrectionary States, is the business of the Legis- “ Where liberty dwells there is my country.” lative Department of the General Government, [Applause.] And now escaping from cold and and not of the Executive. [Loud applause.] averted looks, but meeting with warm greetings, But their opinion was overruled. The Com- fleeing from the assassin’s knife which was placed manding-Geneial of the Department, by virtue at my throat, and that of every Union man, I of the military authority which he possessed to come to the shores of the Delaware, and say, govern the people inhabiting it, ordered, as 1 with that illustrious statesman, here liberty have said, the Convention. It proceeded to its dwells, and here is my country. [Loud applause.] labors. It framed a Constitution, which was You must not, I assure you, fellow-citizens, ex- submitted to that portion of the people who pect to be entertained, in the mode in which you were within the Union lines. Proclamations might hope to be, from the flattering introduc- were made, and the officers who were elected— tion I have received this evening from my (I refer to the Executive officers)—to administer learned and honorable friend who has just ad- that government entered upon the discharge of dressed you. I propose, on the invitation of their functions. When that Convention adjourn- these conspicuous citizens of Pennsylvania who ed, it did so with a resolution authorizing its have so kindly honored me, to attempt to say present President, under certain circumstances something on the subject they have indi- specified therein, to call the Convention together cated in their invitation, to say something of when the emergencies arose for which the reso- that dire event which darkened the 30th of July lution itself provided. That was the cause, that in New Orleans; of the causes which produced the motive, and that the origin of the reconvoca- that horrid result, and the remedy which, in my tion of the Convention, which was made the judgment, ought to be provided to prevent its pretext for the wholesale slaughter of Union repetition. In the current of my discourse it is men in New Orleans on the 30th of July. After quite possible I may say things that may be un- that, the Governor, who was first elected under accustomed to your ears; it may fall to my lot that Constitution (the Hon. Michael Hahn), and to make some remarks that you might not think >vho was also elected by the Legislature, also altogether correct; but, fellow-citizens, I im- under it, to a seat in the Senate of the United plore your indulgence in advance, for I assure States, the Lieut.-Governor of the State, Mr. you, whatever I do say will be in obedience to Wells, of the parish of Rapide, succeeded to the the conscientious dictates of my heart and judg- ; Executive chair, under instructions, as it was ment. [Applause.] The events which preceded said, from the Executive at Washington. He 30th of July in Louisiana have passed into the used the full measure of his official patronage to domain of history, and, no doubt, are familiar to promote the welfare of those who had most you all. When, in 1862, that gallant old viking largely striven to overthrow the Government of of the modern seas brought his fleet before the the United States. Under his administration, rebel forts, which they vainly thought protected every office in his gift was filled with an incum- New Orleans, and laid it across the Crescent bent who had served in the Rebel army, or who City so as to bring that rebel population under had done service under the Vigilance Committee, his guns,—when that was achieved, the flag of or had made himself conspicuous in civil life by the Union once more greeted the longing sight his adhesion to the Confederate cause, and so of the Union men of New Orleans. We hailed well did this master of policy carry out his it as the harbinger of safety, as the flag of free- work, that when, in the ensuing Fall, the elec- dom, and the symbol of the restoration of our tions for the Legislature came on, there was, as rights. It passed on, and the military chieftain, far as my knowledge goes, and I believe I am who had been appointed by the late lamented correct in what I say, not one man elected to President to superintend the affairs of that De- either branch who would call himself a Union partment, was removed, and another substituted man. Nay, more, not one who would not have in his place, to whom it seemed good, under felt it a deep offense, if any one had applied that authority vested in him from Washington, to designation to him. Hence the State passed call together a portion of the people of Louis- completely under the rule of men who had used iana, dwelling in New Orleans and the parishes their best efforts to overthrow the Government immediately surrounding it, for the purpose of of the United States, and who had plunged forming a constitution and frame of government Louisiana into the vortex of rebellion. Imme- under which, it was hoped, Louisiana might diately were seen the natural consequences in ultimately be admitted to her original position the legislation thenceforth of the body I have as a sister State of the Union. This movement, described. The most oppressive laws were fellow-citizens, did not fully meet the approba- passed with regard to the labor of the newly- tion of men who were then, and still are, in New emancipated people; odious distinctions were Orleans, denounced and treated as Radicals. made in every direction. The whole scheme of 19 government—the executive, legislative, and judi- man of most extraordinary attainments, who had ciary—was established and constituted, that jus- been honored by the friendship of the late Chief tice or right in the case of a citizen of African Magistrate of the United States, and who enjoyed descent, or a citizen of conspicuous Union senti- the respect of all Union men in New Orleans, ments. in most questions of the State, could not he also sanctioned the movement, although there be obtained.- These distinctions to many be- was dissent, both on the ground of legality and came insufferable, and they turned their atten- on that of expediency, among the sincere friends tion to those resolutions which I have just referred of the Union in Louisiana, as to the reconvoca- to, which authorized the President of the Consti- tion of that Convention. Yet the opinions were tutional Convention of 1864 to reconvoke it. equally balanced, and no man was presumptuous When the idea of reconvoking this Convention enough to say that the recalling of the Conven- was first put forth, and up to the time when it tion was so utterly illegal that it was plainly im- was in a degree consummated, some objection moral or improper to attempt it. But, fellow- was presented to the minds of Radical men that citizens, what did that Convention do? It had existed when the Convention was originally assembled, in the first place, in order to ascertain convened under the orders of the Major-General what number of its members could still be se- Commanding the Department of the Gulf. They cured in attendance, and its only act was to call viewed it as an improper thing in itself that a upon the Governor of the Slate of Louisiana to Convention should spring from the Executive issue writs of election for the purpose of securing Department of the Government.' They thought a representation to those parishes which, at the it impolitic that the Union men of the State time of the original assembling, had been under should attempt to march faster than the Congress the control of the Confederate authorities, and of the United States seemed willing to move, where no election to a Uniod Convention could for it became evident to all men of reflection, then be held. I wish now, in the most impres- that if, in any of the insurrectionary States, the sive manner, to arrest your attention to a great Union men attempted to go further than the fact, the appearance of which silences forever all limit assigned to them by Congress, they would opposition and all right to question the loyalty be exposed to all the evils of Rebel vengeance of that Convention in the mind of the Chief and Executive neglect. [Applause.] They Executive officer of the United States, and in really became exposed to much worse ; but 3’ou the opinion of every citizen of any State outside will perceive, citizens, that neither of these ob- of the limits of Louisiana. It is that toward the jections, either on the score of legality or policy, end of July, in answer to the request of this Con- were or could be made by the partisans of the stitutional Convention, the Governor of Louis- Executive theory of reconstruction, because that iana. in his official capacity, issued writs of election portion of the people and the Executive had taken to fill up the vacancies of those parishes where the exactly opposite ground, and it did not lie no elections had been held; and I declare it, on in their mouths to make such objections. Can- the strength of what reputation I may have for dor compels me to say, also, that there was a being able to interpret the laws of my country, large body of men among the Unionists in that when the Executive of a State proclaims an Louisiana as well able to judge as those who election, and orders his sheriff in a parish or were styled most radical, and as able to grapple county to hold it, no power outside of that State with questions of law, who thought that it was can question his act. [Applause and cheers.] entirely illegal to recall that Convention into What would be thought, fellow-citizens, if the being. I have never heard that the former people or the Governor of New York should President of that Convention, Judge Durell, of question the right of the Governor of Pennsyl- the District Court of the United States in Louis- vania to order an election in his fetate ? What iana, ever objected to recall it into being on the would be thought if the President of the ground that the call would be illegal. The gen- United States should inquire of the Governor of tleman who was chosen to preside over the pre- Massachusetts why he ordered a particular elec- liminary deliberations in the absence of Judge tion in the old Bay State ? What answer would Durell was a Judge of the Supreme Court of be given to such an interrogatory ? It is plain, Louisiana, a native of the adjoining State of Mis- fellow-citizens, that there could be but one—that sissippi, and a life-long resident of Louisiana. I , it did not lie within the province or the function refer to the name of the Hon. R. K. Howell, and | of him who put the interrogatory to inquire into all who have been in Louisiana will bear me out , the matter at all. [Applause.] The Chief Ma- when I say, in presenting his name, I mention a j gistrate of the Union deals with States only man of spotless integrity, of blameless life, of j through their Executive or Legislative Depart- high judicial honors and legal knowledge. He ments. He can come in contact officially with gave the movement the sanction of his name, the people and the government of a State in no and he, as I have said, lent to it the appearance other way. The fourth section of the fourth of legality, by presiding over its preliminary article of the Constitution of the United States meetings and deliberations. Nor was there declares that the United States shall protect' wanting other men who added respectability to each State in the Union from domestic violence the movement. Mr. Hahn, himself a lawyer of on the application of the Legislature, or, if the high standing at the bar of New Orleans, and a Legislature cannot be convened, on the applica-

