The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-09-11

or nearing, anu the dd4eBaIou hBdihs,
them is believed TO be utterly without
foundation. On the same night, be-
tween IL and o'clock, a gang of White
Leaguers, who, it is said, include this
City Marshal and the editor of the Bax-
ter organ, went to the Jail, took their
victims out, hurried them off to the
woods about q mile from town, and gave
them 600 lashes each, with new knot
ted rope, on the bare skin. After this
brutal work was done to the satisfaction
OF the fiends, the negroes were told to
leave the county before daylight or they
would be killed on sight.
The next day they were found few
miles from the whipping scene, whittier
they had dragged themselves, in most
pitiable condition, the blood trickling
from hundred wounds, their bodies
pounded to jelly, and their faces and
heads swollen so as to make them I'M
recognizable as human beings. A
staunch Union man writing from Clarks-
vile in regard to this savagery, says:
Unless something is done by Con-
gress or the President at once every Re-
publican in the county will receive the
treatment these poor negroes have. AS
it is, we dare not whisper our political
sentiments, and our everyday life is
q living DEATH" No steps whatever
have been taken to arrest or punish the
perpetrators of this cowardly and fend-
ish outrage.
LOUIsIANA-THE COUSHATTA SLAUGHTER.
Gov. Kellogg, of Louisiana, in offer
ing reward of $4,000 head for all
parties implicated in the Coushatta
massacre, gives the following official
account of the horrible affair:
Having felt it my duty to issue my
proclamation, offering q large reward
for the apprehension and conviction of
the murderers in the Coushatta outrage,
and to the end that the law-abiding
citizens of this State may fully compre-
bend the magnitude OF the crime COM
mitted, and be induced to render more
active assistance to the officers of the
law, / deem it proper to make the fol-
lowing statement. These facts are
gathered from reliable information re-
ceived at the Executive Department
On or about the 28th day of August,
1874, body of persons belonging to
semi-military organization known as the
White League of Louisiana, assembled
in the town of Coushatta, parish of Red
River, this State, for the purpose of
compelling, by force of arms, the State
officers of that parish to resign their
positions. These officers We're men of
good character, most of them largely
interested in planting and mercantile
pursuits. They held their positions
with the full consent of an admittedly
large majority of the legal voters of the
parish, this being heavily Republican
parish, as admitted by the fusion re-
turning boards. The only objection to
them was that they were of Republican
principles. Frank Edgerton, the duly
qualified Sheriff of the parish, in strict
compliance with the laws of this State
and of the United States, summoned
q posse comitatus of citizens, white and
colored, to assist him in protecting the
parish officers in the exercise Of their
undoubted rights and duties from the
threatened unlawful violence of the
White Leaguers. His posse, consisting
of sixty-five men, was overpowered by
superior force assembled from the
adjacent parishes, and finally, after
several colored and white men had been
killed, surrendered themselves prison
ers, with the explicit guaranty that their
lives would be spared if the more promi-
nent Republicans would agree to leave
the parish and those holding Office
would resign their positions. The stipu-
lations, though unlawfully exacted,
were complied with on the part of the
Republican officials, who were then
locked up in Jail for the night, The
following named persons are among
those so surrendered and resigning
Homer J. Twitchell, planter and Tax
Collector Of Red River and Deputy
United States Postmaster in charge of
the postoffice at Coushatta Robert A.
Devices, Supervisor of Registration OF
De Soto parish Clark Holland, mer-
chant and Supervisor of Registration,
Red River parish; w. L. Howell, Par
ish Attorney and United States Com
missioner Frank s. Edgerton, Sheriff
of Red River parish NJ G. Willis,
the following morning, Sunday, the
Both of August, these persons were
bound together, two and two, and con-
Quoted by an armed guard to the Nc
Farland plantation, Just over the parish
line of Red River, within the bounda-
ries of Bossier parish, about forty miles
east of the Texas line. There they
were set upon and deliberately murder
ed in cold blood. On the night pre-
ceding the murder a body of forty
members of the White League of Cad
do parish, mounted and armed, left the
city of Shreveport, and were seen riding
in the direction of the place where the
murder was subsequently committed.
Their bodies were buried where they
fell, without inquest or any formality
whatever. WILLIAM p. KELLOGG,
Governor.