The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-09

Convention at New orleans was simply illegal,
they might have escaped the reproach which
the outraged conscience of the land, reasoning
from the manifest right of every citizen to be
loyal and free-spoken above all things, casts
upon every alder and abettor, by word or deed,
of the atrocious slaughter in that city. But the
chosen organs of the Government have thought
it wise to approve and defend by implication
the murder of nearly forty men of undoubted
loyalty, and the wounding of more than hun
dred others as good, in one-sided butchery, the
feIcest of any known in a Southern city. How
hard it is to prove that the police of New Orleans,
led on by notorious Rebels, under command of
the vIndictive traitor Monroe. were only so
many lambs outside in the street, using their
reyOlveTs against so many wolves penned IN the
Convention room, may be imagined; but even
this has been attempted.
What terrible rolling of argument up hill TO
show that all the murdered ana martyred men,
knlied, dubbed, and shot-lying out IN the
CoToner's rooms, with no Rebel dead TO Offset
them-were leyolutiOnists ara consplrators
What should be the inference? Simply this:
that Rebels and desperadoes whose names were
bywol ds in NeWOrleans; sworn champions OF dis
loyalty, whose acqulesCehce in forced situation
is hardly a year old; rulers OF New Orleans when
it was the most prOhgate, violent, and reirac-
tory city in the world; men OF the class whose
COunsels have encouraged the outrage and kill
ing OF white ana black Unionists in every county
of Louisiana; that these men and their confede.
rates in authority were the righteous uphoders
OF the law ard the preservers of the peace
Who is TOOL enough to believe it? If the autno-
rites OF great city have one responsi Ollty more
than another 1t is to save life. The butchers of
New Orleans slew nearly two score OF men with
out mercy.
The Northern enemies of freedom at the South
have not Ceas ed TO pour out sCOrn and abuse Of
the men who lost their lives tor the same cause
in New Orleans, as that Tor which men no more
noble laiu down theirs on battle-delds little
more than year ago. We are told that the
men OF the Convention began the rioting. We
know the assertion to be absolutely false. 1t is
said that at the meeting held before the Con
ventOD, every speaker INDUCED in inCen liary
language; but, on Ielerrlng to the repOrt,, we
found that the most suspicious terms employed
were bur a reply to daily threats, and such an
appeal to the defense of civil rights as has been
often heard with no bad results. We are told
that the Unionists-Dostie, Henderson. and the
Rev. Mr. Horton-Were either lunatics or mon
of no standing, albeit, they died firm in their
faith OF freedom TO the last Does the lunacy of
the victim Justify murder? Or are loyal lunatics
any worse than convict Rebels? Would these
same crazy men, or any body OF radicals and
fanatics in the land, bitter as the proyocation
might be, have allowed a Rebel Convention to
assemble IN public hall in order 70 kill 1t one
by one? What journal in the North. friend or
foe, would not have declared its horror and dis
gust? Haynau's Outcheres, the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln, the Memphis riots, and the
massacre at New Orleans, are things which do
1t was to be expected, of course, that the
organs of the Government would be ready to
incrimihate Congress for the awful and bloody
blunder of the Presidential instructions 70 the
rioting power at New Orleans. Congress and
the slaughtered Unlonists were after all, the
conspirators, and the Rebels and negrohaters
were tor once loIalists. What is loyalty?
Should we admit that General Sheridan was
correct in sa ing that the leaders OF the Conven-
ton we're pol tical agitators and revolutionary
men, and ought to have been arrested, we have
n hot fhnt. h,f,
was without excuse and that the primemover
of all the horrible work was "a bad man."
Nothing more IS wanted to set at rest all udg.
ment as TO the nature OF the riot itself: but the
7ameS oi this city and the HteHjgenCer of Wash.
ineton-hoth intimately related to the Govern
ment-cOntinue the absurd and infamous work
OF slanderlng the dead.
General Sheridan to the contrary notWith-
standing, the legality of the New Orleans Con.
veniOn was ard is mooted question among
the people and their authorities-one TO be de-
termlned by the Courts or Congress of the
United States, and not by the Rebel Mayor OF
New Orleans. General Banks VINO ordered the
election and original assembling OF the Conven-
ton under military order declares that it was
legal; and morally, no higner authority has
spoken. The State Government OF Virginia was
erected by the same military authority, and the
Convention OF Alexandria met and remet In 1864
and 1864 and finally amended and remodeled
tue Constitution which now governs the whole
State. But whatever be the truth as to the
question OF legality (and the Convention seems
to have burden of official proof on its side in
the testimony oil General Banks and of.GovernOl
Wells) we hold that the President might as con
sistentIy reopen Rebel insuTrecuon through the
South, as have promoted the undoing OF his VI
work by means OF the subVer5iVe kilograms ad
dressed to the organizers of the riot in New
Orleans.
He Will find that, from Virginia to Texas
Southern Judges are ready to dispute the legalit
of such enforced Conventions and Legislature
as have amended their State Constitutions b.
direction OF the President himself. He may fin
that his own power in the premises to conven
and egiumatZe the late insurgent States, with
out the concurrence OF Congress, was more tha
a mooted question. We hope he will ye
understand that his blunder tumbling down
state OF his own recognition, along with tn
GoYeIner elected by its people was after all
the worst oflense which he could commit agains
his own theory of government. He, indeed tn
President of the United States was the onl
overt revolutionist and that, too, by his oW
sefconviction, in the events of the dreadful da
in New Orleans He it was who deposed
Governor, and directly and rudely mterIered /
the affairs of what he is pleased to term g
sovereign State" The loyalists, with the suprem
power OF the State on their side, accompllshe
mo- overthrow, but were, thanks to the Pres
dent, bloodly overthrOwn.
The Rebels OF New Orleans have not conceale
their opinion that the very government unde
which Mayor Monroe acted out the riot wa
itself Illegal. If we believed the press of Ne
Orleans, Governor Wells, administering Coz
stitution written down at the baYonet-point, ha
no more right to public recognition than th
Louisiana Convention, According TO Chi
Justice Rutfin, of North Carolina the COnVel
tion and the new Constitution OF that State Al
alike illegitimate; President johnson was
despot, and Governor Holden his usurpin
agent Take the Rebel voice for it, and Go
eTnor Pierpoint, of Virginia, Governor Holder