« 20

tion of the Executive. It, therefore, follows as his measure we have a right to make full inquiry, an irresistible conclusion, that even in the emer- and it is our duty to criticize them in a spirit of gency of domestic violence, the President of the fairness and candor. I regret deeply to be com- United States cannot interpose, unless the Legis- pelled to say, as one who was an eye-witness of lature if it be in session, or the Governor in its these scenes in New Orleans, which have sent a absence, shall call upon that high officer to do thrill of horror through the loyal' heart of the so. Now, it is known to you all that the honored nation, that the interposition of the Chief Magis- Chief Magistrate of this nation has repeatedly trate of the country in the affairs of Louisiana, recognized Louisiana as a State in the Union; most flagrantly misunderstood by those to whom that he has declared the rebellion in that State he addressed himself, has produced the most ter- to be at an end; that he has proclaimed it re- rible results of the 30th of July. On that day, stored to all its original functions and preroga- citizens, the glowing sun rose majestically over tives as a State in the Union, and he has even the city of New Orleans. All nature glowed upbraided the Congress of the United States J under his bounteous beams; the Queen City of because that body was not prompt enough, in |j the Valley of the Mississippi lay there bathed in his opinion, in coinciding with his judgment, and 1 a glorious sunlight, like a rich diamond in a admitting Senators and Representatives from monarch’s crown, or as the brightest jewel in the that State. Therefore, from the point of view of girdle of the Republic. No indication iu the the Executive in interfering in Louisiana with heavens showed the dark fatality that was to ap- the writs of election ordered by her Chief Exe- proach that day. The Union citizen in pursuit cutive Magistrate must, with due deference be it of his business avocations went to his desk, his said, be treated as a mere act of Executive workshop, and his store. If there was any thought usurpation. [Loud applause.] In the case of of apprehension in any man’s mind, it was im- Louisiana no call from the Executive was made, mediately silenced, for there floated the Ameri- no Legislature was in session, and, therefore, can flag over New Orleans, the guarantee of per- the exigency provided for by the Constitution fection, and there stood the American General, had not arisen, and the question propounded to with an American army to shield the American i Governor Wells by the President of the United citizen if in peril. The union man, unmindful of States was one which, within the terms of that harm, was pursuing his daily business of life; instrument, he had no right to propound. Hut, but, what was that sound that emote upon his fellow-citizens what was the consequence. I ear? Did you not hear it? It was like the trust I understand too well my duty as an Amer- stifled cry of the distant multitude. No, it was ican citizen to speak in terms that would be in but the wind, or the car rattling o’er the stony the slightest degree disrespectful to the Presi- street. He faces the flag that is protecting him dent of the United States. I know too well that again. He turns once more to the business of here, where every citizen is a part of the Gov- the day. But hark, that heavy sound breaks in ernment, a becoming self-respect requires each once more. He starts. He listens more atten- one to treat that high officer in no other terms tively. Hark again. Nearer than before that than those of courtesy and deference. It is im- shout is heard. The streets are filled with the possible that he should have meditated any infuriated populace. A band of assassins iu the harm. Has he not himself, fellow-citizens, often J garb of policemen, headed by the prince of mur- announced to us, in terms that are unmistakable, derers, the Mayor of New Orleans [cheers and and that impressed themselves on the memory, groans], appears in the streets to seek the long that he had “trod the paths of glory, and account of smoldering vengeance. A procession sounded the depths of honor; that he had noth- of citizens, peaceably bearing the American flag, ing more to hope from his country, and that his attempted to appear upon the streets to do honor career of glory was run ?” [At this point the to a Convention which, it was said, was to bestow approach of the “ Republican Invincibles ” com- upon them the natural rights from which their pclled the speaker to yield for a few moments.] race had long been excluded in our country. A Judge Kelley.—Fellow-citizens: 1 propose band of citizens were assaulted on the public three cheers tor the Republican Invincibles. streets, and dispersed. Members of theCouvep- (Cheers and applause.) Gentlemen of the Invin- tion considering there, had heard sounds of tu- cibles : The speaker to whom you will listen is mult also, but they -were without apprehension. the Hon. Thomas J. Durant, of Louisiana, whose Oh, did not the American flag float over them name drew you here. [Applause ] [applause], and was there not an American Gen- I was saying, fellow-citizens, that in our Re- eral there to protect them ? They ordered their public, where each man feels that he himself is a Sergeant-at-arms to proceed to the houses of ab- part and parcel of the Government, a becoming sent citizens to secure their attendance. As he self-respect forbids him to treat the Chief Magis- puts his foot upon the sidewalk, as he is emerging 1 trate of his country in any other mode than that from the building, a murderous and traitorous l of the most courteous deference. And indeed if shot salutes him in the back, and he falls down he were not the Chief Magistrate, it is our bound- weltering in his blood. A native of Louisiana, a en duty to treat every opponent in debate as gallant man, who had taken up arms under the an antagonist surely, but not as an enemy. With flag of our country, who served honorably in a his motives we are not concerned, but as to the Louisiana Union regiment, falls from the steps bearing of his conduct and the consequences of to the streets, slaughtered when in the peaceable ► 21

execution of his duty. A friend conreys him to atrocious tragedy because the greater part of his vehicle. He hears the shouts of the savage them were men. of African descent, s(Cries of mob as he drive on, as he is yet alive, though he No! No! and cheers.) And each one of these never lives to reach his home. He hears the black victims, mangled and mutilated, was a man cry of the multitude in the distance. He hears as we are. [Applause.] He had hung on a wo- it but he heeds it not. His eye is where his man’s breast in infancy, the same dear creatures heart is, and that is far away with his dear wife loved him and talked to him of love; they at- and children at home, who are waiting there for tended his dying moments with the same sym. their dying father. With his expiring hand he pathies which on like circumstances are bestowed claps tile shoulder of the friend who drives his on you. [Applause.] The Congress of the vehicle, and says, with fainting heart: “Give United States, in the exercise of its Constitu- my love to my dear wife and children.” He ex- tional powers, has proclaimed the black man in pires before he reaches home. A reverend man the South and everywhere where this flag who opened the proceedings with prayer that (pointing to the flag overhead) floats to be a morning, who sat beside me on the 4th of July, citizen of the United States. [Great applause.] when we commemorate the universal day of our He is entitled in the fullest sense of the word to Union—this reverend man, fresh from the ser- the enjoyment of his civil rights and his privi- vice of his Maker—descending with the emblem leges as such. Therefore I will not suppose that of peace in his hands to still the furious men, is also one tear the less has been shed, that one sigh slaughtered in cold blood. This under the blows the less of sympathy has heaved the bosom of of these more than savages. Richard Horton the loyal North, because tl^e bloody subjects of sank to "the ground. He barely reached home to the vengeance of an infuriated people in New receive the consolations of his wife and children ; Orleans at this time were citizens of African he receives in vain the best surgical aid ; he sinks descent. It cannot be that you sympathize the back into the bosom of his father and his God. less for that reason. Hut how is it that I saw men dragged by me ? “ Fleecy locks and black complexion how is it that I saw men slaughtered in front of Cannot forfeit nature’s claim ; my own place of business ? But who is that man But true worth and pure affection who, with hair disheveled, his garments torn to Dwell in white and black the same.” r fragments, his face ghastly, his whole counten- [Applause.] And from what took place on that ance streaming with blood,—who is he whom a cruel day, and from all that we have learned ruthless mob drags through the streets ? Four since, the mind of a reflecting man is deeply im- ruffians have him, crippled as he is. It is a man pressed with the fact, and his intellect forces who has been a Governor of Louisiana, under him to the conclusion, with the full strength in that very Constitution which has been proclaimed mathematical demonstration, that the reconvoca- to be so sacred and inviolate—so incapable of tion of the Convention was a pretext for the con- change. He is a man who has enjoyed the con- centrated slaughter of the leading LTnion men in fidence of Mr. Lincoln, our late revered Chief the City of New Orleans. [Cheers, and cries of Magistrate. [Great applause.] He was the Hon. “That’s so.”] It is known, by