New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-09-12

The Right to Bear Arms.

The coolest job in the Mississippi war is
the manner in which the White Line mob
OF Vicksburg appropriate the property OF
other persons. Cal tain Green, who has
cnaSge of wharfboat landing, is forced to
acknowledge that certain parcels of freight
shipped to his care by packet company,
was stelen from him by the mob. He natu-
rally feels little personal responsibility
inthe case, and VI lnnteers a statement. If
ever a State needed good militia organi.
zAtion, to put down the independent scouts
now roaming about for the purpose of break
ing up Republican meetings, it is Missis-
sippi 1t appears, a consignment of rifles
had been shipped to the Adjutant General
OF the State. Why the packages did not
get to General Packer, and what DISPOSE
tlon was made of them is best told by Cap
tain Duff Green, the Vicksburg freight
agent, in the following letter..
VIcK>BURG, September ?. 1875
General A. @. Packer Jackson, Mississippi:
DEAR sIR-The Vicksburg and Greenville
packet Belle Yazoo put off on the wharf
Doat last night, about seven O'Clock, i've
cases, said TO contain guns, consigned in B
l.. 70 me as agent, and marked for you at
jackson. About eleven o'clock, same night,
q party of men came to the whartboat and
demanded of Captain WikersDn Ian EN-.
ploye OF the wharfboat and in charge of the
freight on deck) the cases, who refused to
surrender them;, whereupon they came on
board the wharfboat and took iorcible DOS
session of them, taking the guns out of the
cases and leaving the cases on the wharf
boat. Captain Wilkerson applied to the
mayor for assistance, but in consequences of
the late bour of the night he did not reach
the whariboat until it was too late. dis
claim any liability on the part of the wharf
ooat, as the force was too large (watch man
estimates it at from fifty to seventy men,
for the employees on the wharfboat to con
tend against.
Respectfully yours,
DUFF GREEN, Superintendent.
Captain Green's statement was a purely
business account. The innocence with
which he speaks of applying to the mayor
for assistance shows that he tried tc do his
duty. In commenting on the letter the
Vieksburg Monitor says:
1t is a little remarkable that Captain
Green should find it necessary to volunteer
statement about Ceases said to contain
guns" before any demand had been made
upon him for their payment. 1t would be
time enough for him TO tell all he knows
about eases said to COL t ip gnns" when he
Is required to do so by law. Suppose some
OF the bad boys did take "cases said 10 con.
tam gums" if hey did contain arms is it
not far preferable for them to have them,
than for them to be issued again to ignorant
savagesE Does not any sane man know,
that the more arms there are issued to ne
groes the more trouble there will be ? Do
we want apy more Clinton massacres, with
their horrible mutilations of white people
Ii there were any arms taken, it Is a mere
question of paltry dollars and cents, and
the money will be forthcoming when it ia
proven arms were taken. Until his testi-
mony is asked, Captain Green might re-
strain his true inwardness for the sake of
mis- race.
The Vicksburg patriots have established
a dangerous precedent that of appropriate
ing public ty and applying it to pri-
vate uses. 1t carries lis back fifty years to
the time when Jim Girty and Mike Fink
preyed upon the commerce of the Missis-
sippi river. 1t is more than "question of
paltry dollars and cents"-it is robbery
and the remarks of the Monitor are not ca l.
culated to impress readers with the enor.
nifty of the crime. If it can be shown that
the men who sacked the wharfboat have a
right. to bear arms there will yet remain
doubts as to their right of bearing arms
which do not belong to them.