New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-31
QRATQRY Loaded.

that it has been employed in SO man.
journals as to have become common prop
erty. 1t has been obvious from and evel
before the Slaughterhouse suits. 1t wa
manifest in the vehement objections tt
the funding scrutiny. This speech-ln-typ'
, business is, of course, ex parte. 1t doe'
not represe mt the calm impartiality of tht
press, but pitches in to defend or defame
one side or the other, for all the world al
any ingenious attorney might do. 1t has
it's advantages For five cents the public
may read what it would have cost the
parties to the pending suit several hun
bred dollar RS to have published orally.
Often, if these editorials be accompanied
with the imagined noise, violence and
perspiration of an average attorney labor
ing for contingent fee, one may realize
all the excitement of forensic strife with
out some discomforts which accompany
it in the courtroom. 1t leads to the sup
positi on that these models of defamation
must be contributed outside by some
briefess barrister, who, like an amateur
pugilist practicing at a sand bag, wishes
to show what he could do if he were in
the fight.
One of the latest specimens of this vol
unteer oratory, may be found in the
printed speech Of the Picayune of Fri
day. 1t is against the Grant parish wit
nesses. 1t may be remembered that the
Picayune report of this trial has, for some
days past, prepared the public for the
speech, which is based, apparently, on
the extremely ocular views of the re-
| porter This view is, that if poor people
are ignorant, or SO contrary, that they
can not approximate time or distance, or
so confused at being shot at, like wild
game, and afterward badgered by adroit
attorneys, as to use bad English, or
think they saw murderer when he
was at that time miles away at church
that no one should be convicted on
such absurd testimony. SO, after this
preparatory testimony, comes the opening
speech in type of the Picayme. The ex-
ordi um Says ''there is singular mixture
of the tragic and ludicrous in this case. -
Here the orator raises the expectation of
the reader, who naturally supposes that
the tragical feature consists in the Incl
dents of indictment. Not at all. The
ludicrous appears in the detail of fifty or
sixty men burned and shot in hot and
cold blood and the scared and sobbing
testimony of their wives and sisters.
The tragic consists in the trial of the
prisoners upon the charge Of having COM
mitted this violence. There are ''eight
or ten lives that are trembling in the
balance" There are fifty or sixty that
are trembling in the Presence that judges
all men for all the deeds done in the flesh.
''The absurdity," says the typographical
orator, sis expressed in the evidence, in
the witnesses, their language, their igno-
rance, their stupidity, their contradic-
tons, and the prevailing suggestion of
their having learned lesson which they |
find it troublesome to recollect. 1t is
almost farce-it would be burlesque,
save for those lives in jeopardy"
One point in the above quotation savors
of the Tombs. It is the sug-
gestion that these terrified and trembling
wretches have been taught their lessons
of testi mony. This, while it would come
from contingent attorney, is
by no means proper in an impartial jour-
nal, now ''immovably neutral in politics.
The argument for tine defense proceeds
to assume that the negroes who were
killed were responsible, and that the
ambs by whom they were slain were
worthy and long suffering people, many
If whom rode hundred or so miles to
clean these negroes out, while it was
highly improper for the negroes to assem-
Die at Colfax for defense or for safety.
Then comes a repetitive review of the
testimony, which is said to be 'sridicu-
Gus, were it not so very HORRIBLE" the
horror consisting again, not in the crimes
llleged to have been committed, but in
his
The colo ssal and unmistakable false
rood, told from that witness stand would
De amusin g, did we not know that their
object is to rob our brethren of their lib
,rty or lives. The foolish confusion, the
tupid be wilderment and the transparent
9, were laughable could we for
Al. a. l. ~11A
lgainst tn prisoners lives
Here it is alleged, with the possible
fleet to influence public opinion on
criminal trial, that ''the object" Of this
Indictment sis to rob our brethren of
heir liberty or lives, and that the testi-
nony is part of ga plot against the prison
RS lives That is, that the United States
district attorney is a party to a plot
Igainst the lives and liberties Of those
Who are called the '.brethren" of the
,rator in type, while two judges of the
United States come all the way from a
distance to lend the sanction of their
presence to a trial predicated upon con-
piracy. This conspiracy only to take
fleet by the concurrence Of the judicial
authorities.
The REPUBLICAN has made an impartial
eport of the testimony taken. 1t has
lever said word to prejudice the jury
gainst the prisoners. 1t has not deemed
t proper to tamper-as in its opinion it
would have been to tamper-with the jury
ven by the expression of opinions which