Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-20
The New Orleans Riot.

AS this outrage 10 likely 10 cleale D
good deal Of excitement, and to be widely
discussed, we desire at the outset to ex-
pose the attempt that is making to confuse
two quite distinct questions. The World
this morning, for instance, attempts to
produce the false impression that the peo-
pie i. calls "Radicals" brought about the
riot which is about as true as though o
thief should assert that the laws guarding
the rights of property set him to picking
pockets. On the other hand, those who
condemn the riot are not, therefore. to be
understood as favoring the Convention
which was lawlessly and brutGlly scat.
tered. We shall discuss the Convention
question another time, and will only say
that the loyalists are by this time proba-
bly convinced that they ought to have
taken Mr.. Lincoln's advice in 1854, and
establish universal suffrage. They have
probably discovered, what will yet be
demonstrated to the loyalists in every
| Southern State, and to the whole country,
that the love Of Union, the hatred for re-
bellion, is found chiefly among the labor
| ing class, and that while white suffrage
may give the majority in every Southern
| State 10 the lawless and rebellious politi-
clans, impartial suffrage will show a large
majority of the people everywhere to De IN
favor Of Union, law and liberty.
Mr.. Lincoln wrote on the 18th OF March,
1864, to Governor Hahn suggesting the
wisdom Of equal suffrage. Here 10 his
letter .
EXECUTIVE MANSION, J
WASHINGTON, March IS, 1864. J
Hon. MICHAEL HAHN
Ny dear ri congratulate you on
having fixed your name in history as the
first Free State Governor OF Louisiana.
Now you are about to have a Convention,
which, among other things, will probably
define the elective franchise. l barely
suggest, for your private consideration
whether some Of the colored people may
not be let in, as, for instance, the very in
telligent, and especially those who have
fought calamity in u ranks. They
probably would help, in some trying time
to come, to keep the jewel Of liberty in thu
family Of freedom. But this is only O
suggestion, not to the public, but to you
alone, Yours, truly,
A. LINCOLN"
But the Convention had got 10 further
yet than that the foolish doctrine that
this is ia white mans Government /; 7" they
saw themselves sustained by the General
Government, and probably imagined that
they could always call upon that and
they threw away their great opportunity,
The New Orleans Tribune, speaking o.
the attemp, to ~reorganize Louisiana, says
General Banks, when he called forth
the election Of 1864, had in his power thu
electing Of the Conventioners by the gen
crafty of the people. He went to TIT
white men only. Governor Hahn had fol
several months an opportunity to enlarge
the electoral franchise by only making
public President Lincoln's letter, and call
ing together the Legislature, or even thu
Convention. He chose to secrete tina
letter in his pocket. Self-government, il
the true sense of the word, was thus de
MED to Louisiana"
There were, it seems, twenty-four thou
sand ex-rebel vot~ers-nineteen Thousand
colored voters, and five thousand loyal, or
as they are called, radical voters-in Lou
isiana, at an election where all voted
This shows that the two parties are il
reality pretty evenly balanced in the State
if only impartial suffrage prevailed. Tn
colorod men of Louisiana have anon
them much property and intelligence
Those in New Orleans own fifteen mil
Ion dollars worth Of property /; and DR.
Randolph, one of them, in a letter W
print elsewhere, explains that he is labor
ing for the establishment of q colored hig'
school. Yet the white loyalists Of Louisi
ana have allowed their prejudices to &c
the better Of their common sense so far a
to exclude these people, their natural an,
indispensable allies, from the suffrage.
But neither their blunder, nor their at
tempt to rectify it, however blunderin
that itself may have been, ~justifies or pal
liates the riot, in which some Of the mem
bers and a number Of colored men wer
assassinated by the rioters, apparent
with the connivance Of the police and tn
Mayor Of the city. who, instead Of arres,
ing the law-breakers, seem to have use
the excuse Of the riot to break up the Con
ventron and imprison it's members.-N. y
Erening Post.