the manner in Michael Hahn who is dragged through the streets which the murders were carried out; it is known of the leading city, the capital city of the State by the judgment of those placed in authority of which he has once been the Governor. Oh, there ; the}’ proclaimed it by their publication to I cannot dilate on these horrors. The dispatches all the world. You have all seen the dispatches to the press have made you familiar with them. of the gallant soldier and illustrious gentleman It would require the strongest force to tell you who commands in that Department, and you have all without a tear, and I do not wish to impress seen a soldier, not a Radical in his political pro- upon your minds that the whole mass of the clivities, or not a man who had been prominent population of New Orleans who joined in the in parties or taken sides in parties, who an- Confederate movement are men of this stamp. nounces as his deliberate conviction that a pretext There are many, numerous honorable excep- was taken for a concerted slaughter of loyal men, tions. There are men who made the lives of black and white, in New Orleans. [Applause.] Union men safe; and I tell you I hope to sit in And now, citizens, what remedies are there for judgment when these well-meaning, honorable these cries ? These unfortunate men, whose cir- men can control the savage element that elevated cumstances permit them, are now flying from them to power. They, in the hands of that mob, their homes in the South to seek refuge and hos- had no power to restrain it. In the heat of the pitality in free_dom of voting and discussion here moment, you must know that not a meeting of in the North. How long is this to continue ? the respectable citizens of New Orleans, has yet How long is it before the loyal people of the been held to denounce these bloody and most Union will give the loyal man in the South a atrocious murders. Can it be that they have government where opinion is free, where every not excited sufficient indignation or sympathy man shall have the right to express his senti- here in the free norih ? I will not permit my- ments in vote and in words, where he shall have self to believe it. I will not for one moment so the right and the privilege of communicating in asperse your good name ns to believe that there every respectful way what he thinks and what is less sympathy evinced for the sufferers in this he has to say ? Do you not know that now the liberty oj speech and the liberty of the press is ! participating as he does in other acts of legisla- dead inr New Orleans ? Do you not know that tion. If the idea which possesses the President American citizens are slaughtered in the streets ; is carried out there will be results in the South of New Orleans, under the American flag, with-: like those you have already seen and it will out provocation ? There is no liberty in discus- j have sooner or later to be abandoned. The sion unless you discuss the merits of the Presi- j whole voting population, and that only, should dent’s policy, or the glories of Lee and Davis. ! take the matter in charge. There can be no gov- That is the way in New Orleans; but j ou are the | ernment existing in the South, where those who men who are to remove the old principles and ; are called Radicals are marked with the seal of the old memories. On the skirts of the loyal j Secession reprobation, and those who have a North is found the blood of the men who fell in ' black skin are unsafe in their persons, their lives, New Orleans. You have too long bowed down their property. This has been demonstrated in spirit to the abominable prejudices of caste. in almost every State. Nay, it is fully demon- [Applause] You have not proclaimed that strated in every State where restoration on the principle which gave your cause strength. 1 President’s theory has been adopted. If we were will give the full measure of justice to the loyal to say that the Governments of the late insurrec- men of the South, and I say again, on the skirts ; tionary States should be restored on this basis, of the loyal North is found the blood of Union j and this only, of giving to the LYiion men a men who have been sacrificed to savage ven- proper and just representation in these States geance in the Southern States. [Applause.] The when wre could, then we would not hand over the stain is on your hands; not all the waves of the Government to a handful of men, who might be ocean can wash it out. The stain that is on your, considered a mere oligarchy; but as it is now, hands is like those on the hands of the tragic these Union men could only sustain themselves queen which would encarnadine the multitudinous by the arms of the Union, and they could not, seas to wash them white before those hands can after the withdrawal of their protection, sustain do justice to the loyal men of the South. [ Ap- themselves for a single month in any of the plause.] When the Southern States plunged late insurrectionary States. For it is a fact that into rebellion, and passed their ordinances of se- cannot be denied that the great mass of the cession, they became, in fact, no part in the Union men in the Southern States, or at least those American Union as States, though they remained w ho called themselves such at the epoch of Seces- such in law. They voluntarily declared, by the sion, abandoned their principles, and went over, action of their Governor in Louisiana, and the at least every State did, except Tennessee, almost action of their authorities throughout every in- unanimously in a bodv, to the support of the surrectionary State, that they were no part of Rebel cause. In the city of NewT Orleans, at the the Government of the United States; that they election which resulted in the choice of Mr. Lin- spat upon the Constitution ; that they hated the coln, the bulk voted for Douglas or Bell, exceed- flag of the country, for it was the flag of liberty ing by more than two to one the vote cast for —(great applause)—and they intended to found Breckinridge, the secession candidate; yet within their government on the slavery of the working ten days, as soon as the result of the election w’as classes. They had discovered a sublime princi- known, the whole Bell party, almost the whole ple in political government; they had discovered Douglas party, wrent over immediately to seces- that the true theory should be that the laborers sion. They acquiesced in the secession move- should be owned by the capitalists. To them, ment ; their leaders stood fast under the Confed- slavery of the working classes was the corner-stone erate and State Governments. Only a handful of republican liberty. [Laughter.] They de- of men were left faithful to the Union cause. clared themselves out of the Union, and then These men are not now sufficient to form such a formed a government which had no relation to government as would stand unsupported by the the Constitution of the United States, which we armies of the United States, in any of the late suppose was therefore all blotted out by the Re- | insurrectionary States, and these loyal men it bellion. Now, as to this point, there is no differ- has been decided to totally exclude from the ence of opinion between the Executive and Con- plan of reconstruction. It is decided that the gress ; they both stand on the common ground, bulk of the lo}’nl people we have here are too that the act of Rebellion had done away with J ignorant to enjoy the right of suffrage. Aristoc- any State government that could be recognized racy always says that the democratic working- by the Constitution, and that when the armies man is too ignorant to enjoy the right of suffrage; of the rebellion were put on foot, no State gov- , but ignorant as they may be, they know what ernment was left that could be recognized by the | their masters do not know, that it is the authorities of the United States. All the acts of best policy to uphold the Government of the Congress are to this effect; both the Executive United States. [Great applause.] That they and Congress say the same thing, and the differ- w’ere indeed ignorant, and still are so for the ence of opinion is not as to the fact, but it is as greater part, I admit; but w hose fault is it ? to the question as in whom lies the power of Who made those laws that forbid them to be in- effecting a restoration—the President claiming structed? Why did the loyal North tolerate a the power for himself, and Congress declaring a state of society in which body and soul were that it is their sole function, the President only debased by forbidding th(^ spread of the benefits 23 of education. Chill penury repressed their noble a Convention that would have to caress and en- rage and froze the genial current of the soul, and treat two or three to resign to produce harmony. under any circumstances did the faint and hun- [Applause.] In 1860, during the campaign for gry fugitive appeal in vain to the black man for the Presidency, he heard Andrew Johnson de- shelter or to serve him as a pioneer to freedom nounce Douglas as corrupt and designing. By- and safety? [Applause.] Never was a Union the-by, he had helped to nominate Johnson, and scout betrayed by a black guide. [Applause.] he was here before the public to acknowledge If you were opposed to their being enrolled as the sin. [Laughter.] He had repented. [A soldiers, how did they act when they were en- voice]—“ What are the prospects for black men rolled ? And they are now being enrolled on the in the South ?” Mr. Brownlow—He has no show lists of citizens with votes to save the nation. whatever, under Johnson and his administration. That position we must stand on sooner or later. There was still a rebellious spirit in the South [Applause long continued.] And without the which was likely to break out at any time; and, aid of .the black man, the loyal Union men in the he continued, if we had to invade the South to Southern States—at least I know it is so in put down a second rebellion, I want to say Louisiana—cannot erect a State Government something about the division of our plans. The which will be in harmony with the principles next time I would divide the great army into that are based on the rights of man, universal three grand divisions ; let the first go fully armed suffrage, and equality before the law. Until then and equipped, as the laws and regulations of the there will be no peace in this country. [Great army require; let it be well supplied with plen- cheering.] Fellow-citizens of Pennsylvania, will ty of small arms and artillery; let it be the you who are of the loyal masses of the loyal largest division, and let it do all the killing. States, and upon whom depends the issue of this [Applause.] Let a second