The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-11-21
The vigflanees of yermllion.
from tho New Orleans Republican,

@ Inc IOIlOA btd9GAtSHk COuCCIILuA
the vigilance committee in Vermilior
former resident of the parish, who re-
Gently made d visit to Abbeville:
The vigilance committee in Vermilion
parish consists almost entirely of Aca-
dian cattle owners They are generally
illiterate, keenly averse to agricultural
pursuits, fond of their pastoral life,
which brings them n rude living with
out labor, and intensely opposed to
American immigration into the country,
because Americans have a way of going
to work and fencing up the range"
Before the war these same people or
ganized a vigilance committee for the
suppression of cattle stealing, and when
Governor Wickliffe attempted to dis
perse them they utterly and successfully
defed his authority. The cattle thieves
| belong to the am class. They are nh
| relatives of their executiOners. In many
| cases it is hard to draw the line of de-
| marcatiOn between them, and to say how
many cattle a mar is justified in steal
ing before he becomes sufficiently res
peotable to join the vigilance committee.
All of them, of both classes, are McEnery
Democrats. They unitedly elected the
present parish authorities in Vermilion.
The Democratic Judge of the parish,
before whom the vigilantes declare it
is q ''perfect farce to attempt to con-
Wet q COW thief, was voted for last fall
by every member of the vigilance COM
mittees There are no cOlOFRd mem on
the committee, as has been reported, and
only one white Republican, who was
probably bought up for the sake of APP
~pearanees. This white Republican was
sent to the city to confer with Governor
Kellogg, but though he utterly failed to
see his excellency, returned, declaring
he had Kellogg's written authority te
begin the hanging. And it did begin
The Va~liantheroes whorallied under De,
Blanc ut st. M%artinsville now declared
their allegiance to Governor Kellogg
J and sWOre they must hang the Gov
thieves, because they, as loyal citizens
r could not think of refusing to obey tn
Governors written authority !! The,
say the first thing they did was to pas
Y a res0lutl0ntha hat no maj should use tn
committee for political purposes.
: Fortunately, the first five men the,
hung in Abbeyille richly deserved thei
fate, and it would be folly to say a wore
q in their behalf. About the guilt of tn
: three who have since been disposed Of
= there is q warm dispute. .o.
When the first five thieves were hun
their cOnfederates fled the country, an
it Wastllen the committee should hav
disbanded. But this was not done. .
resolution has recently been passed b
n the committee to hang no more ME
i for past offenses, but to maintain thei
organization and hold themselves j
readiness to hang anybody who steal
q anything hereafter. The meaning {
Y this is, in plain English, that the con
f. mittee proposed to permanently .snpe
1 sede the courts and to rule the parish i
- the interest of political clique. Tn.
"a nice little game should he thwarted.
N On the other hand there is a Demo
cratic faction in Vermilion intensely OF
posed to the vigilantes. They we
greatly overaWed, but Governor Al
tonnes letter embroidered them. ftte
receive sufficient encouragement fro
Governor Kellogg, such as q promise /
ii troops, there is danger that they wi
it have the yigilantes indicted by the gran
jury for murder, tried and hung Eth,
side will go to extremes If not checke,
To show that the yigilantes are not VIII;
tt they pretend bobe altogether, Twill on
say chat one of their leaders told me
and he will not deny it-that he had ii
greatest difficulty in preventing Il
at committee from 'scleaning OUT a cOlort
he settlement at Martins cave. They Or
&c posed to hang the whole settlement b
= cause a eOlOred man living there on
30 killed q white Acadian.