Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-09-21

DY the Governor OF the State. Near one
o clock the bells of the city tolled signal,
and the police, joined by hundreds Of return
ed rebel soldiers in citizens dress, attacked,
without any provocation, the people collect
ed in front of the Capitol. They, being
mostly unarmed, were forced to retreat.
Met by another body of police and citizens,
they were compelled to submit to unheard- Of
and unparalleled butchery. The street in
front Of the Capitol being thus cleared, an
attack was made upon the hall, where the
convention had assembled. The members
and audience were found seated in accord
| ance with the request of the Rev. Mr.. Hor-
ton, DIR. a. Z. Dostie and others. Without
any attempt at arrest-Without one word of
proVocation-the assailants opened upon
them a terrific volley Driven back upon
the wal, with no means of escape, and with
dead and wounded men all around them.
their offers of surrender answered by pistol
shots, the besieged, in their desperation,
seized the chairs of the hall aud drove their
assailants (who had by this time emptied
their reVolvers) from the ROOM These at
tacks were repeated until every man had
been either killed or wounded, or had effec-
ted his escape Whilst this was going on,
the streets of the city for several squares
around the building were a scene Of carnage
and whoever was seen with dusky skin, OF
of well-known loyalty, by any of the city
officials or their supporters (the Union
hating mob), was either killed or wounded.
Every bearer Of flag Of truce from the hall
of the convention was met with wounds and
death. Many of the victims, after being
wounded, were subjected to the most brutal
decorations and indignities.
1t is fact worthy of notice that this mob
-,,Eal,. IA
posed of the dregs Of the populace, but of
men who claimed to be and are regarded as
the most respectable citizens of New Or
leans. Men of high standing in the COM
munity were there; some dressed as police
men, and some as fremen; while others,
without any attempt at disguise, were open
ly using their influence to excite the masses
to stih greater fury. The instances Of bru-
tality characterizing this revolving massacre,
are too many and too horrible to recite in a
document Of this kind but this history Of
the age, in no land civilized or unciyilized,
will narrate q tale Of more meTclless, unpro-
Yoked and unnecessary bloodshed.
1t was the expressed intention Of General
Baird to have the United States troops in
close proximity to the Capitol, in order that
the public peace might be preserved. This
intention had been communicated by him to
the Lieutenant Governor, who, without
authority, and in contempt of the Governor
of the State, assumed to confer with the
General on the course to be pursued. This
official, when informed of the Generals S de-
sign, took occasion to tell him that the con-
vention would meet at six o'clock in the
evening, knowing we'll that the hour fixed
upon was twelve o clock VI. Thus deceived
General Baird was surprised to learn, when
tho of tho ma trrGr 40rvIaT RI
him, that the convention had met at twelve
o clock and had adjourned
All the circumstances connected with this
tragic eyent-the expressed intention of the
Mayor to disperse the convention unless it
met with the sanction Of the military
authorities, the withdrawal of the police
from their beats in the city twelve hours
before that appointed for assembling of the
convention, the arming Of them with revolY-
ers, the signal given at one o clock, and the
prompt arrival Of all the police of the city,
including the six or seven hundred special
policemen sworn In for the occasion, the
presence of the Mayor during the tumult,
the deception prIcticed by the Lieutenant
Governor to keep troops out of the city
all clearly prove that che bloody tragedy was,
as General Sheridan states, 'premeditated
massacre" And from the brutal manner
III W NlllC1 pAGL 1Uul uuuulCu OuAtll l4lGn hGAG
killed and wounded from the tact that not
one single policeman or participant in the
murderous affair has been arrested; from
the fact that the same men whose hands are
yet red with the blood of the patriotic sol
diers of the republic, and crimsoned anew
in that of the martyrs of the 30th of July,
are stu retained in office and power in that
city it is clear that there is no security for
the lives, the liberty or the property Of loyal
citizens
1t is a part of the history of this massacre
that indictments were found by the Grand
jury Of the parish, composed Of ex-rebel
soldiers and their sympathizers, against the !
survivors Of the Convention, for having !
disturbed the peace of the community and |
that to-day many of them are under heavy |
bonds to appear and answer the charge. |
Nor did this seem to satisfy the Judge Of the |
criminal court, for the Grand Jury was
brought before him on the following day and |
instructed to find bills of Indictment against |
the members of the convention and specta- |
tors, charging them with murder-giving |
the principle in law and applying it to this |
case, that whoever is engaged in an unlaw- |
full proceeding from which death ensues to a |
human being, is guilty of murder; and |
alleging that as the convention had no right /
to meet, aud the police had killed many men |
on the day of its meeting, the survivors were |
therefore guilty Of murder.
The state of affairs which led to this mas
saere is believed to be the legitimate result |
of the reconstruction policy of Andrew |
johnson For it is an indisputable fact |
that, upon the reception Of Gen. Baird |
reply to Mayor Monroe, delegation was |
sent to Washington to confer with the |
President Of the United States, and that |
Immediately after the conference with that |
functionary, despatch was sent to New |
Orleans informing the Mayor that he would |
be sustained by the President in his deter |
mination to suppress the convention.
The President, ignoring the provision of
the Constitution which authorized the Ex- |
ecutiye of the nation to suppress insurree-
tion in State only when called upon by the |
Legislature of said State, or, in case of its |
not being in session, by the Executive of !
said State, ignoring the Governor and all |
rules of official intercourse been the State |
and National Governments, sent a despatch |
in which he used the following language to |
Andrew j. Heron, attorney general of |
Louisiana, on the day of the massacre
ou will call on General Sheridan, or |
whoever else may be in command, for sufi- I
cient force to sustain the civil authorities in |
suppressing all illegal or unlawful assem-
blies.
This placed Gen. Sheridan and the Uni |
ted States troops under the command of an
attorney general of anon reconstructed State |
whose greatest merit may be said to consist |
in the fact that he had served four years as |