Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-05-11

fred several random but Intellectual shot!
at them.
This was the occasion for a genera
| alarm. The entire body of the police, who
are Irish, and hate the negro intensely, wa:
called out, and accompanied by several
citizens, among them some of the city Off
Gals, armed with double-barreled shot
guns, carbines, revolvers, etc, were quickly
mounted and on the spot, shooting any
negro they might meet on the way. They
found the darkies ready to meet them,
having been reinforced by several of their
companions in arms. The police began
the fray now by firing upon them, which
was returned, and for an hour or more q
fierce fight was kept up between the par
| ties, until some half dozen of the negroes
were killed, and as many more wounded
A company of the 18th Regulars, on
| duty here, were then marched ont of the
l fort, and through the streets, dispensing
the crowd and restoring comparative
| quiet, killing another negro on the way.
The rowdies, who were the principal part
of those engaged with the policemen IN
the matter, had been SO excited with rage
and bad liquor, of whom, with the henor-
| able ~ police, had imbibed enough to
madden any of them, that they shot down
| colored men and women wherever they
/ found them. As the result of this first
! evenings conflict, some eight or ten col
| ored persons were killed, including three
| women and several children, and as many
more wounded. One white mar was killed
/ and two others wounded, the only one
killed by the negroes during the whole
riot.
We hoped this was the end of the mat
ter. But the next morning the policemen
went into the neighborhood again, search
| ing for arms, and for men who we're en-
gagged in the affray of the previous eve
ming. They were very rude and unciyil,
as they generally are when the negro is
the subject of their power, for they treat
| them as brutes rather than men. Some
of the negroes objected to the treatment
as unjust, when, without ceremony, they
were shot down. Most of them were
| quiet and harmless, only two or three,
/ here and there, under the influence Of
liquor, being troublesome, acting from
| their own impulses.
To show the brutality of the treatment
to which they were subjected, take one
case: One poor fellow, who ~endeavored to
keep out of the way, was seen TO run from
one hiding place to find another more Sc
cure. He was chased under q bridge
where some twenty shots were fred al
| him. He ran again, and was wounded
| Finding he could run no further, he stop
| ped, told them he had no arms, would &C
anywhere, and begged for his life. He
/ mas Epnnta1 damn hu a nn1i0ana O n = 01nh
when some half a dozed bullets were fired
into him.
AS soon as the force accompanying the
police reached South street, the scene Of
| the disturbance on the evening previous,
they began to fire upon every negro in
/ sight. Peaceable, quiet men were thus
| shot down while at work in their shops,
or standing in front of their houses. 1t is
the united testimony of impartial and I'M
prejudiced witnesses, some of whom ac-
companied the police, that they saw no
armed negroes in all the route and saw
no shots fired by any of them. Indeed,
| the few troublesome ones had either been
killed or captured, or left for parts I'M
known. But conscience, which makes
towards Of all mean men, alarmed the real
rioters, the whites, and they fancied armed
| legions were arrayed against them. They
saw in every sable skin an enemy, and
| dreaded the vengeance which must over
take them, and they killed them to get
them out of the way of doing harm.
This state of things continued through
the afternoon at different points. Boys
| and women were wounded, or killed, and
respectable az citizens laughed at and ap-
| plauded those who did it. A colored man
came in from the country on horseback on
business. He was killed and his horse
| stolen. Dozens were knocked down and
| robbed, or their money taken from them
on q demand, withthe threat of being shot
if they refused. Trunks were broken
open in their houses, and their money
taken therefrom. During the afternoon
a building occupied for a colored school
was burned t othe ground. Another poor
building, occupied temporarilyas a church
by a eolored congregation, shared the
same fate, with a few of their residences.
Toward evening, however, everything
seemed to quiet down, and we hoped for
permanent peace.
But the carnival Of crime had only
| commenced. The Mayor, who is gener-
ally so under the influence of liquor as to
be a very unsafe man in any crisis, had
called on the Sheriff to summon a posse
of some hundred and fifty men, as they
said, to keep the peace. 1t wa made up
| of the lowest class generally, among them
some boys of not more than fourteen
years. These, armed with oficialsanction
and guns which had been supplied them,
and potations of very bad liquor from
different cars, which were thrown open to
them went forth. About half-past eight
| O'Clock a fire was seen in one direction /;
about nine four at the sametime, in differ
emit places, and thence on through the
night the heavens were lighted with an
almost constant lurid glare.
At great risk, we went out to see what
was burning. We found that either this
force itself, or another acting with and
under its sanction, were engaged in the
lofty, noble and ~magnanimons work of
burning down houses occupied as schools
| for colored children, and the churches of
these people. This work went on until
| every church, and, with one or two excep-
tons, every schoolhouse was thus destroy
ed, together with from twenty to twenty
FIVE of their dwellings. In ONE Of these
| last, women sick, and some with small
children in their arms, were burned alive
others were shot and thrown into the
flames.
1t was q horrible night, more terrible
than any experienced in the city, during
! the hight of the rebellion. The buildings
in which these schools were taught were
mostly barracks belonging to the Govern
ment, and had been erected in different
parts of the city for the provost guard,
when the place was under military rule.
Is not the destruction of this property, a
renewal of hostilities against the Govern
ment2 Is il not as much a casaS belli
as the very same acts which inaugurated
the rebellion ? Say you these were done
by a lawless mob2 So were the others.
The only difference between the two, be-
ing, that n had been long intended, and
was publicly announced the late acts
we're done secretly, and apparently I'M
officially. But there is a mistake.
The Sheriff no doubt intended well in
his sail for men; but he took whoever he
could lay his hand on, and the men who
were in his reach we're mostly. the fire.
men and roughs of the city, VINO were all
prejudieed against the negro, in sympathy
with the Mayor, and too muck like him
in their habits. Going out thus, under
official sanction, armed by order of the
Mayor and Sheriff, was it not as official as
anything in the rebellion Then there
was amsthod, order, regularity and quiet
in their proceedings which evfneed a pre-
concerted plan of action.
They were divided into squads, with