grand division come struggle, remember that you have a weapon that after the first; let it be supplied with torches is stronger than the bayonet. It is the ballot. and spirits of turpentine. [Laughter.] Let Remember that ideas are more potent than ar- that division do the burning. Let a third go tillery ; that our ideas will ultimately prevail if down provided with surveyors, compasses, and you are true to yourselves. [Applause.] Citi- measuring lines, survey all the land, and sell it zens of that Commonwealth, which is proudly to pav the expenses of the war—do anything called the center of the great political arch, will with it; settle it with the men who have fought you be true to yourselves in this great struggle ? under our glorious banner. His speech was re- [Universal exclamation—“We will! we will! ”] ceived with ultimate laughter and applause. Soldiers of the Republic who carried the ensign of liberty with Grant into the Rebel Capitol, or SHERIDAN’S DISPATCHES. with Sherman to the borders of the Mexican Gulf, rise once more and revenge once more the The New York Times does not meet the point wrongs of those, who, in behalf of your princi- we make about the Sheridan “dispatch,” printed ples were slaughtered in the streets of New August 3—in that journal exclusively. It says: Orleans and Memphis. It is you who raised “ What right has The Tribune to challenge or Congresses, it is you who create Executives. deny a dispatch, the literal fidelity of which the When you answer in your strength, the arm of distinguished soldier to whom it was addressed disaffection will be paralyzed and sink powerless . has not called in question ? On what pretense of Executive and Congress will both obey you. right does The Tribune ‘ demand that the real [Applause.] Citizens of my native State, I im- dispatch be published/ when ‘ the real dispatch ’ plore you, in the name of freedom and common has already appeared in these columns ? Does humanity to rescue from danger and destruction The Tribune allege that Gen. Grant is a party to the Union men of the South. Speak in voices of forging or garbling, or to whom else is the thunder to your Congress that it may enact laws charge intended to apply ? Does The Tribune that must be obeyed, and that it may proclaim intend to convey the idea that Gen. Grant has universal equality and freedom, wherever the for five days allowed a dispatch to stand as hav- starry banner floats. [Applause.] Then will ing been received by him if it was not so re- you achieve fully that for which you have fought ceived, or that he has permitted Gen. Sheridan’s on the field of battle; then you will have estab- official communication to be tampered with, lished that government, which, in the language without protest or attempt to obtain redress?” of the illustrious apostles of Democracy, the sage —We only exercised the common right of of the Hermitage, will alone keep these States criticism. Tne evidence was too conclusive to for all ages united, prosperous, and free. be overlooked. The dispatch in The Times made Judge Kelley made a few remarks, and intro- it appear that Gen. Sheridan absolutely con- duced Gov. Brownlow, of Tennessee, who was demned the Convention, with no rebuke for the received with immense cheering. Gov. Brown- rioters, and no sympathy for murdered negroes. low said he had come expressly to hear the dis- It made Sheridan appear as unequivocally in- tinguished gentleman from New Orleans. He dorsing the President’s whole course, even to the had long been familiar with the history of an sepersedure of Gov. Wells by the law-officer of Andrew who was hero of New Orleans, and he his cabinet, and of himself by a Rebel jail-bird was equally familiar with the history of another named Monroe. This was the impression the Andrew, the hero of New Orleans. He had first dispatch made, and it was the impression traveled 1,000 miles in the last forty-eight hours the authorities in Washington intended to make. as one of the delegation to the loyal Convention, —New York Daily Tribune, Aug. 9. 24

OFFICIAL REPORT OF MAJOR-GEN- provided they committed no breach of the ERAL BAIRD. peace. Had the result been to obstruct any officer of The Police could have mppressed the Riot had they the State in the exercise of his office, or an at- not been the Rioters.— The responsibility of the tempt upon the part of any person to exercise Crime fixed upon the Rebel authorities. the functions of a State office, unless authorized Headquarters Department Louisiana, ) to do so by the President of the United States, I New Orleans, La., August, 1866. j should have regarded this as an overt act, call- Lieut.-Col. Geo. Lee, ing for military interference, provided the civil Assistant Adjutant-General: powers were unable to defend themselves and Colonel: I have the honor to submit for the punish the aggressor. information of the Major-General commanding I believe, further, to arrest these citizens and the following report concerning the riot of the hold them to bail prior to the commission of any 30th ultimo. overt act of crime, was a violation of their rights, It was a matter of public notoriety that the and had the civil courts failed to relieve them Convention of 1864 was to meet here on that promptly from such duress, upon a writ of date. habeas corpus, it would become my duty, if Some weeks previously it had been in session, called upon in conformity with the requirements and had continued its meetings during several of the recent order of the Lieutenant-General days. It had excited much opposition, and there commanding the armies designed for the protec- were threats of breaking it up ; yet it remained tion of American citizens, to interfere with mili- undisturbed, and to one unacquainted with the tary force for their relief, and possibly to take political views and considerations by which the into custody and hold in military confinement persons hostile to it were influenced, there was those who had committed the wrong. This idea no reason to suppose that the proposed assem- in relation to my duties, under the order of Gen. blage would not be passed by in the same peace- Grant, I endeavored to convey to the gentlemen able manner. who came to see me in relation to breaking up Since the riot, I have been informed by gen- the Convention. tlemen of the highest character—the planters of On the 26th of July I received from the Hon. wealth and influence, belonging to the party in- John T. Monroe, of the city of New Orleans, a imical to the Convention—that the question of letter, of which the following is a copy: its meeting had been by them fully discussed in * all of its bearings; that it had been proposed, Mayoralty of New Orleans, ) first, to treat it with ridicule, next to go into the City Hall, July 26, 1866. f ^ movement, and, by superior numbers, to send Brevet Major-Gen. Baird, Commanding,

MNM 25

1864, whose avowed object is to subvert the large, and the lawlessness of their character so present Municipal and State Governments, is well established, that you doubt the ability of about to assemble in this city, and regarding your small force of police to control them, you this assemblage as one of those described in the have, in such cases, only to call upon me, and I law as calculated to disturb the public peace and will bring to your assistance not only troops tranquillity, and therefore unlawful, you believe now present in the city, but, if necessary, the it to be your duty, and that it is your intention, entire force which it may be in my power to to disperse this unlawful assembly, if found assemble, either uJ)on the land or upon the water. within the corporate limits of the city, by ar- Lawless violence must be suppressed, and, in resting the members thereof, and holding them this connection, the recent order of the Lieuten- accountable to the existing municipal laws, pro- ant-General, designed for the protection of citi- vided they meet without the sanction of the zens of the United States, deserves careful con- military authorities. sideration. It imposes high obligations for You also inquire whether the projected meet- military interference to protect those who, hav- ing has my approbation, so that you may act ing violated • no ordinance of the State, are en- accordingly. gaged in peaceful avocations. In reply, I have the honor to state that the as- I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient semblage to which you refer has not, so far as servant, A. BAIRD, I am aware, the sanction or approbation of any Brevet Maj -General, military authority for its meetings. ^ Commanding Department of Louisiana. I presume the gentlemen comprising it have never asked for such authority to meet, as the These letters require little comment. The military commanders, since I have been in the Mayor announced his intention to break up the State, have held themselves strictly aloof from assembly as an unlawful assembly, and I reply all interference with the political movement of that I cannot regard it as within the scope of the citizens of Louisiana. For my own part, I his duties, as a municipal officer, to decide that have carefully refrained from any expression of question ; but, on the contrary, that I do regard opinion upon either side of the many questions it to be his duty, as custodian of the public peace, relating to the reconstruction of the State Gov- to protect the assembly as long as no disorder is ernment. When asked if I intended to furnish committed. the Convention a military guard, I have replied, On Friday night, July 27, a meeting of Radi- 4t No; ” the Mayor of the city and its police will cal persons was held in the Mechanics’ Institute. amply protect its sittings.” If these persons It was composed largely of colored people, and assemble, as you say is intended, it will be, I was addressed by ex-Gov. Hahn, Dr. Dostie, and presume, in virtue of the universally conceded others. At a later hour a torchlight procession right of^all loyal citizens of the United States of the same individuals was addressed in front to meet peaceably and discuss freely questions of the City Hall, by Dr. Dostie. All of these concerning their civil governments—a right speeches, except those of Dr. Dostie, are said to which is not restricted by the fact that the have been temperate. Of this, the only report movement proposed might terminate in a change which we have is to be found in opposition papers, of the existing institutions. and its authenticity js denied. The words put If the assemblage in question has the legal into his mouth by his enemies were violent and right to remodel the State Government, it should indiscreet, and, as the version of his remarks be protected in so doing. If it has