Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-01-09

Wen now, gentlemen, contemplate the opposing
parties. Some half dozen halfgrown boys or hob
ble-de-hoys in pos: sion of an old swivel upon
broken wagon, according to every fair probability
spiked, so that II could MT lie fired, in hostile ar
ray upoI the one side; some Of them, perl a %,
with pistols In Il eir pockets. l do not know
whether they had or not, but possibly some o.
them had, and give them all the advantage Of
The sd mission. The array on the one side, then,
was this half dozen boys with this old swivel and
their pocket pistols upon the other side, not as
my III nd said, with banners flying, flies bow
ing, and drums beating, but without sound OF
trumpet or drum, without the futter of flag in
the BREEZE with deadly uskets in their han Is
will excuse the officers If the Marine corps; it
was by order OF III ir superiors with ball err
tidge-, coata ming bullet and three buck-s hot
each, hundred and fourteen men in military ar
RAY do not think the exact number was proved
on the trial, but the woun ed Marine told me that
that was the number-with complement of off
GERS, each with musket and cartridge.box / do
not know how many cartridges were served out I;
ten at one time and ten at another The boys
with their pistols and their swivel; the Captain of
the Marines with his one hundred and fourteen
armed soldiers an interval of a short space sepa
rated ITEM; each on the same highway--Seventh
street. A message came, as was supposed, from
the boys, but, as think it has been proved, from
a very different quarter But message came, as
was supposed at that time, from the party in
charge OF the cannon, telling the officer in CON-
mand that unless II Marines were taken fom the
ground, the cannon would be fred. The half doz-
en- boys sent that message to the one hundred
ard fourteen Marines! The boys, with the swivel
and their pocket pistols, sent that defiance to the
Marines, with muskes and ball cartridges consist
ing o. bullet and three buckshot! Six to one
hundred and fourteen The gallant officer tells us
hat he n,in6t IN ha m
away the Marines, he would take the cannon; and
Immediately, upon his own shook" he marched
his Marines from his position before the polls and
drew them up before the cannon; and that lie gave
the order to march with the purpose of at once
firing upon the party as soon as he got into posi-
ticn. Gentlemen, do not know what your feel.
ings were when that testimony came out: con
fess my human sympathies were shocked, that
upon defiance of that nature, from parcel of
heads,rong youths and boys, that they would fire
a miserable swivel upon one hundred and fourteen
armed Marines, the idea could have entered into
any mans head, upon that provocation, to fire
upon them. Gentlemen does it not prove how
caut GUS magistrates should be in calling to their
aid military power +? Does it not prove upon what
a dangerous arm the civil authority is. made to
rest P ... q. 49, ,.,s
That gentleman of military education, intelli.
gent, experienced, as was the Commander OF that
corps, could have been 80 transported by warlike
feelings as to think of dealing with those rash
boys as he would with public and an equal
enemy! Why, he should have taken the match
from that cannon, if they were rash enough to
shoot, and not let man fire musket. What
prevented him from marching up and outhanking
the party, and charging with the whole line 80 as
to make their escape impractcabe and what if
they had fired if they had shot through his ranks
in revenge for that; was the military thus armed,
so superior, to be let loose upon this petty band
of boys to commit murder, ut would be nothing
else in vengeance AS soon as the swivel was
discharged the danger was over; kill what num-
Der of Marines it might, the danger was over. l
am no military man; / am not accustomed to
arms am not man of a military education
l am civilian but God forbid that any education
should ever make me estimate the course which
the officer said il was his intention to execute, as
proper on such an occasion. He, however, after
wards abandoned that determination, and for what
reason? Why that if he had fired, he would
have killed everybody about the cannon, not only
the BOYS, but everybody else who might be about
it. NV blood almost ran cold when heard hiEl
so picture to himself the scene about the market
house when j heard him say that he marched up
with the design to order the firing. He changed
his intention, but he did not up so as to out
flank them and charge upon and capture the whole
party. 1t is great pity that he did not do so, for
then you would have had the guilty parties; and
then there would have been none of this shooting
Though he said he did not consider 1t his business
to run after the fgitives he left that to the police
and the magistrates and to the lawyers; lawyer as
am, msintain that it was more his duty to cap
ture than to shoot those in charge of the adver-
sary gun and it would have brought no disgrace
on his military proves, if he had outfanked and
captured them. think it would rather have added
a plume, than plucked feather, from his cap.
But perhaps, his military ardor was excited. II
is not always agreeable in military affairs to take
prisoners sometimes they shoot them 10 get rid
Of them, and, perhaps, on this occasion, it would
have been less trouble to shoot them than TO take
them. However, / do not attribute such feelings
to the worthy gentleman; but l think the worthy
commander had an idea that an achievement was
accidentally thrown in his way, and requircdlthe
swivel in the hands of those boys as trophy OF
the occasion. He had one hundred and fourteen
Marines armed with muskets and bayonets,
charged with cartridges containing bullet and
three buckshot each, on the first day Of June, in
the year Of our Lord, 1857, on Seventh street,
in the city Of Washington, and he charged, gal
lantly charged, and VIGOROUSLY conquered some
half dozen boys with a swivel that could not be
fired That is an achievement They charged
in gallant style, in a manner which has been
across the sti eet; no doubt each man We'd with
the other for the honor Of being first to cross a
bayonet over that cannon. There was no attempt
made to catch the boys The Marines came
across at a charge, and The moment the boys saw
the CLEAN OF the bayonets, they ran. or course
they might be expected to run. They could not
be expected to withstand n platoon OF Marines
And as they ran some of them pitched stones al
the Marines | think one witness saw stone
strike bayonet of one Of the Marines; some shot
pistols at the Marines; according to agrest many
witnesses, one pistol; according to theirs, sew
eral; and according to Major Tyler, there were
fifty or sixty. Be that as it may, when the
Marines charged bayonets and drove the boys
away, in the true spirit that belongs TO our race,
they determined TO show some little spunk on
the occasion, and some pitched stones and some
took out their little pocket pistols and popped
away. The Marines, according to my comprehen'
sion of the word, did not stand fire. Gallant
men, soldiers, would never have shot promiscu
ousy at flying boys or into crowd. We'll
trained veterans stand the crack Of pistol undis
turbed but here they fred their deadly muskets
into the party Of spectators. The gallant sol
] ders stood In battle array, armed with muskets
and performed the glorious achievement of firing
their deadly weapons upon flying boys, killing
not the boys, or the parties engaged in the muss
| hut n moor Innocent negro who was passing