Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-11-14

Z stss y
.Axs been sent to the United
States Senate. 1t needs no cxplana-
ton:
NEW ORLEANS, La, Oct. 1877.
TO the Honorable President and Mem.
bers Of the United States Senate.
GENTLEMEN: His Excellency, the
President, in the exercise of his pre-
rogative, has selected for Collector of
Customs for this port, one John e,
King, of ST. Landry Parish in this
State. Conccding to his Excellcncy
none but tho best of motives in APP
pointing to SO important trust q
man whose professed Republicanism
Is of less than years growth, the ex-
Union soldiers, whose homes are in
Louisiana, view with humiliation the
preferment and exaltation of one who
but recently SO grossly maligned them
and their dead comrades, for which
he has never atoned and cannot atone
by years profession of Republican
principles, and whose entry into the
service of the despiscd and "brutal
FedeIals" was signalized by dis
eliminating act Of ''retribution" in
the immediate dismissal from Federal
service, without cause, of tho "corpor-
ais guard" of cx-soldicrs bcqueathed
to him by the retiring Collector.
On the goth of June, 1864, Confed-
crate Governor Henry w. Allen, Of
this State, appointed seven special
commissioners from among those
most loyal to his administration, to
inquire into and report separately up-
on the conduct of the campaign Of
that year by General Banks army in
Western Louisiana. Among the num-
Der John +. King, of st. Landry Par.
ish, was particularly conspicuous ;
and on the Goth day of March, 1866,
Governor Allen published in PAM
phlet form, with generous colnpli-
ments, and scattered broadcast over
the State, q report made by King, re-
markable only for the traduction and
villification on every page of tho off,
GERS and soldiers of the Federal army,
and through this report exhibiting
himself in no uncertain light and in
no false colors.
This report is before us, and from
its vitupcrative pages the extracts
and sentiments which follow were
taken, and are herewith reproduced
and submitted for your information
| without comment.
Not one word of credit can be
found in the pages of this envenomed
report for any act of charity, kind.
ness or courtesy on the part of any
officer or soldier to the unfortunate
sufferers by stern wars calamities.--
Very respectfully, your obedient ser
want, CHAs. ii. THOMPSON.
Extracts from report of Specia
Commissioner John e. King, of st
Landry Parish, La, on the conduct o.
Federal troops in Western Louisian:
during the invasion of General Banks
, army in the year 1864.
'eThe outrages committed by thu
Federal invaders did not flow from
the ordinary sources of modern war
: fare. God, as if to show the deep de
prayity of man, has permitted then
to sound the depth of human corrup
ton and infamy.
"Plundering was universal but tn
hand Of the plunderer and destroye
fell no less heavily than that Of tn
I incendiary. Nothing was too little
, nothing too great, nothing too sacred
y, to stay the dastardly Federal hand
. Its rapacitY was not satiated upon tn
: living.
"They sacked private dwellings
; and while reveling upon the content
!, of the pantries and wine cellars, the.
= grossly and indecently insulted tn
q unprotected females, and wantonl
:, destroyed their last remnant of FOO
Z : and clothes. Nor did they spare tn
dead They sacrilegiously ravishe
from them the last covering whic
enclosed their mortal remains. The
fired vollcys among passing citizen
e and groups of women and children i
9 the streets of peaceful villages. The
e violated tho sanctuary and the toni
9 They stole the sacred vestments fror
q the church and danced in the hol
! robes Of the priest; while the Protes
Q tants of that army permitted withou
q murmur or protest the desecratin
i hand of Massachusetts to make of tn
: Protestant Episcopal Church den G
0 infamy.
1--WE live in an age of boosted Pre-
gress, not only in the arts, but in tina
higher civilization which elevates tn
q religion and the morals of the hG
, man race. Might we not doubt tn
latter when the world views withou
| notice or passes without censure tn
q exhibition of vices and the perpetra
/ ton of atrocities exhibited in tn
h code Of the barbarian: when licer
: tious troops have been permitted t
I Cypress the feeble, to make war upol
tho hospitals, to burn the homestead
of women and children; and wher
added to these, the men who brutal
invaded the domestic sanctuary di
not scruple to desecrate the ashes O
the departed, and wantonlv ravishe
the homes of the dead.
3 ssBut there 10 q rctribution "
!, JOHN Il. KING,
Special Commissioner.
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