Litchfield enquirer., 1866-08-16
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 GEORGE A. HICKOX, Editor. Conn. Thursday, Aug 16. 1e6e
conservatism and the Riot

we nave lOOkeu over our DomCCraClC eX- changes in vain for any acknowledgment of the evil spirit displayed by the people of New Orleans in the late riot, and of the necessity there is of eradcating that spirit, before free institutions can take root in the South These papers fail to exhibit even the humanity we occasionally find in New Orleans A St Bar tholomew massacre seems not to be pleasant thing for even Thug to look at, and the N o. Times confesses; that ..to see negroes mutila- ted and literally beaten to death as they sought to escape, was one of the most horrible pie lures it has been our ill-fortune to witness"
 =: The correspondent of the Times, an ad- ministration paper, says, after naming six streets in the city, Il saw freedmen shot dead on all of the above streets, except. Canal, who could have been arrested uninjured" In subsequent letter he describes the scenes at the building where the Convention met But few freedmen were arrested coming out of the building, as they were nearly all shot dead at sight. The minister who made the prayer at the opening of the Convention came down, "~'A16 "nttO uuuhcFCulcl III tOkSQ or sur render. "He was met knocked down, tramp led npon, kicked, and beaten nearly to death while begging for mercy" He has since died ''Gov Hahn who is lame and walks with crutch, was met on the stairs as he came down ana escorted out to the curbstone by two po- icemen. On reaching the sidewalk he was surrounded by about twenty persons who beat him on the back of the head with clubs. and he received severe stab in the hack. also pistol shot from behind. It is probable that this shot,was fired by policeman. "Fish Henderson, Shaw and other members were treated likewise. On reaching the foot of the stairs they were beaten by the police and the mob, and after being rendered insensible were dragged off to jail" The riot, he also says, was evidently preconoerted 't5
 # Now 1T the face of all these facts admitted by their own political partizans, and in the face of the declaration of Gen. Sheridan that all the arrests might have been made without shedding blood, papers like the Dan bury Times have the hardihood to affirm that The action of the Mayor is worthy of praise ; and every Democratic paper we have seen ,.puts the entire blame of the transaction on the suf- ferers, and on Northern radicals They also spend much time fruitlessly, in arguing against the legality of the convention. That was question for the courts, not for the police, or the mob.
 There is very significant admission in an article of the Bridgeport Farmer on this point Speaking of the Convention it says. .sThe au- thors of it knew that the indignation of the whites would be aroused. and, if the outrage | could not otherwise be prevented, that it would lead to combinations for resistance, and finally
 to riot and bloodshed."
 The correspondent of the N. Y. Times, says: "The substantial men of the city deplore the occurrence but all are very violent in their expressions. some glorying in the murder of Dostie and others in the murder of the freed : men,"
 In short the state of society is such in New
 Orleans, that the opponents of the Convention, though protesting the fullest confidence in their legal objections to it's authority, could not forego their Customary appeal to the pis- tol aad bowie knife against all men, white or black, who dared to agitate the great political question now before the country.
 This raises the real point at issue; whether the discussion, by all American citizens, of all political questions, will hereafter be possi- ble at the South and whether the usual ma chinery of party politics, conventions, pro- sessions, adresses &c., can be employed there, without fear of bloodshed.
 In England, men deprived of the suffrage constantly assemble, as we have seen them of late, in quite tumultuous and thre eatening manner, and all America applauds their course. Yet if citizens of the United States meet in much smaller numbers, and with far more peaceable demonstrations, to claim similar right, and wolfsh mob and rebel police mas- sacre them by the hundred, these measures of repression are excused by the Democratic press. ...- .-- -t
 We have no fear that such outrages will be under estimated by the people. The generation Wnlcn nus seeu tue splFlt eAgenooreu Uy slaV cry, manifest itself in Kansas, East Tennes- see, and New Orleans, FortPillow, Salisbury and Andersonville, appreciate it thoroughly.
 Furthermore, the people of the North are fully convinced that bloody rebellion was only made possible by this very tyranny of the knife and pistol, crushing out all Free dis cussion, and fostering ignorance, bigotry and intolerance throughout nearly half the nation al domain; and that we must go back to first principles and obtain freedom of opinion, &C., tion, and instruction, at the South, before free institutions can stand, there, on any firm basis. ~ -
 There was once a time when free speech, at the North even, was denounced as crime bnt since then has come the deluge; and an tediluvian politicians. treating us to 8 rehash of their old talk about radical responsibility for the contest which free speech provoked in Kansas, and for the massacre which pol itical procession provoked in New Orleans, might just as successfully maintain that Noah