New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-05
LAWLESS LOUISIANA,

LAWLEss LOUISIANA.
The latest Coushatta assassin is care
fully described in the Picayuae telegram
as "a disguised stranger" If man be
a stranger to us how can We determine
whether his dress be daily apparel, OF
assumed for the purposes of deception?
This double concealment should effectu-
ally vindicate the citizens OF Coushatta
from even the completely of knowledge.
When it is added that ''most of the citi-
zens were at the postofdce getting their
mail when the shooting occurred" the
popular exculpation of all the men,
women and children, white and black, is
complete. It is added so far, ''all is
Quiet and no uneasiness felt" Such was
the assurance given by former telegram
to the Democrat. Why the quiet should
have been disturbed, when no one in the
town of Coushatta knew anything of the
murderer or of his motives, we can not
imagine. That no uneasiness was felt,
can be accounted for by the supposition
that none of the population had any fear
that the disguised stranger would return
and lay the town in ashes.
We expressly refrain from charging this
planned and deliberate murder as a po-
litical offense until there shall have been
some evidence sufficient to establish that
superstition.
The assassin must have been aware of
the movements of his victims, for no one
could have come fortuitously armed and
disguised to the precise point, and at the
precise hour when the objects of his hate
would be helpless and in his power.
We repeat, therefore, that even in case
one of the small Republican majority in
the Senate shall have owed his death to
party policy, we should not waive 1t be-
fore the North as q blood red banner to
stimulate anew q sectional hatred. Any
special argument to this effect is I'M
happily unnecessary. The violent re-
sistance to the law of reconstruction,
the intense intolerance toward the
party, the reiterated and
political assassinations,
public and private, from the FIRST
roll call of the Ku-Klux to the
last raid of the regulators in Feliciana,
have made up the record. Whether, then,
the disguised stranger who rode into
Coushatta, stopped at ''an out-of-the-way
shop" passed through the
town, opened fire upon the passengers in
a skiff, and then rode back through the
town without interruption, arrest or recog-
milton by the population at the postofice,
was political or personal assassin, is
chiefly important to our own fellow-citi-
zens of Louisiana. Taken Of itself, the
isolated deed would be like dipping a
bucket of water from the Mississippi to
prove that the river was muddy. Taken
n connection with other evidence and
With the admissions Of our daily Dem
,cratic press, it continues the evidence
hat neither life nor personal rights are
,afe in Louisiana.
The Picayune deprecates the Coushatta
1t makes two points. The |
irst seems to be that there is an Offset to
he commission Of crime by an alleged |
allure Of justice. The Picayune has Sc
ected special case, for which it holds
he Republican party responsible. 1t says:
Take, for example, the case of Alexander
Newton. This man was Republican. He
made himself serviceable to his party, it is
eported, by questionable practices. One
lay, in the midst of time of great Doliti-
al excitement, he stabbed to death an in
ffensive citizen without any other appar-
mt cause than that he belonged to an
ppOsite party.
This murderer, it is reported, made
imself serviceable to his party by ques-
onable practices. What proof is given
this charge? He stabbed to death an
defensive citizen" The man murdered
as, as we have been informed, French
Ian, not naturalized as an American cti-
IN, and as an alien entitled to the more
are and justice among us. If we are
orrect, how can it be charged that the
.ckless murder was due to the fact of his
rlonging to an opposite party?
There is, to our mind, no offset to one
lime by the imputed motives of public
lthority in regar1 to another crime.
The Picayatne, no yever, goes still fur
Ter and holds the Republican party re-
,onsible for the violations Of law. This
st because that party has held control
the State government for 'ten years Or
ore" Now during that period there
ave been many murders and suicides
without any possible political s
uses. The Picayuae says 1--WE defy the
lest citizen Of Louisiana to recall the
lnging of citizen of what is called the
spectacle class-a man Of position and
onetary influence" This quotation will
ow that deeds of violence were commit +;
d with impunity before the Republican {
The armed hostilities of I
SO, with the countless and untried MUIR
RS Of that period, are certainly not 8
agreeable to the political administration S
the present. That the Republican {
rty in this State, aided by the supreme !
d irresistible military force of the federal i
vernment, have not been. sufficient to G
sure the public peace, would seem
Their to argue the irrepressible violence