The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-10-05
THE NEW oRLEAN i ma

Report OF the Muftary COmmIssTon..-
6 startling DeYeIopements.-..A Cold.
tB100aed SIaughter-..VFhAt may. he
Expected from ae Rebellion Recon.
str1eted Hnder stAIy PoIteyn--The
z 1aets rs they Contrast with Andrew
S0hnsOn's st. LouIs Speech.
sL From the NesO York Tribune. Z ~
8 he,report of the Military Board o.
Commission appointed to investigate
the causes of the New Orleans massacre
Is at last before the public, furnished 10
the e, 4 2 fISibseae, exclusively, from our
Washington Burean, and obtained with.
m much difficulty. The President, in
spite of the universal demand for its
publication, has kept this sextraordinary
document secret, and there was reason
70 iear Its entire suppression. 1t will
'easily rbeseen why he dared not allow
it to be published. y
The whole responsibilityo of the mass
acre Is placed upon the civil authorities
95+eSsg ffs sSLe 9Flsans' and thIeugh them upon
course. The Radical Convention is ex-
Pnerated from the charge of inciting the
negroes to violence, and i6 is proved
that the negroes who .paraded were gem
orally unarmed, and could have had no
hostile intention. When the Conyen-
..ttonaWasattacked ;it is estnh nhlished ssbe-
syondsa shadow Of doubt that. except
the two or three pistols in the hands of
the processfonto of negroes, the besieged-
party were, totally unarmed. On the
other hand, the Commission found that
the Mayor expected that an Organized
attack would be made on the Gonven-y
tion, and that on the morning Of the
massacre ne Withdrew the police from
thestreetsS ARMED them, and held them
to await orders. The city was left ito
the mercy of the rioters. The first at
tack was made by sex-Rebel soldiers
upon the negroes, and this was followed
by the advance of the police inH three
columns, firing on the negroes and the,
convention: Organizations of Rebel
alarm-bell gave the we'll known signal
which, during the Rebellion, summons
ed the Rebel soldiers to,the defense of
the City, against "a Federal attack.
Sweeping through thektreets, in answer
to the tolitng bell came Hays's Brigade
and bodies of men bearing the
insignia of 3lrebelH troops. {SiThey
fell upon 7, this helpless Convention,
this poor procession of q negroes
who, carrying the flag of the United
States, blindly trusted to its protection,
and "pursned the work OF massacre
with a1eowardly ferocity unsurpassed
in the annals of crime" 1t was not the
AAhy Va GA4o " uGSSI1D9
scenes which ensued, but the report
gives startling evidence of the fiendish
spirit of the police and the mob, and
state, as q firm conviction, that Mbut for
the presence of the troops, fire and
,bloodshed would have ragged through
out the night in all negro quarters of
the city, and that theliVes and property
of Unionists and Northern men would
have been at the mercy of the mob. p
They also declare that Mayor Monroe
knew what the action OF the police
would be, and sSi3ltended the ineyita BILE
consequences of his own acts. .l Yet
this is the man, and these the men, that
Andrew ohnson has defended as the
friends of order.
In. his speech atSt. Louis, three days
after the date of this report, when the
substance oflit had in all probability
reached him, and when; at least, the
main factssWereE known to the whole
country, Mr.. johnson declared "every
man in the Convention to be traitor. -
and the Congress of the, United States
70 pc the cause and origin. of every
drop of blood that was shed.H As in
the first place, he gave fulllpowerto the
civil government of New Orleans to do
as it pleased with the Convention, and
refused to take any steps for IFS protec-
tion, so he has since been the consistent
defender o., Mayor Monroe and fhisspo-
lice,s and the traducer of the loyal men
they killed. He has denounced Con-
gress, and the Commission, by the same
Implication, has Indicated his own poll
icy as the cause of this massacre. Be
tween the two the, people, will not find
It hard to choose. There Is Sheridan,
Baird, and Commission of American
soldiers, on the one side, and on the
other Andrew johnson violently APP
kpealtng at a Copperhead banquet TO a
mob mob OF applauding Copperheads.