Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-07-15
THE TAMMANY RIOT.
From the New York Tribune of the 14t

10 THE TAMMANY RIOT.
From the New York Tribune of the l4th.l
| Again, as in 1868, the criminal weakness
| and vacillation of the authorities have caused
| the peace of the city to be broken and its
streets to be sprinkled with blood. The |
sense ofhumiliation and disgust which pos
| sessed the community on Tuesday, on ac- |
| count of the craven surrender to the mob |
which the Mayor and his satellites had made, |
yesterday changed to one of horror when the |
| tardy action of the Governor had brought the |
aroused and savage rowdyism of the criminal
factions into conflict with the representatives
| of the law. From the hour when Mr. Kelso |
pusllanimously consented to sign the captu-
| lation which gave the city up to the gutter
snipes, it was evident that a spirit had been
| called into life that nothing but bloody
struggle could subdue. And when, after
midnight on Tuesday, the Executive, dashed
| by the expressions of public opinion from
every quarter, goarded by kilograms from
| every section of the State, and stung by the |
| manly action of Governor Randolph, con-
| cluded to assert the dignity of the Common |
wealth against disorder the shedding of
| blood was inevitable. For three days the
| manifestations of the lawless intentions of the
| baser sort of Irish (enemies to Protestants,
but repudiated with loathing by the Catho-
| lics,) had gone on unchecked and had been
| encourages ny the sympathy OF tne DemO-
| cratic leaders and the devilish instigations of
the corrupt Tammany press, and when on
| Tuesday the City, through its police authori-
| ties, drank that final cup of humiliation and
performed an official act of homage to the
mob, its insolent arrogance reached point
which admitted no other remedy but that of
stern and remorseless force. Successive
surrender and defiance had bred by yesterday
morning a ful-blown spirit of riot.
1 49, = 81
upper portion of the city, with that restless
| and imperious genius of all Instructions
| which insists upon forcing into its ranks all
| who object to it, went about compelling la
borers to quit work under penalty of violence
until a large movable column was gathered
| together, of which only a portion was riot
ously disposed. They had no especial Or
ganization, and acted with no concert, blu:
broke into small gangs, and carried through
the city the infection of lawlessness and ex-
element Weak and ineffective demon
STATIONS were made against several armories
which were easily repulsed, and soon after
noon, it seemed as if the danger of serious
riot was to be localized at the corner of
Eighth-ave. and twenty ninth-st., the rem
devious of the Orangemen. A vast crowd
gathered there awaiting the formation of the
line of march. Part of them came for riot
and its incidental chances of pillage and
| HuTueT Inc SIDEWALKS suuueniy SWarmeu
with gallows faces, such as are never seen in
ordinary times, but which always come to the
surface in hours of great civil uproar. But
the vast majority were drawn by idle curos-
ity to that fatal trysting- place. They were
men, women, and children of the poorer
class, unable to forego the excitement and
distraction of the show and the turmoil
The crowd was permeated with the uneasy
spirit of mutiny. The advent of the first
Orangeman was greeted with a shower of
curses and missiles. The police again and
again charged upon the crowd, and drove
them with mercitul cruelty away from that
dangerous proximity, but they surged back
again the moment after, like refluent waves.
1t was plain to be seen that those closely
packed thousands were one mass of finder
waiting for spark which was sure to come.
1t come, of course. A few shots were fired
and the regiments in line, who had been
marching and waiting under the blazing sun
until there nerves had suffered somewhat
gave way for few moments to that impulse
of active defense which always attacks troops
under these circumstances, and hundred
victims were left dying or dead on the side
walk as the procession moved away.
1t will be easy to criticise the conduct of
the militia, but candid citizens will be slow to
condemn the action of men who came for
ward at the bidding of duty, exposing their
| lives iOT tllc CduSc VI law anu 1neV
received from the crowd a long continued
provocation of insult and abuse before the
final attack of pistol shots There was but
an instant of retaliation, and this was enough
to accomplish the deplorable result. The
death of so many comparatively innocent be-
ings is an event at which humanity shudders,
but the responsibility rests not upon those
who defended themselves and the cause of
law at once, but upon those reckless intrigues
who, in their lust of votes, fiattered and de-
ceived the mass of ignorance and prejudice
into the conviction that they might do as they
liked with their enemies.
These frightful scenes will not cease until
that corrupt party which depends for its
istence upon the votes of the ignorant and
vicious loses its tyrannical control of our
public life 1t is in itself organized lawless
ness and pillage. 1t melted through the in-
famous speech of the man it had made Gov
ernor, the three days of revel of crime and
treason, which almost neutralized by its
shame the new glories of Vicksburg and Get
tysburg. 1t provoked and palliated the riot
Gus attacks of year ago, and this year with
the most cynical and vulgar insolence it
dared to give up TO the mob the last pretense
of respect for the laws of the land, where
they conhicted with the caprices of its voting
material. Our corrupt rulers raised on
Tuesday demon they could not lay on We'd
nesday. The stain of murder is on their
hands, and they may settle and divide it as