not, then its was widely disseminated, it did, undoubtedly, labors must be looked upon as harmless pleas- have much effect in exciting the public mind. antry, to which no one ought to object As to In the same category with the speech attributed your conception of the duty imposed by your to Dr. Dostie must be placed the charges of oath of office, I regret to differ from you entire- Judge Abell to the Grand Jury of the Parish, in ly. I cannot understand how the maj’or of a relation to the Convention. The extraordinary cit}T can undertake to decide so important and sentiments which he then put forth, the occasion delicate a question as the legal authority upon which he selected for their utterance, and the in- which a Convention, claiming to represent the temperate language in which they were clad, people of an entire State, bases its action. were all calculated to breed popular tumult. This, doubtless, will, in due time, be properly To the Major-General commanding the Di- decided upon by the legal branches of the United vision, who has had so much longer time to ob- States Government. At all events, the govern- serve the character of the prominent men of this ment of the State would seem to be more direct- community, I need not speak of the unscrupulous ly called upon to take the initiative in a step of character of this gentleman, as displayed in his this kind, if it was proper and necessary. What official capacity.. we most want at the present time is, the main- We have only to lament that we find in his tenance of perfect order and the suppression of position a person ready to prevent the sanctity violence. If, when you speak of the projected with which we all wish to enshroud the law to meeting, as one calculated to disturb the public the accomplishment of political party ends. peace and tranquillity, I am to understand that On Saturday, the 28th of July, I had a call you regard the number of mersons who differ in from a member of the Convention, the only direct opinion from those who will constitute it as so communication I have had with any person con- 4 26

nected with it. Our interview was quite brief, were all subject to a higher authority, and that lie informed me that they designed to meet on in a very short time we could communicate with Monday, and that it was understood they might my military superiors, and receive instructions. be interfered with by the city authorities, lie Should it be found to be the policy of the Gov- told me nothing with regard to their views and ernment to have the meeting of the Convention objects. In reply I informed him that I had but prevented we could do it; if not, we should per- a correspondence with the Mayor upon the sub- mit it to take its course, and inasmuch as the ject, and that after what had passed between us arrests could be made on Tuesday as well as l did not think the Convention men need fear on Monday, the party opposed to the Convention violence. could have no cause to complain of the delay. Almost immediately on his departure I was With this proposition the Lieutenant-Gover- visited by Mayor Monroe, accompanied by Lieut.- nor readily acquiesced, and having informed me Governor Voorhees. The impression made upon that he had already telegraphed to the President, my mind after some few minutes’ conversation I agreed to telegraph immediately to the Secre- with them was, that the Lieutenant-Governor tary of War, and to communicate my instruc- had come with the Mayor in order to lend the tions as soon as received to the civil authorities. appearance of representing in the interview with Gov. Voorhees at the same time promised that me the office of Chief Executive of the State. I the Sheriff should bring any writ that he might had suggested, as will be observed in my letter receive to me for my approval before proceeding to the Mayor, that the Governor would be the to its execution. Every possible contingency most proper person to initiate the steps which from which trouble could be anticipated, seemed they proposed, if such steps became necessary. thus to be provided for, unless it might be the Gov. Wells had for some time been absent from attack upon the Convention and supporters by the city, and notwithstanding that there was a unruly citizens opposed to it. I mentioned this, , rumor of his returu, these gentlemen informed me and remarked that such a disturbance, should it that those who had sought interviews with him call for the interference of the troops to suppress t had been unable to find him, that he did not ap- it, would be highly injurious to the party which pear in his office to discharge ordinary duties in these gallant gentlemen represented. Gov. the customary way, and by inference therefrom Voorhees replied that it would be fatal, and un- the opinions of the officer next to him in rank dertook to have all persons not friendly to the might carry with them much of the weight which proposed assemblage warned through the public is properly attached to the incumbent of the prints to avoid the streets in the vicinity of Me- highest office in the State. I did not so regard chanics’ Institute while the meeting was going it. 1 was very soon informed that the plan of on. With this the interview' closed. The con- breaking up the Convention by having the Mayor versation was carried on chiefly by Lieut.- and City Police to arrest the members had been Gov. Voorhees and myself, Mayor Monroe mak- abandoned, and that it was now designed to have ing but few' remarks; but I understood him to them indicted by the Grand Jury of the Parish, acquiesce in all that was said by the Lieutenant- and upon th s procsss would issue to the Sheriff Governor and in the arrangements agreed upon to make the arrests. I replied at once that I did between him and myself. not see that this could change the condition of No application whatever was made to me for affairs or my responsibilities. What I desired the assistance of troops; and all that was said was to hold the military force in strict neutrality in relation to troops on this occasion was my re- between the political factions, and only to inter- mark that I would hold my men in hand and fere with them when it became necessary for the that the contending parties must be careful not preservation of the peace. 1 also Hashed care- to come into collision or I would intervene be- fully to put aside any complication which might tween them. By a glance at Mayor Monroe’s result in compelling me to interfere. I said that letter of the 25th, it will be seen that he makes as the case presented itself to my view, it was no request for military assistance, but on the one between the political parties fighting bitterly contrary desires the military to keep out of the for the ascendancy, and that one happened to way and permit him to carry out his purpose hold certain judicial and municipal offices which without interruption. The object of the visit to it sought to use, as I thought, improperly, in me on Saturday was to make a similar request, order to secure its superiority over the other. I only that it wras the Sheriff and his posse instead said, further, as mjT conviction was clear that of the Mayor and his police that was to operate these men had a right to assemble, and that to in the latter case; not the slightest doubt was arrest them for so doing would be a violation of expressed ns to the ability of either of these forces their rights as citizens, the inevitable conse- to make the arrests and close up the Convention quence would be an appeal to me upon the failure without disorder; indeed, it is not probable that of the Courts to give them prompt redress, and persons asking permission to perform an act such that I would be compelled, by the order of Gen. as w’as proposed, would acknowledge the possi- Grant, to release them, and, perhaps, to arrest the bility of its creating a riot by asking for the Sheriff, or those engaged in committing such presence of troops. 1 did remark that the Sheriff act of violence. I therefore begged that the must be very sure in case he undertook to exe- Sheriff, in case ho should receive such a writ, cute a w'rit of arrest that it was done wuthout would not attempt to execute it. I said that we disturbance of the peace ; and I was assured in reply that he would, in such case simply walk ask provision for its safety. Judge Howell, the alone into the hall and read his warrant to the President, whom I have seen, asked why they assembly, summoning the members to submit to did not notify me of their clanger, replied they the mandate of the court. had no conception of it themselves; he and the I was so well satisfied in parting with these rest were there unarmed, not sure that they might gentlemen that every effort would be made to not be arrested or the meeting otherwise broken prevent popular commotion upon the meeting of up, but with no idea that they would be sub- the Convention, and that all exciting subjects jected to violence. The large body of police be- would be laid aside until the orders of higher longing to the city was amply competent at any authority could be obtained, that I could not re- time by thrusting itself between the two Antag- frain from expressing to the Lieutenant-Governor onistic parties to separate them and arrest quietly the pleasure which the interview had occasioned the disorderly on both sides. It was strong me. As soon as they departed I dispatched to enough to have held a force equal to both the the Hon. Secretary of War a telegram, of which parties in the streets in subjection until the hour the following is a copy : when the troops held in reserve could come up. Indeed, there was no hour during the continuance Headquarters Department of Louisiana, \ of the riot when perfect order might not have New Orleans, Lb., July 28, 1866. j been restored by a command to the police from To the lion. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of war, its chiefs to put up their pistols, and turn round Washington, D. C. to request its friends and coadjutors in the work A Convention has been called, with .the sanc- of riot to desist, to clear the streets, and return tion of Gov. Wells, to meet here on Monday. to their homes. That the police force itself, the The Lieutenant-Governor and city authorities chosen guardian of the law, the conservator of think it unlawful, and propose to break it up by the public peace, should become the terrible arresting the delegates. 