Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-08-08

TO the chamber of the Convention when
Shaw went oat. The police charge that
the negroes in TIE lobby began firing from
the windows upon the members of their
force in the street. 1t is c~erlain that they
were firing at the windows of the Con-
v%ention, and that the negroes in the alleys
and d~oor-yards were firing at them, and
that brickbats were also freely flying. A
! considerable number of citizens had
Joined the police force in and about the
Institute; and great crowds, gathered at
the corners of Canal and Common, and
along the route to the City Hall, were
firing at or rushing upon the few prison.
ers brought along.
Finally a crowd of policemen and citl-
zens made a rush at the doors of the Con-
%vention chamber and broke them down.
Standing at this moment in the highest
verandah Of Yictor's Restaurant, looking
directly down the street to the institute,
was a late Major General General OF the
| United States service. He saw four po-
| licemen bear out the seemingly lifeless
/ body of DR.. Dostie, an earnest, sincere,
perhaps fanatical member Ct the Conven-
ton. a prominent Free Mason, and q gen
tleman against whose private character
no charge was eve made. His head hung
| down till it almost dragged on the pave
ment; blood was streaming from his
wounds and marking The path by which
he was borne. Around his inanimate
body the crowd rushed and blasphemed,
or laughed and cheered. At last a cart
was reached, and the body was thrown in,
when a more determined rush than any
previous one was made, and the rioters
1 - 4l-o,-I DE-. 4ln aorf .a1,1I h
started several blows had been rained up
on the bleeding body, and the General felt
sure that as one mans hand descended he
caught the CLEAN of a knife.
The news few among the rioters that
DR.. Dostie ives killed, and it was every
where received, many squares off even,
where people had scarcely become in
famed by the fever of the massacre, with
expressions of satisfaction and positive
delight.
Meanwhile, returning from Canal street
up C~arondelet, 1 had just secured a place
on the verandah of a friends rooms near
the corner of Common, when great cheers
came up from the Institute, and q dense
mob crowded along Commonstreet toward
the s.. Charles Hotel. Ashley approached
we could make out four policemen with
cooked revolvers, and in their midst, with
hat knocked of, with coat nearly torn
from his shoulders, with blood clotted
over his head, and about his neck, with
citizens rushing at him, striking at him:
shouting Kill him" partly limping and
partly jerked along by the Infatuated pO-
licemen, came Michael Hahn, ex-
member of the United States House
Of Representatives, Ex-Governor Of Lou
%jsiana, and United States Senator elect
from the Legislature of Louisiana-the
man to whom Abraham Lincola conf
dentially wrote that that " negro suffrage
might yet in some hour of peril, help TO
keep the jewel of Liberty in the family of
Freedom ~ In ten minutes he was living,
bleeding and feverish, in a cell of the city
jail lie was more scared than hurt
is the cool comment of the " leading
Journal this morning.
A little later came the only stroke of
the comic in all this sad tragedy. The
boaster of the Convention, the hero
who would do and dare and die for his
new born love for negro suffrage, had
not yet been found. Arrayed in spotless
white he had been seen to enter the
Chamber before the opening of the Con-
v%ention, but since the firing began, no
eye of negro had been cheered, no heart
of Convention member nerved, no soul of
policemen infamed By the radiant sight of
&. King Cutler. The last member had
been driven out to the mob, and the last
negro stabbed the chamber was occupied
only by the police, the other rioters and
the dead but still the hero was missing.
At last a bright thought struck q police
| man Ha avn1OroI tho .h5,D. t.
throat was narrow, and King Cutters
body was large, and SO, instead of being
being quite swallowed up, there he
stuck! In a moment a nondescript figure
came up thestreet, between policemen and
rioters, all so amused that, for the mo-
ment, they lost their APPETITE for murder.
Republican or not, King Cutler was black.
His white hat, jammed down over his
blackened nose and ears, like a half
painted ship, was already colored, fore and
aft. His white coat hung down all black
behind. his sparkling shirt front pre-
scented q fitting stripe to correspond. The
waistband Of his voluminous p~antaloons-
bat, ala that was where he stuck and
so must I.
The Convention had been thoroughly
broken up an hour ago-if that were the
object Of Mr.. John f: Monroe and his
rebel soldier policemen. The negro pro
cession had been scattered, its leaders kill
ed and dozens of innocent negroes struck
by the anne hapless fate, if that were
their object. But still the authorities and
the citizens continued the riot.
An innocent negro, carrying a roll of
cotton samples under his arm. quietly
passed the ST. Charles Hotel. -Four hack
men bounced upon him, began beating
the frightened non-rcsistant, and collected
4 crowd a policeman rushed up, and
without a word of inquiry discharged
every barrel of his revolver at the pros
trate negro, who kept crying, ARREST me,
I've done nothing arrest me, but for
Gods sake don't kill me in cold blood
To the amazement of all, every shot
missed him. "But," exclaimed a reputa-
bic citizen-let the expression be set
down forever to his honor With those who
know him-+ifId had a pistol, I'd have
killed the miscreant policeman
Carts were constantly passing, laden
with the bodies of murdered negroes. In
one l counted six; many had two and
three. All were greeted with laughter;
occasionally one evoked a cheer. Now
and then a carriage passed with some
wounded white man, and not unfrequent-
" the crowd would make a rush upon
him to see if he were one of the obnox-
ious Radicals.
Meantime, the fighting negroes, retreat
ing below Canal street into the French
quarter of the city, had oRce or twice re-
organized, and made charges on the police
in the hope of rescuing some of their
friends or avenging their death. In the
course of the afternoon between twenty
and thirty policemen were thus wounded.
The number on the other side can only be
given by conjecture. Wherever a negro,
either entirely peaceable or by accident
cut of from his comrades, was found, he
was pursued, and if possible shot.
One fell near the noted millinery shop
of Madame Sophie, afew doors below Bic
locks bookstore. A gentleman, SO far as
clothes go,and general demeanor-stepped
out from the sidewalk, and devoted a min
ute or two to vigorously licking the dead
body A bystander made some expression
of horror and disgust. when q policeman
turned sharp on him with, HAre you one
of them, say ?" He protested that he was
not. "He lies" exclaimed another, "he's
a Yankee soldier p The luckless person
protested that he was not; the policeman
tiercely questioned him, and at last allow
ed him to escape on the express ground
that he guessed he wasn't q Federal SOL
der after all" This occurred in the sight
and hearing of at least one late General of
our army, who stood on an adjacent upper