New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-17
o0usHATTA AND THE "H0LLIE Ma
HnTRES,"

oousHArrA AND THE "N0LLIE Ma
CURES"
In the anthracite districts of Pennsyl-
vania there has existed for years law
less combination, based upon the ideas
of the English strike and the Irish "Peep-
o'-Day" and "White Boys" We have
often said that under form of govern
ment in which the people have no cleo
toral representation, resistance to gov
eminent not of their choice and the
evasion of laws to which they are no
party, is altogether different from similar
acts under a government which is for
mally chosen and administered by the
people themselves. These oppressed and
ignorant aliens, however, bring their
ideas of self-redress with them, and this
doctrine, deduced from despotism, has
been organized in the mining districts of
Pennsylvania under the name Of the
Mollie Maguires.
The New York World, Democratic,
thus speaks of this murderous sect:
It has been the omnipresent terror Of the
entire Pennsylvania coal region for num-
Der of years, and its murders, to many of
which no possible clue could be found, are
numbered by the score. 1t seems to have
devoted itself with much assiduity to the
getting rid of obnoxious fOremen, cOntrac-
tors and other persons of the sort, who
came in more or less direct contact with the
wOrkmeu, and who were thus likely on the
slightest grounds to incur their enmlty.
But on occasion they were not above strlk-
ing down people of their own kidney to
whom they owed q grudge. Ex'members
were cut to pieces by members; members
pistolled to death by ex-members; aco1ytes
seeking admission sometimes butchered
their way into the horrible vehmgericht,
and were sometimes themselves butchered
before they had taken their initial degree.
The World thinks this ''hitherto pros
porous trade of MURDER" s'this intrenched
and defiant band of thugs" will now
come to an end.
The neighboring jails are pretty we'll
filed with assassins. Eleven are already
Gagged, and more are coming.
Society may then begin to congratulate
itself that these reckless foes to law and
order will be brought to justice. The
reader may be curious to know how such
horrible local wrong has been brought
to punishment The-militia had been Or
dered out, but the culprits took refuge in
the hills, or in the bowels Of the earth,
until the legal force had been withdrawn.
They then 'signalized their vengeance and
contempt Of law by renewing their afro
cious and cowardly practices. They cut to
pieces persons who had withdrawn from
the order. Some who sought admission
indicated their fidelity by. ''butchering
their way into the horrible vehmgericht"
1.-THE secret German tribunal of the mid
die ages). Others were butchered out Of
the order as soon as they got in. This
was horrible. We must pay our Ku-Klux
the equivocal compliment of admitting
their i1lferiority. We have nowhere seen
that they killed one. of their own kind.
But this '.intrenched and defiant" order
of thugs were outlawed by the religion,
law and order of the great Keystone
State. Not one voice was raised
in their defense. Even the leading Demo-
cratic press, as may be seen in the World,
expressed horror at their deeds and re-
joice in their punishment Yet such were
the resources Of these banditti, who
decreed death to informefs, and who ran
beneath the earth, like prairie dogs, at the
tread of armed men, that the suppression
Of this order by open enforcement of the
law was found impossible. Pinkerton
and his detectives undertook the contract.
Men were detailed to join the order. They
their fidelity by an almost
active participation in its atrocious deeds.
In one or more instances they permitted
the murder of men whom they wished to
save, for fear such Intervention would
create suspicion of their own sincerity.
Perhaps they sacrificed these men to save
society and-themselves. 1t is these az
rests, but more truly, it is this demon
stration Of treachery among the members
of the order itself that has destroyed it.
A knowledge Of mutual guilt is the sacra-
ment of assassins. This conviction de-
stroyed, the criminal cement has lost its
cohesion.
We have had throughout the South and
there exists in Louisiana at present
band Of Regulators totally above and
beyond the law. They murder men OBJ
noxious for political or social objections.
They destroy crops and stock, burn stores
and gin houses, stop and rob stage
coaches with entire IMMUNITY. They take
the superhous precaution to wear mask.
No one could dare attempt an arrest or
venture testimony against these robbers
and assassins. The State militia can not
be arrayed against them. They are pro-
tected by the belief that they are useful in
political exigencies. They are the blood
hounds whose services may be too valuable
in throttling culprit to allow them to be
shot for killing sheep. The federal
troops have been sert against these Of
tenders. They could gallop lightly ahead
Of their pursuers, stampede or steal,
cavalry command afoot, dodge into the
chapparal, thread the interminable tangle
Of the bayous in dugout, and on the