The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-30
A MARKED CONTRAST.

We cannot too often call the attention of al
impartial and ir-minded men to the remark
able contrast exhibited by the evidence o
Major Merrill, Lieut.. DeRudio (of the Orsin
gang of banditti) on the one side, and that 0
that heightened soldier and gentlemen, Col
Morrow on the other. Merrill acknowledge
that his opinions were derived from the kel
logg and Custom House officials, and his
''facts" from the reports of negroes, whom he
pronounces in the same breath to be
utterly thievish and demoralized. De
Rudio confesses that he did not associate
with any but Republicans" and that he
"gained his impression as to public senti-
ment from the parish press, and from colored
men and ne, IN office" He also declared that
his "ideas Of intimidation were based upon
the reports Of negroes who always magnify
facts, and are not generally reliable sources OF
information.
Here are two men one of them high in
rank-who unblushingly swore that upon the
mere hearsay evidence of persons who are
either office holders of the Kellogg usurpa-
ton, and therefore interested witnesses, or of
ignorant and degraded negroes, :" who always
magnify facts and are not reliable sources of
information;" they have not hesitated to stig-
Matte body Of men, every one Of whom is
UNNECESSARILY superior to either Of them in
point Of social responsibility and individual
honor and chivalry, as a band OF criminals of
the deepest dye
The idea Of fellow like DeRudio talking
of gentlemen, who would scorn to associate
with hima "AssAssINs, is the sublimest flight
of impudence which this escaped Cayenne
convict has yet exhibited, in the country he
has adopted for his own native places unques-
tionabe benefit, and under the protection of
those shoulder-straps he still more unequivo-
cally disgraces.
And now, what does Col. Morrow say of his
own experience and personal observations in
the very same parishes? There is an officer
of whom the highest authority in the army
says in an official document addressed to the
President: 81 know of no officer of Col. Nor
rows rank, who is better qualified to speak |
and write of matters like this, and his opinions |
are entitled to great consideration
While Merrill and De Rudio and one or two |
other subordinate officers endeavor to Justify |
their own acts Of violence and intimidation by |
repeating the stale inventions Of Kellogg,
Packard 4 Co., they convey to the thoughtful
reader the idea that they themselves are acting
through fear of the powers that be, or in the
hope of securing praise and promotion from
the corrupt men who control the army pat
ronage.
When Col. Morrow after visiting every
portion of the country where it is pretended
that g outrages of every kind have been
committed, and after impartially sitting the
evidence submitted to him and
it with his own immediate obser-
vations, emphatically declares that all these
outrage stories are impudent fabrications;
that he never heard any one express hostility
toward the United States; that reputable
citizens were arrested and ill-treated
BY Lieut.. Hodgson without any color
IF right, and that he (Col. Morrow I
would not hesitate to take up his residence t
n any portion of Louisiana, or express his Re-
publican ideas as a citizen of the State" we
zee the contrast between the soldier and the !
nercenary Hessian between gentleman of e
lonor and answering veracity and the poor c
pauletted creatures who are incapable of =
hiding cut or afraid to tell the truth. The Il
ontrast is so marked and suggestive that we Il
nay well leave it to the judgment of an i'm
artial public