1 have given no orders rioter, which it did, was not to be calculated on the subject, but have warned the parties that upon. We knew that there were bad men in that 1 should not countenance or permit such action organization, and that its feelings were hostile to without instructions to that effect from the Presi- the Convention; but we believed them to be sub- dent. Please instruct me by telegraph. ject to the control of their officers, and, with all A. BAIRD, Brevet Major-Gen. Com. our knowledge of the depravity of the human heart, we could not have imagined them capable To this, up to the present day. I have received of such atrocities as were committed by them and no reply, nor has its receipt been acknowledged. their friends against helpless negroes and Union During the day of Sunday the 29th, I gave white people. orders to the troops—one regiment of which, a The commander who executed his move within colored regiment, was quartered in the upper proper supporting distance is not to be blamed part of the city, and the other, a regiment of for so doing, because his front line of troops put regular infantry, together with the battery at out to meet and fight the enemy basely passed Jackson Barracks, at the lower end of the city— over to him. This is the sole parallel that mili- to hold themselves throughout the day of Mon- tary history can afford for such treachery. Had day, in readiness to march at a moment’s notice, I to prepare again for similar events, with the to remain, however, within the limits of their re- same light upon me, I would make the same dis- spective camps. I also made arrangements for position. Those who contend that the violent having a steamer at the Barracks early in the deeds of the 30th ult. were planned, contrived, morning, to keep up steam and be ready to bring and determined upon beforehand in the office forward the troops rapidly to the points required. of the Mayor, and the orders given out from that A swift tug was kept at the foot of Canal Street, quarter, were careful to give me no such infor- as the speediest method of conveying a message mation in advance, and to convey no caution to to the officer in command, should his services be me as to the want of fidelity of the police. To called for. These dispositions for keeping our those persons connected with the civil govern- soldiers out of the streets of the city, were made ment who assert that they called for military as much to prevent the excitement which any assistance (which is incorrect) and complain that ostentation of military movement would have it was not given them, is sufficient to answer: produced as to keep the men in readiness for To ask against whom could the troops have service. For the same reason the steamer sent operated? Against no one but their own or- to Jackson Barracks was directed to move there ganized forces, whom, by a word of command, at an hour when not likely to attract the atten- they could have removed from the scene and tion of the public, so important did it appear in thus restored order. On Monday morning, the order to quiet down the growing excitement, that 30th ult., I read in the city papers the warning military parade should be avoided. of the Mayor to those hostile to the Convention It will be observed, as I will show hereafter, to keep away from its vicinity. This was in that Lieut.-Gov. Voorhees, even up to the hour accordance with our agreement on Saturday, of noon on Monday did not, as he informed me, and as I did not doubt that its effects would be anticipate a breach of the peace. No member of good in preventing disorder, I was much grati- the Convention, or friends of it, if attack was fied; I also saw published the following tele- feared, came to me to represent the fact and to gram, purporting to come from the President: Washington, July 28, 1866. this proposition, and promised that such action Albert Yoorhees, Lieut.-Governor, Louisiana : should not be misinterpreted by his friends, as a Sir,—The military will be expected to sustain violation of the neutrality, which I wished to and not obstruct or interfere with the proceed- preserve. This acceptance of the services of ings of the courts. A dispatch on the subject troops proffered by me, not demanded from me, of the Convention was sent to Gov. Wells this was the first thing approaching to an under- morning. ANDREW JOHNSON. standing or proposition relative to the presence of soldiers, that passed between us, or between The authority of this dispatch I saw no rea- me and any one. This, it may be observed, son to doubt, but it was ambiguous as to the took place after the proposition to arrest the wishes of the Government in relation to the members of the Convention, first by the Mayor Convention. The difficulty lay in determining and then by the Sheriff, had been given up, and who were the legal authorities whom the mili- the determination to permit the meeting to go tary were expected to support and sustain. on until instructions to the contrary hnd been Judge Abell, of one of the State Courts, had but received, decided upon. Can it be possible that recently, in a charge to the Grand Jury of his the police had the men detailed as a Sheriff district, denounced the Convention of 1864 as posse, having been instructed already to act unlawful, and for this, as well as for the senti- upon the other hypothesis—that of preventing ments expressed by him, he had been arrested the assembly—were prepared and in position for by the United States Commissioner and bound that purpose, and for this reason were feared by over for trial at the next session of the United their own leaders, now that another course was States Courts. The question then arose as be- to be pursued ? however this may be, I agreed tween Judge Abell and Judge Shannon, which to send to the barracks for four companies, and was the military authority to recognize as the to have them somewhere in the street, nearly Court intended by the President. The journals one hour before the Convention should meet. I which published the dispatch referred to, in had acquired the impression, although I cannot commenting upon it, remarked that while the now say who informed me, that the Convention Department Commander would doubtless give was not to meet until 6 o’clock in the evening. any assistance that might be required to the It may be that the hour of meeting was not civil officers in breaking up the Convention, that mentioned during the interview which I now de- none would be asked for, as none would be re- scribe, but as it was then fast approaching 12 quired. i ^ o’clock, the Lieut.-Governor must have perceived At about 11 o’clock of that day I was again that my proposition to send for the troops and called upon by Lieut.-Gov. Yoorhees, and after have them on the ground in advance of the a short conversation I informed him that I had actual hour at which the meeting was to take as yet received no instructions from the War place (if he understood it to be 12 o’clock), was Department; that I had no doubt as to my duty, impossible, yet the erroneous impression was not and that I saw no reason for changing my course corrected. Had the object of this call upon me of action. I said, moreover (I am quite sure it been, as has been told in the public prints, to was at this interview I said it), that apart ask from the military support for the civil force from the military considerations, by which alone in a crisis which it was seen was likely to ap- I was governed, I thought it a very grave step proach, the hour when the troops would be for the friends of the President to take—to hang needed would not haVe been left in doubt, nor about his neck the responsibility of breaking up would other details of arrangements have been a Convention sanctioned by the Governor, with- overlooked. knowing certainly that he (the President) desired The truth is the Lieutenant-Governor left me, it. Without instructions to that effect I could declaring the belief that the day would pass off not approve it. peaceabiy, and I was satisfied he was sincere. Finding I did not propose to deviate from the The real object in view was to induce me to course which we had agreed to take.tipon Satur- recede from the position I had taken on Satur- day it was reiterated in all its particulars. At day, in .consequence of the telegram from the this juncture, after having explained the disposi- President, and to lend my sanction for dissolving tions which I had made of the troops; that they the Convention. were ready at Jackson Barracks—three miles As soon as he had departed I sent an officer to from Canal Street; that I had a steamer ready Jackson Barracks to bring up the available men to bring them up, and a tug by which to send of the First Infantry Regiment, and to locate word to them the very moment I might be in- them near the levee on Canal Street, so as to be formed that a crisis demanding their presence out of the way, yet to be within reach if re- was likely to arise—I remarked that, were not quired. afraid my motives in bringing soldiers into the It was now about 12 o’clock, and being con- streets might be misunderstood, and regarded as a vinced from the many assurances I had received design to give military guardianship to the Con- that citizens hostile to the meeting, would, in vention, I would be glad to post a few men in obedience to the request of the civil authorities, the street on either side of Mechanics’ Institute, keep out of the way, and that the police force at a distance of one or two squares from it. The would be on the ground to take in custody those Lieutenant-Governor seemed to be pleased with guilty of the first disorders, I saw no chance for a disturbance unless it might arise from the acci- messenger comes in and brings the information dental collision with disorderly white men of that a large number of freedmen are at the Me- some of the colored persons, who, it was said, chanics’ Hall, and that a great number of white might collect outside the building to protect the people are in the vicinity. The excitement is • Convention. I was satisfied, from the natural increasing. The appearance of soldiers with peacefulness of their character, that the negroes policemen, at this moment, would be very bene- would never be aggressive, but felt that their ficial. I remain, very respectfully, appearance at such a time might provoke attack Your obedient servant, from low and ignorant white men, to whom they ALBERT YOORHEES, are always an object of hatred. To remove this Lieut.