New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-06-19
4eh 0rlears Bully Gresttnt.
FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 10, 1857.
The Washington Massacre.

NkA8BucfOs
We have all along felt confident that when the
truth came ont it would appear that neither Americans
nor the American party caused the recent election
riot in Washington could be held responsible for
its bloody consequences. The Delta Of yesterday pub
fishes letter from Washington under date Of the 11th
inst, which contains important disclosures rela-
tive to that unfortunate affair placing the whole mat
ter in different light from that in which it pre-
sented by the anti-Amercan press Of Washington.
In order to a proper understanding of the crcum-
stance that only exparte statements have been made
by that press the fact should be mentioned that every
paper now published in Washington receives Govern
ment patronage, and if there be that rerans from
abusing the American party upon any OCCASION there
certainly is not that ventures to lift voice in its
defence. & M
The Deltas correspondent states that the testimony
taken before the ures of inquest shows conclusvely
that the riot was pretty much Of family affair.""
He states that at precinct in the Fourth Ward dis
turbance took place in which stones and brckbats
were thrown and few pistols fred, resulting in no
particular injury beyond the wounding Of in
the wrist. Twenty minutes afterwards the voting was
proceeding as orderly as before but, in the mean
time message was carried to the Mayor, half mile
distant, who dispatched letter to the President,
mile and half distant, who consulted the Secretary
Of the Navy. All this finally resulted in procuring
detachment of marines from the Navyyard barracks,
three miles from the Presidents house and the writer
relates what followed in the following words:
On receiving this order-carried by the Mayor or
sent to Col. Henderson-a hundred and ten men were
sent from the Marine Barracks to the scene of diff
Guilty under the control of the Mayor. When they
reached that place they found the people voting qu
etly the disturbance having subsided about two
hours before their arrival. They learned, however,
that near to that place. at the east end of the North
ern Liberties Market House, number of persons
were assembled with little swivel all in full view.
The Marines ordered to charge them with bayo.
nets and take the piece. ut was now l o'clock.)
They did so; they who had possessed it abandoning
it on the approach of the Marines. After they had
taken the piece they returned to the position whence
they moved in the charge and formed into hollow
square. Then it that they were ordered to fire.
-Four witnesses in tle first inquest swore positively
that they heard the Mayor give the ORDER and four
teen that it after the taking Of the little gun and
that there had been no firing and disturbance for
TWO hours preceding that action; that between the
taking of the little gun and the firing by the Marines
there was no provocation whatever given.
Seven or eight persons were killed on the spot and
about twenty wounded, and the writer says:
But, there is one circumstance which they do not
tell and which none OF our city papers has disclosed
1t is this: with one single exception, euery of
those killed and ,rounded by the firing of the Ma.
rines, was OF the antiKno,r Nothing party, and all
but one citizens of Washington! One Know Nothing
was badly wounded in the arm. 1t was his place of
voting, and he was standing near the Marines, not
dreaming Of danger-unarmed quiet-near his place
Of business and not having taken any part whatever
IN mt the disturbance. He is man Of good character
state emphaticay and positively, that, according
to the best evidence, Baitimorean only (Mr.
DaIrymple) was shot by the Marines, and he is ad.
mitted, on all hands. to have been a Democrat. AH
NVa1l snovu cif nfW hinpfp
Those who insist that Americans created the riot
and were fired upon in the act eff carrying it on, must
explain how it happened that the sufferers by the
voleys of the Marines all belonged to the adverse
party. The fact is indisputable. A correspondent
of the New York Courier and Enquirer "a Republican
paper, rabidly hostile to Americansm, says:
r. Nine persons were killed or wounded fatally Gas is
supposedly The most of them were Democrats One
only X. NJ and two were colored men. A
Republican was shot at but escaped unharmed save
by fright. Thus all parties represented
in the disturbance and impartially dealt with. Two
men were shot while running away, the Marines ap-
parently thinking that they ought to have remained
'to see the thing out"
This correspondent, however, observing probably
the natural inference to be drawn from his statement
says that the why none of the 'Plug Uglies'
were shot, was because they were locked up in an
engine house at the time. As the persons bearing
this singular title are charged with originating the
riot at the instgation of Americans in Washington,
and of having been the most active participants in it,
the question naturally arises, if they not the
ground when the disturbances eliminated who did
the Marines shoot at If the most dangerous element
of the afray had been removed what did they shoot
for at all 1t has been proved who the Marines hit;
now will the Washington Union, or the Courier and
Enquirer, or any other Democratic Black Republi-
paper tell why those unfortunate persons, if
they were conducting themselves in an orderly and
peaceful manner, were fired upon and shot down in
the streets?
1t must be an exceedingly unpleasant thing to be
tumbled over by musket ball when one is not con-
scous of having done anything to merit such dis
tincton, and apprehend that the friends of those
who treated in that manner can-hardy sanction
the positive refusal of Washington magistrate to in
stitute legal inquiry into the conduct of the Mayor
upon that occasion, although urged to do SO.
In regard to the assertion that a gang of Plug
Uglies from Baltimore present. the Delta's cor
respondent says there is no more proof OF its truth
than there is in support of the other report that
band of rufians called the Empire Club" came
from New York to drive the Americans from the poll
of the Fourth Ward where the disturbance occurred
and where the Americans were formerly in the ma
jorty.
DECIDEDLY CooL,-The New York Tribune says
The case of Mrs. Mclean, although it is not by any