New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-14
The New orleans rRiot.
TESTIMONY OF AN EYE INTERSECTION EVIDENCE
WAS TAKEN ny THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY.
LFram ID Boston commeIeIal.l

throws some additional light upon several points
connected with the late deplorabe outbreak in
that city, which, all accounts agree, was provoked
by the attempt of an illegal body of men to as.
semhle and overthrow the constitution and gov
eminent of the State-an attempt which was ac-
eompanied with the vilest and most murderous
threats against all who might oppose them, aud
the most infammatory harangues to the negroes,
inviting them to carnival of blood.
| The writer of the letter lisa Boston man. and his
| testimony is entirely reliable. One cannot read
the account he gives of the determination ola so
| called commission of inquiry to take only such
| evidence as pleased them, without being en-.
| lghtened in regard to the way in which testimony
concerning the Memphis riot was taken and the
manner in which reports from the South, so much
| aapplanded By radical papers, have been manu-.
1 featured.
The letter will be found worthy of careful
perusal.
NEW ORLEANS, August q, 1866.
| Dear Father-When | last wrote to you l inl
piled promise to give you a detailed account OF
my experience in rendering in my testimony sc
| called, before the bureau commission convened
/ for the ostensble purpose of investigating the
causes of the late disturbance in our city, and tC
fix the responsibility of the same upon the proper
parties fw0ud that some more potent pen coulG
| undertake the work SO. eminently desirable, o.
showing to the world the partiality and injustice
of these ststar chamber Investigations. Theil
enormous abuses of power, their criminal per
versions and distortion of the facts brought to the
notice, and their arbitrary suppression of the ut
/ terance of any facts which might tend to over
throw their prejudgment of causes brought before
| them for trial cannot remain forever concealed
but rests with us to see to it, that the disclosure
shall not be made at too late an hour, when, all
possible mischief having been accomplished, there
remain to us nothing but repentance.
/ During the time that the arrangements for bring
ing about a meeting of the q Convention of 1869
were inprogress i had been SO situated as to be
/ pretty accurately Informed of the movements thai
/ were being made to prevent it from coming TO-
L 4 lad n a i6na
| OF the motives which aGtuated those in conflict
| with its ideas and designs. Indeed, fifteen min
| ntes before the meeting was called to order Oh
1 that eventful day, Twas present in the Mechanics
Institute for the express purpose of ascertaining
/ what the probabilities We're that riot would
ensue in order that might be prepared to take
| energetic measures, in case OF need for the pro
lection of the business, In chargeinf which, during
the absence Of my employer, had been left.
Such being the case, the summons off the Com
mission to appear before them and testify, was
received with satisfaction and obeyed with ALAG
rity, for was convinced that my testimony would
do much to correct the prevalent opinion with
some people, that the outbreak was the initiative
steps in programme of massacre, which, if not
inaugurated, was at least aided and encouraged
BY the municipal authorities, and which had for
its object the determination of Unionists and the
re-estab lishment of Confederate rule.
Arriving at headquarters, was nshered into the
main hall, and there gratuitousiy informed by an
Individual, who, if he was not hired for that ex
press purpose, was well calculated to excite curl
osity as to the precise nature Of his employment
that had nothing in the world to fear (?5-that
the examination would be thoroughly fair and i'm
partial-and that the committee had already ex-
amined two hundred and fifty witnesses on both
sides of the question "a very fair two weeks
work, thought but said nothing.) Greatly re.
assured by the kind words and manner of this ur-
bane functionaFy, | entered the august presence
of the " commission, y and was Immediately sworn
to tell the truth. Having had some little expert
ance upon the witness stand, presumed that
should be called upon to state all knew Of the
occurrences Of the 30th of July, upon which testi-
mony / expected to be cross-examined | could
have undergone this process with considerable
equan1mity, but when, to my great astonshment
they reversed the process, and commenced with
the cross examination, it was with difficulty that
restrained myself from attempting to depose the
Judge advocate, and reorganze the court upon
ideas some what more in consonance with generally
received notions Of what court of justice should
be-a move which would probably have cost me a
night or more in the guardhouse.
! soon regalned my composure, however, re-
Hectlng that the seat. of power, greatness and
knowledge was, after all, not son the corner Of
Julia and CarOndelet Streets and that shou1d
soon be released, sadder, though a wiser man |
therefore, for the remainder of the time, amused
myself ATith contemplation Of the marvellous in
5enuty OF these fellows, in proposing to me ques |
lions which they knew must be answered to their
apparent advantage, and in carefully avoiding any
which could have been otherwise
espondedto. If the city authorities or the cit- |
ems OF New Orleans had any advocate present |
e certainly did not make himself known; and 50 I
ly testimony has gone in as all / know about the |
lot. My testimony to be sure, amounted to very |
tile; but enough, with the manner in which it |
'as ELECTED, to show the animus" of the inquisi,
on, and to satisfy that the result of its labors
ill not be worthy of credit.
Pass we now to the consideration of another
lost potent instrument for the qualification of
lalice and the furtherance of party purposes. I
ster to the Illustrated newspaper press AS an
yample there is none better than the journal
nown as 9 Harper's Weekly
When boy at school, / reeolect that l had
lore love for the pictures in my geography and
lstory than for the information contained in the /
Ky; and really gathered much information,
UGH asst was, from the representations of natural
bjects and historical events which were therein
eplcted. since have become man, and fol.
9Mea the example of the apostle by putting away
,hltdlsh things, Il have been surprised to find that
nose natural objects which saw were vastly
Inherent from the representations of them in nv
school books, which were but the inaccurate. mar
istic portrayals OF Indifferent draughtsmen mich
% my surprise, also, learned the pictures in my
history OF the execution of Mary Queen of Scots |
he death Of Wat Tyler, the surrender of Corn.
wallis, and ether events of historic interest were
ar from beng the productions of an artist who |
vas present on the spot, but We're, on the con-
-rarY, pure tictions of mind, and cOnceits of a |
brain which guided the hand of an artist, years |
and even centuries after those events had taken |
place. Rejecting then with what facility a lie
souiu Dt pefpetuated by thiS means OF TRANSMITS
sion, which by appealing to the eye of the igno-
rant and unthnking, in the same manner as to
that Of the educated and udicious divest entirely
the history of events Of those delicate lights and
shades of meaning which are so necessary to a
correct understanding of them, and which can |
alone be comprised by oral or written description |
early decided to accept with disirust all such |
popular means of conveying information, and to |
give the preference always to the evidence of my |
own senses or the verbal testimony Of yeracous
witnesses,
The world is but an advanced school; the eZ-
peflences of life are but continuance of our pri
mary lessons and the literature of the age is but
the record OF those experiences
How great the injury done by systematic mis-
representation! How guilty the authors Of these
lies, so Pefsistently putupon paper by the journals
Of the day, more particularly by the illustrated
press. The representations of the riot, which
have heretofore appeared in Harpers Weekly, are
correct only in so far as they are representations
ofthe Localities they aim to depict. All the rest
is fraud, perpetrated upon the people with the
express intention TO mislead public sentiment |
the contents of the paper viii appeal most fore.
lby to those for whom twas especially intended
the unedueated and unthinking-tot those even who |
cannot read and who must receive their ideas
largely III this manners WHILE at the same time it
will arouse tho Indignation and passions OF the ed
heated mind even to violent outbreak Such is |
the diabolical purpose Of this most wicked organ
of radtcalsm. The people Of the North should |
know this fully and clearly.