-Gov. La. last chance, as I supposed, of disorder, I desired to find some persons belonging to the Conven- In delivering it he remarks that the Lieuten- tion to request that the members of the body ant-Governor was not sure of the correctness of themselves would meet with as little display as the reports which he made, since they were possible. Not knowing the residence of any of founded on rumors brought in to him; yet he them except Judge Howell, I took a carriage and thought it well to give me the information. In drove to his house. On my arrival I learned, reply, I stated that I had already sent two mes- much to my surprise, that the Convention had sengers for the troops, and that 1 expected them actually already met, and that the Judge had every moment to arrive. already gone to it. I then returned immediately From this time forward messengers continued to my office and soon after information was constantly to come in bringing news of the brought in with respect to the first acts of dis- renewal of the riot, of the arrival of fresh order on Canal Street. At once a second mes- bodies of police on the ground, and finally of the senger was dispatched to hasten forward the attack on the building itself. Among the last troops that had been sent for, and also to bring of these was Mayor Monroe, who came in hur- up the artillery. I likewise sent a staff-officer to riedly a little after 2 o’clock, and inquired, the Hall of Assembly to procure information as “ When the troops I proposed to bring up would to the actual state of affairs. On his return he arrive ?” I replied that by that very time they informed me that he met Judge Howell in the should be on Canal Street. He then asked, Governor’s Room and learned from him that the rather “ anxiously,” “ Will they be white troops?’ Convention had met soon after the hour of noon “Will they act along with my police ?” I re- and had adjourned for want of a quorum, but plied that I would have some white troops, and that it would again assemble at 1£ o’clock, and that I would suppress the riot, no matter who if no quorum was then present would adjourn were engaged in it. The interview lasted but a over to the next day. He spoke of the disturb- few moments, and these three interrogations, ance that had taken place in the street, but did together with my replies to him, constituted the not seem to anticipate anything more serious. substance of the entire conyersation which This report reassured me considerably as to the passed between us on the occasion. They fur- condition of affairs. About the same time a nish a key to what was passing in his mind at a letter of Lieut.-Gov. Voorhees, of which the fol- time when he knew his police had gone beyond lowing is a copy, was brought to me by a special all bounds that could be justified by people of messenger: • any party and felt the heavy weight which responsibility for their acts would impose upon New Orleans, La., July 30, 1806. those accountable for them. The statement he Major-Gen. Baird, New Orleans. has since made, as to telling me then that he Sir: I am informed that squads of the colored held me responsible for the bloodshed of that population are going about in the Third District day. is entirely erroneous. of the city; that they have abandoned their The error may have been worked up in his work; and that others are coming into the city, mind by the excitement of the occasion in con- also, from the Upper Post and from Jefferson. founding subsequent thoughts with the events as How reliable this news is—or, at least, to what they transpired. It is not probable that I would extent—I cannot say positively at all events, I have received such an accusation without resent- would suggest that an inquiry be made. The ing it, nor would he have neglected, in stating colored population is not answerable for these his remarks, in giving my replies, had I made things; for, goaded as they are by inflammatory any. I immediately mounted my horse and rode appeals to their passions and prejudices, it is to Canal Street, where the soldiers were then astonishing that they have not already fallen arriving. This was about 2.40 o’clock. The into excesses. After leaving you, I called upon troops were at once moved up Canal Street to the Mayor, who was pleased to know what the City Hall, where the Assembly had met, but co-operation he would have from the Military on the way encountered a large crowd of white Department. Asa measure of prudence it would men and boys, generally armed with pistols, and be well—should you, however, concur in this many of them drunk and prepared for further view—to have a military force disseminated disorder. These were dispersed by sending throughout the city, to act in concert with the strong patrols to clear the various streets and city police; but by all means in the vicinity of warn people to retire to their homes. The Me- Mechanics’ Institute. At this very moment my chanics’ Institute was already in the possession 30 I of the police, most of those who had been and having made no attempt to peaceably arrest within its walls having been cither killed, them. There was a pile of bricks at hand, and wounded, or captured and sent to prison. It the colored people defended themselves with would not be proper, in a report of this charac- these and their sticks as well as with such pistols # ter, to state positively aud minutely what did as they had, less than one to every tenth man. occur during the riot. The testimony of sworn They wrere soon overpowered, and those who witnesses, which is now being taken by a Board could do so found a refuge within the Convention appointed for the purpose, will establish these hall. The building was afterward assaulted, the facts beyond a doubt. It is enough for our police firing their pistols into the windows, and present purpose to state that, according to the when an entrance w as effected, they forced their information we received, the first act of disorder way up to the landing on the second story, and occurred as a procession of about 150 colored there found the door of the hall barricaded. men was moving through Canal Street. These At length, by some strategy, those in the hall men were generally armed with clubs or sticks, were induced to open the door, when the police and perhaps one in ten had a pistol. The pro- rushed in and emptied their revolvers into the cession was preceded with music and the Ameri- assemblage. Those within, being feebly armed, can flag. It was fired upon, and the most trust- could make but little resistance; and the police- worthy evidence goes to show that the shot came men, retiring to reload, returned to repeat the from a restaurant on Canal Street. Another same operation. When any of the Conventionists account states that the shot was fired by a negro succeeded in being passed out to the front of the in the procession at some one who attempted to building, they were there met by a cordon of take the flag from them. A rush was then made police, surrounded by another cordon of citizens, upon the procession by policemen and citizens, and attempting to surrender to the first, they and, perhaps, a few more pistol shots were ex- were frequently shot down by the men whom changed, but I find no evidence to that effect. they begged to take them into custody. This In a few moments all was over and quiet re- course was continued until the work was com- stored ; the police made three arrests and car- pleted. ried off their prisoners, while the colored men During the riot, a fire company arrived in passed on to the Mechanics’ Institute. There rear of the building, by which passage many were very few persons injured in this encounter, were trying to escape, and at once halted to probably not more than two or three. It was a unite with the policemen there, and take part in very trifling affair and was suppressed easily. the work of slaughter. Other large bodies of After this the colored people who were not police, regularly organized, also came in from inside the Mechanics’ Institute were assembled the station-houses, sooner or later, to unite with in front of that building in Dryadcs Street, the forces already engaged. It is also reported occupying that position between Common and that men were passed through the crowd by Canal Streets. At the same time the hostile friendly policemen, who tied about their necks citizens were collecting in Canal and Common white nandkerchiefs as an evidence that they Streets, but slightly separated from the negro belonged to some one of the organizations of the gathering. The entire number of persons, in- citizens present. I do not report these things as cluding the Convention and those friendly to it, perfectly correct in every particular, for I hold both inside and outside of the building, I esti- my judgment in abeyance until access can be mate at about 500 or 600 men. had to the evidence which the commission will While things remained in this condition, at adduce. They are, however, credibly reported about 1J o’clock, as nearly as I can ascertain the to me, and they leave no room to doubt that the hour, a body of police came up Dauphine Street riots of the Both ult present a picture of atrocity into Canal Street, and passing through the crowd ! having no parallel in American history. of citizens, entered thence into Dryadcs Street, 1 At the time when I located the troops in the which brought them upon the collection of center of the city and cleared the crowds from negroes in front of the Institute. the adjacent streets, I was, of course, ignorant of Simultaneously with this, my staff officer met most of the particular incidents of the riot, but a party of near 100 police going down Carondo- the evidence was overwhelming that the police let Street, whose officer informed him they were had be.n faithless to its duty, and had been going to suppress thef riot. This party turned riotous throughout; that, in truth, it led the down Common Street, and on reaching Baronne Viot, and it was, therefore, necessary to take this Street, detached a portion of its force to occupy force under control. All negroes, all Union the rear outlet of Mechanics’ Institute on that citizens of Louisiana, and all Northern men, so , street. The rest passed on to Dryadcs Street, far as I could learn, were in a state of terror. where it came upon the colored crowd on the The approach of a policeman they regarded as side opposite to those who came from Canal. that of an executioner. Prominent citizens These bodies of police are said to have been sum- sought refuge or concealment in the houses of moned to the spot by the ringing of the city friends, and even the Governor of the State, bells. Everything shows preconcerted action. during the night, sent for a guard, to protect The police, armed with pistols and clubs, fol- his life. For days subsequent to the riot the lowed and supported by citizens, charged upon meeting of two or three of the police, near the the negroes, having given no notice to disperse, house of a Union man was regarded as sufficient 31

