The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-09-05
General Sheridan and The New Or
leans Riot.

to the President in answer to a request
to give information concerning the New
Orleans riot, and are making extensive
use of his report in the exciting cam
paign through which the North is now
passing preparatory to the ensuing fall
elections. This dispatch is q rather re-
markable document. After the lucid
expose of the whole matter by the State
authorities, the investigation by the
military, and the inquisition by the
Civil Courts, it was to be supposed that
the country had become sufficiently en-
| frightened ON the subject, and that eve.
ry one, not wilf1lly blinded by passion
or Prejudice, understood fully the cause
and the attending circumstances of the
late unfortunate disturbances. But, il
would seem that General Sheridan, ac-
cording to his own opinion, though he
was absent at the time of the occurrence,
and though he penned his dispatch the
day after his return to the city, is the
only man competent to decide on whom
rests the responsibility of inauguratins
| the disgraceful scenes, and the guilt OF
the bloodshed attending the convocation
of the rllmp Convention of 1864. His
unfair statement has gone abroad, and
his Radical friends at the North, true
to their instincts, reject all other testi-
mony and make use of it to infame the
passions of Northern men and intensity
their innate hatred OF the people of the
South.
With the exception Of a single gentle
suggestion from General Sheridan that
the Convention ought not to have met,
the whole burden Of his dispatch is in
tended to show that the disturbances in
New Orleans were caused by the hos
tility of the people to the government
that the immediate commencement Of
them originated with the citizens who
were opposed to the Convention; that
their continuance and lamentable enc
were owing to the unpopularity of the
Mayor, and the brutality of his police
force; and that, in fine, the Radicals
negroes, Northern men and the militia.
ry, were entirely free from any BLAME
in the transaction. Even the great IN
cendiary negro meeting which took
place before the Convention met, al
which open advice was given to the ne
groes to arm themselves to sustain the
Convention, was, in the Generals opin-
ion q very harmless affair. With the
exception of that of Dostie the speeches
were all characterized by modera,
| tion.7 The grand procession of armed
negroes which marched up to the Con
vention, in accordance with their in
structions, was very small crowd, o
whom only one in ten, according to tht
Generals accurate mathematical calcu
lation, had arms in their hands. The
first shot was of course fred by some
other than a member of this harmless
procession, and all the men killed los
their lives at the hands of the police
force appointed by Mayor Monroe
whom General Sheridan thinks yer,
bad man, whose removal would b
hailed by nine-tenths Of the people o
the city.
If General Sheridan had got up thi
document avowedly as q Radical cam
paign paper, he could not have beel
more successful in accomplishing hi
objects, and could not have grouped to
!. gether greater number of statements
the truth of which has been disprovet
by every impartial witness that has We
given amy testimony on the subject. ]
is known that the meeting which wa
held prior to the assembling Of the Con
vention, was incendiary and revolu
tionary in the extreme, that the negroe
were melted to violence, and that ever,
body in the city expected an outbreal
at their hands as the legitimate conse
quence of the teachings they had re
ceived. 1t is also matter of histor,
that when the large crowd of arme,
negroes approached the hall of the Con
vention the first shot was fired by ne
gro in the crowd at an innocent whit
man on the street. 1t has been prove
that the police, so far from acting bru
tally, exposed their own lives to kee
the peace, and that many of the mem
bers of the Convention and other riot
ers were rescued from danger at thei
hands. There never would have bee
: any necessity for the interference Of tn
police if the military, under Genera
Sheridan's subordinate officer, had don
their duty. For several days prior t
the assembling Of the Convention, til
State and city officers, in anticipatio
of a riot, endeavored to procure a mil
tary force sufficient to preserve tn
peace of the city, but, SO far from ful
nishing a body of troops in time, til
military threw every imaginable obsts
Gle in the way of the preservation /
order by the civil authorities.
If, as General Sheridan says, Mayo
/, Monroe is Objectionable to nine tentl
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