The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-10-28
INTIMIDATION.

The arrest Of thirteen prominent citizens
OF Coushatta by fellow named Stockton,
holding commission as Deputy United States
Marshal, and supported in his infamous work
by body Of Federal troops, was as vile a
piece of business as men wearing the uniform
OF great nation were ever guilty of perform
ing. Ut the thirteen men arrested, and whose
names we gave yesterday morning, not one of
them had anything to do with the killing Of
the SIX Red River carpet baggers, or with any
conspiracy looking to their deaths. Their ar
rest was as arbitrary and lawless proceed
ing as could be carried out under the Turkish
despotism. On being arrested they asked
the fellow Stockton to show the warrants for
their arrests and he declined to do SO, saying
| they should see them in due time: and the
gentlemen arrested are at this moment CON
fined under guard Of United States troops,
kept from their business, deprived OF their
liberties, and separated from their families,
without knowledge of the authority by
which they sre th1s treated. and without
! knowledge OF the crime of which tn y are az
cused. Is this republicanism Is it justice?
Is it common humanity? Can it be possible
that the Administration is party to this
scandalous proceeding?
Perhaps it is; indeed We have no doubt
| that it is. President Grant violated every
principle of honesty, of law and common de-
cency in setting up the Kellogg usurpation,
and he, through his dirty henchmen. is de-
termined to justify that action by using such
brutal means as will intimidate the white peo-
pie !; prevent them from voting or working in
this election, and tn Is leave the negroes to
carry the State to vindicate his judgment, that
Louisiana was and is Radical or negro in poll
| tics.
Marshal Packard seems to have been pecu-
liarly happy in selecting his instruments for
this work, and few men could have so shame
lessly, SO brutally trampled upon law and
Justice as the miserable creature Stockton
seems to have done in the arrest Of the Cou-
| shatta people.
If United States Deputy Marshals, or Mar
shals, and Federal troops may arrest citizens,
as they have done in this instance, without
producing their authority to do SO, then there
is an end to civil liberty; nay. there is an end
OF law, and men must resort to their own
strong arms to protect themselves and their
| families from outrage. No one here will re-
| sist arrests made under due process OF law ;
but what right has United States Deputy Mar
shall Stockton or any officer OF the Federal
army to arrest citizens Of this or any other
State without producing warrants for such
| arrests? None whatever, and the proceedings
at Coushatta was an unmitigated outrage-a
disgrace to the army and disgrace to the
Federal Government. Indeed, the whole pro
ceeding was simply measure of intimidation
in the interest OF Radicalism in the interest
OF political robbery, and designed to vindicate
the infamous action of President Grant in set
ting up the Kellogg usurpation.
| ANY persons in Red River, or DeSoto, or
Natchitoches, or Caddo, or Webster, Or Bos-
sier, or Bienville parishes, implicated in the
killing of the Red River carpet-baggers, could
have been arrested by the civil authorities OF
the State, and could have been tried by the
courts of the State. Why then have infantry
and cavalry been sent here? Why have United
States Marshals been sent into our midst,
surrounded by bayonets to arrest our people!
Not to bring to trial the men who struck the
terrible blow, not to vindicate outraged JUS
tee, but to startle and intimidate the white
people of Louisiana in the interest OF the KEEL
leeg usurpation, U. S. Grant betraying the
honor of the Republic, violating his official
OATH and outraging every principle OF honor
and Justice, has set up.
| Fellow-citizens of the United States, read
the Enforcement Act, then consider the action
Of Stockton, the officers Of the troops that
were with him, and the officers who have
planned and who sustain this thing, and an
swer, if the Enforcement Act is an impartial
law designed to bear upon all alike, ought
they not to be arrested and punished under it
for intimidation of the worst and most violent
sort ?-Shrevepor Times, 22d.
The Times, speaking of the then contem-
plated arres. of those citizens whose names
were attached to the agreement not to employ
colored men who vote for the Radical ticket,
| says:
Therefore we advise our people-those of
them who are arrested-to refuse to give any
bond: to treat the arrest, as it is, as a scandal
lous outrage, without law and without justice.
We advise them to force these men to retire
from this thing or carry it to its full conse-
quences then, let the American people Judge
whether, ten years after the surrender OF the
Southern armies after Louisiana has been
recognized as State and as part and parcel OF
the Union; while there is no hostility within her
borders to the Federal Government and when
her own civil authorities can execute the laws, q
Brigadier General and United States Com
missioner, candidate for a State office, sur
rounded by cavalry and infantry, can arrest
and imprison our citizens because they choose
to exercise right exercised in every other
section Of the Union and in every other Sec
ton of the civilized world. If these men,
fellow-citizens, make this issue, force them
to develop the dostardly outrage IN its .fuA
proportions, that the whole country may see it
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