to justify a removal at night or a demand for a “The Sheriff will withhold action on this. military guard, and with this state of feeling, Wait until further orders. “ A. BAIRD, whether it had any just foundation or not, a “ Brevet Major-General, renewal of riot and disorder niight at any mo- “ Commanding Department.” ment have been anticipated. Persons being frightened would naturally, at the approach of Two days subsequently I received from the fancied danger, gather together for defense, and Adjutant-General a telegram, of which the fol- bloodshed would probably . follow. It was lowing is a copy: necessary to reassure them, which could only be done by an announcement of military protec- [By Telegraph from Washington.] tion, and notice to the police that they were To Gen. A. Baird, Commanding Department of taken under the supervision of a power that Louisiana: would hold them to accountability for their acts. You will not interpose any obstacle in the way » To accomplish this object I issued an order pro- of the civil authorities, but render whatever aid claiming martial law. It was not one of the may be required by them for the preservation of ordinary cases calling for such a step, where the the public peace. The foregoing telegram is civil force, having resisted to the last degree the violence of the mob, and is overcome, asks for transmitted to you by order of the President. assistance, and puts itself under the protection You will acknowledge its receipt. of the military power; but the very unusual . E. D. TOWNSEND, case of the civil force becoming the aggressor, Assist. Adjt.-General. and giving way to excesses which had to be restrained. • On the receipt of this, I sent for the writ still There can be no question that it was necessar}^, | in the hands of the Sheriff, and wrote beneath and I am confident that great loss of life, and my former endorsement as follows: much destruction of property during Monday Hdqrs. Department of Louisiana, ) night, was prevented thereby. That a crisis had New Orleans, Aug. 2, 1866. J arisen demanding some extraordinary step is The necessity for the above order having admitted in the following proclamation of Mayor ! ceased to exist, no further impediment will be Monroe, given to the public about the time I placed in the way of executing the writ. issued my order: a. baird; Brevet Major-General, Manor ally of New Orleans, ) Com’g Dep’t. City Hall, July 30, 1866. f Whereas, The city is in a stale of great agita- In consequence of this, I am informed that the tion, arising out of the riots precipitated by a arrests were soon after made. But Major-Gene- revolutionary faction; and, whereas, it is abso- ral Kautz, having been appointed Military Gov- lutely necessary that order should be restored ernor of the city, gave early attention to the and violence suppressed; therefore, I, John T. condition of the wounded and prisoners, with Monroe, Mayor of the city of New Orleans, do whom the cells of all the prisons and station- call on all such citizens as are willing to assist in houses were filled. The officers sent out for the maintaining the peace, to appear at City Hall, purpose found the wounded and the well crowd- this day, at 6 p. M., to be sworn in as extra ed together in a disgusting and sickening man- policemen. No one not holding my authority ner, without any proper care for their sufferings. will be allowed to make any arrest. They were, however, being rapidly paroled and All good citizens, with the exception of those released by order of the civil authorities. on duty, are requested to retire to their homes, Against many there were no charges whatever, and not to assemble in crowds in the public and against no one was it charged that he had streets. JOHN T. MONROE, been accessory to the killing of any one during Mayor. the day. I have yet likewise to learn that a single individual of those hostile to the Conven- No man has been injured by this declaration tion had been arrested. The officers made dili- of martial law, while many have been benefited, gent inquiry, and could hear of no one. Upon and I recommend that it be maintained until a their report, Gen. Kautz then ordered that the Oill report in relation to the riot, together with work commenced by the civil government should evidence which is being taken, can be submitted be continued, and that all persons arrested against to the Government for such order as the wisdom whom^there was no accusation of crime should be of the President may dictate. In the evening released. In order to ascertain the number of on Monday, about the time I declared the city killed and wounded upon either side, I have under military control, Sheriff Hays brought to caused Surgeon Hartsuff, U. S. A., to make an me, on the street, a warrant for the arrest of the investigation and report. He called upon the prominent members of the Convention. It was proper city officials for their statement, and fas at a time when no further exciting movements sought for information in every quarter. No could be permitted witfusafety, and telling him doubt there were men killed and wounded con- that it could not be done, I made upon the writ cerning whom he could obtain no information. the following endorsement: The following is his report: 32

NA11KS, NATURE OF WOUNDS, AC., OBTAINED. Voorhies, Attorney-General Herron, and Mayor Monroe, it is stated that “the collision was, in every instance, brought about by the armed mob sustaining the Convention; ” likewise, that they were well armed, since “forty-two” police- >>!» men and several “citizens” were either killed or - I O .2 - = j > s .2 | o § wounded by them. Seeing this, Dr. Hartsuft 5 m CO 0, . called upon the Chief of Police for a list of Members of Convention l1 4 4l 4| 1, 8 9 casualties, and, in reply, received a statement White citiz ns attending Convention. 2 4 51 8 2 4 11 that 22 had been injured—one of these had died Colored citizens do. do. 34 40 79,44 30 45 153 from over-fatigue. Total 87,43 51 88 52 173 | Dr. Hartsuff visited the rest and found some Policemen 7j i> 2 10 uninjured, while but the 10 he reports were well White citizens with police 1 ...U 1 enough to be on duty the next day. It will be 88 48 93 58 84 54 184 remembered, in this connection, that the police Total known assaulted a building in which the so-called rioters Positive evidence concerning these could not had barricaded themselves, and, while the wall be obtained: of this building opposite the entrance was cov- Supposed in addition to above, Colored citizens attending Con- ered with bullet marks, but three or four can be vention 10 20 80 found on the side by which the police entered. Most of those killed received one or more Total 4S|6S 93|5S 84 54 214 I pistol-shots, and of the wounded, Dr. Hartsuff This exposition of 37 certainly, and 2 more prob- found 51 such wounds on the part of the Con- nlily killed, on the side of the Convention against a vention party against 7 on the part of the single citizen on the side of the city authorities; police. of 48 severely wounded on the side of the Con- All of this goes to establish which party was vention, and not a single man in that category armed and organized, and which exercised the upon the other side, and of 88 certain, and 20 violence, notwithstanding that nearly every more probable cases of slight wounds among the policeman swears that they were generally un- friends of the Convention, and but 10 such cases armed, and that he did not see a shot fired by among the police and its friends, is highly sig- them. I am, sir, your obedient servant, nificant. In a report which has been submitted A. BAIRD, to the President, signed by Lieutenant-Governor Brevet Major-General, Commanding Department THE GARBLED DISPATCH. [From the New York Tribune, August 27.] The publication of the correspondence between Gen. Sheridan and the President, enables us to justify our expressed suspicion that the dispatches of Gen. Sheridan had been tampered with for base uses. We now print the doubted dispatch as it appeared in 7'he Times, and also a true copy from the official correspondence: THE GARBLED DISPATCH. THE TRUE DISPATCH. The Times, Aug. 8. From the Correspondence. New Orleans, Aug. 1.—1.80 p. m. New Orleans, Aug 1. U. S. Grant—General: You are doubtless aware of the Qtn. U. 8. Grant, Washington, D. C. serious riot which occurred in this city on the 30th. A You are doubtless aware of the serious riot which occurred political body, styling itself the Convention of 1864, met on in this city on the 30th. A political body, styling itself the the 30th for, as it is alleged, the purpose of remodeling the Convention of 1SG4, met on the :30th for, as it is alleged, the present Constitution of the State. The leaders were politi- purpose of remodeling the present Constitution of the State. cal agitators and revolutionary men, and the action of the The leaders were political agitators and revolutionary men, Convention was liable to produce breaches of the public and the action of the Convention was liable to produce peace. I ha 1 m ide up my mind to arrest the head men. if breaches of the public peace. I had made up my mind to the proceedings of the Convention were calculated to dis- arrest the head men if the proceedings of the Convention turb the tranquillity of the Department, but I had no cause were calculated to disturb the tranquillity of the Depart- for action until they committed the overt act. In the ment, but I had no cause for action until they committed mean time, official duty called me to Texas, and the the overt act. About 40 Whites and Blacks were killed, Mayor of the city, during my absence, suppressed, the and about 100 wounded. Everything is now quiet, but I Convention by the use of their rtolice force, and in so deem it best to maintain a military supremacy in the city doing attacked the members of the Convention and a for a few days, until the atfair is fully investigated. I be- party of Vico hundred negroes, and with fire-arms? lieve the sentiment of the general community is great re- clubs, and knives, in a manner so unnecessary and gret at this unnecessary cruelty, and that the police could atrocious a* to compel me to say that it was mitrder. have made any arrest they saw lit without sacrificing! ives. About 40 Whites and'Blacks were thus killed, and about P. H. SHERIDAN, 160 wounded. Everything is now quiet, but I deem it best Maj.-Gen. Commanding. to maintain a military supremacy in the city for a few days,, until the affair is fully investigated. I believe the senti- ment of the general community is great regret at this un- necessary cruelty, and that the police could have made any arrest they saw tit without sacrificing lives. P. H. SHERIDAN, Maj.-Gen. Commanding. If the reader will look at these dispatches ritically, he will find that the copy in The Times was. as we suspected at the time, a forgery.