New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-03
TIE SITUATION,


THE SITUATION.
Martial law, apparently, still reigns IN our
city. General Kautz occupies the mayor
office at the City Hall, and the tents OF Tue
United States soldiers dot the surface OF Lana
yette Square. The title under when GeneIai
Kautz exercises authority is that Of military
governor but precisely what are the duties OF
tbo+ ot;ce is a problem of rather a perplexing
character. General Baird, we are informed,
declares that he has not deposed or superseded
| lie mayor-that General Kautz is not acting as
MAYOR of New Orleans, and that Mayor Monroe
is not required to report to him for duty
What then is martial law? Why the artillery
and infantry in Lafayette Square? Why the
United States officers in the City Hall? Why
the sentinels with their muskets at the
entrance of an edifee devoted to eiyilpurposes ?
What does General Baird purpose to achieve
by maintaining this parade Of military suprem-
acy, if he does not claim to exercise authority2
In short. does martial law-that is to say the
will of the military commander prevail in
New Orleans, or is the civil authority still
| supreme? General Baird must know that as
long as his order of Monday night is unre-
voked the mayor cannot run the risk of acting
in his official capacity. To refuse obedience
to the order of a man who has $500 bayonets
at his back would be rather too exalted q dis
play of temerity.
We believe that General Baird has, to some
extent. modified the rgor of what is called
martial law, by permitting the sheriff to exc
cute the warrants Of the First District Court /;
but, on Monday last, he refused to allow the
officers of the law to obey the mandates Of the
court In the mean time three days have
elapsed. The prisoners who were in the
hands Of the police, and who could have been
transferred to the sheriff, were released by
Gen. Kautz as soon as he assumed command,
under Gen. Baird's order The members Of
the convention against whom indictments
were found, have had ample time to leave the
city, if they desire to avoid meeting the legal
issue. But, in the mean time, the military
1 commission goes on-a commission which
could, if the necessities Of the case seemed
to demand it, doubtless prove that all the
negroes in New Orleans were killed F; that
there are not five houses left standing in the
city; and that the moon is certainly made o.
green cheese. And this is the complexion tt
which martial law has come The civil author
ity is suspended officers of the Flaw are for
hidden to execute the mandates of the courts
the prisoners taken by the police are re-
leased ; and within three days the sheriff is
told that he may serve his warrants, and find
the accused parties if he can. Surely, in this
case, since it has come at last to an arrest, or
a contemplated arrest Of the rioters and their
abettors, martial law loses much of that char
acter for vigor and efficiency which it claims,
in contrast with the civil authority. To be
sure, it is stated in our local reports that Gen.
Baird telegraphed to the secretary of war that
by declaring martial law thousand lives
were saved in this city but everybody knows
that at leastfour hours before the proclamation
was made the riot had been effectually
suppressed by the unassisted efforts Of the
police, and that quiet was completely re
stored. Nor was there the slightest danger o
| a renewal of the tumult. The revolutionists
had received a lesson which they would MOI
be apt to forget very soon. They had beer
subdued with a vigor and CELEBRITY which mus
have demonstrated to them the utter hopeless
ness of attempting to combat the city authori.
ties. The people of the city were perfectly
satisfied with the triumph of law and order.
They might feel some natural resentment
against the prominent disturbers of the
peace-who, however, were safe from further
harm in the hands Of the police-but they fell
not the slightest luminosity against even the
credulous and deluded negroes who had been
engaged in the riot.
It is fact peculiarly significant of the tenn
per Of our people that no negroes, not imme.
diately engaged with the revolutionary plot
tiers and eonspirators of the so-called conven
ton, were. in the slightest degree, molested
The peaoeable negroes pursued their usua
ayocations in perfect quiet Even within the
immediate neighborhood of the disturbed dis
trict, negroes mingled freely with whites al
spectators of the scene, and no one thought o
interfering with them. The assumption
therefore, that there was any danger of fur
Their disturbance is entirely unfounded. Wher
it was painfully evident that riot was tc
occur, no United States soldiers were sent tc
assist in preventing it. Why, then, resort tc
so extraordinary a step as the declaration Of
martial law in a quiet city, when all the
danger was over, when the tumult had beer
suppressed, and the law was triumphantly
supreme?
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