Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-05
BISHOP WINNERS MISSION.
Why He Telegraphet "Peace Not to be Dis
turbed in Lotisiand''--Y VISITING Hayes
after Comforting With Gfant---Ho,c
TiLdes. Should Hare Had 10000 Instead


of 10000 Majority IN Louisiana.
New York Sun.
While Major Burke was on the witness
stand before the Potter committee, Gen.
Butler called his attention to dispatch
feom Bishop Wilmer, of Louisiana. It was
sent from Columbus, Ohio, in the height of
the popular excitement over the Presidential
count, to Major Burke, who was in Wash
ington. It's words were:
Peace not to be disturbed in Louisiana.
Gen. Butler asked why the bishop was SO
far away from his flock at that time. Major
Burke answered that the bishop went to
Washington about that time to represent to
President Grant the critical state of affairs
in Louisiana. Then he journeyed to Co
lumbus, to make it clear to Mr.. Hayes that
strife must result from the recognition of
the Packard government. Major Burke in
ferred from the telegram that the bishop
had learned that there would be no attempt
to establish the Packard government. He
thereupon telegraphed this information to
Gov. Nichols. Gen. Butler, feigning great
dullness, teen asked, sBut how was Gov.
Nichols to know from the mere expression,
ssPeace not to be disturbed in louisiana
that the Packard government was to be es-
tablished?''
81 am sure, SIR Major Burke replied,
stifiy, ''that there was no misapprehension
of the meaning on his part or on 1nine.''
By singular coincidence, Bishop Wilmer,
who had just returned from England, where
he attended the Pan-Anglican council in
Lambeth Palace, entered the crowded com
mittee room at the beginning of this testi-
mony, intending to have chat with Chair
man Potter. He saw at once that lie would
be called to testify, which he did not wish to
do, if the committee became aware of his
presence. He retired to an ante-room, and
sent note to Mr.. Potter, whom he could
trust on the strength of warm personal
friendship, not to betray him. Mr.. Potter
soon joined the bishop, and there was a
pleas ant conversation. . Mr.. Potter urged
the bishop to give his testimony as to his
mission to Mr.. Hayes, but the latter de-
clined to do so. The bishop then returned
to the New York hotel, dined early, and took
the next train for quiet Virginia town.
After the adjournment of the Potter COM
mittee, he returned to this city. A Sun re-
porter obtained yesterday from an unques-
tionable authority the secret history of
Bishop Winners mission to Presiden Grant
and Mr.. Hayes.
''When it became evident the gentleman
said, ''that President Grant was determined
to foist the Packard usurpation upon the
State with the bayonets of United States
troops, the long suffering Louisianians began
to believe that their only recourse was to
arms. It has been said that they would have
hesitated to turn their arms against
the soldiers of the United States, but
have every reason to know that
they would not They had, in their opinion,
endured all that it was possible for men to
submit to without sacrificing every claim to
manhood, and they saw that they were to be
thrust under the yoke of the negroes and
their vlllainous allies. In word, their State
was to be Africanized. If their last hope of
escaping this doom, the installation of a
State government of their election, were cut
off by armed interference by President
Grant, they felt that they must strike boldly,
without regard to whom they struck, for
their very existence as freemen. I know
that they earnestly deprecated conflict with
the United States troops, but am sure that
they would have accepted it as the alterna-
tive to submission to the Packard usurpation
On the other hand, do not believe that the
soldiers stationed in New Orleans would
Law OOCJ gu OIL O1OCl w Liz upOA Lu5 ClGl-
zens, for they seemed to sympathize with
them. When the citizen soldiers marched
past the United States tire ops on their way
to take possession of the courts, they were
loudly cheered.
'.Bishop Wilmer, knowing we'll the temper
of his flock and of Louisianians generally,
firmly believed that bloodshed and possibly
sectional strife must result from an attempt
to install Packard. Representatives of the
Nichols government had an interview with
him, and requested him to mediate with
President Grant in its behalf. He was high
in the confidence of Louisianians, they ar
gued, and his sacred Office must give him a
claim upon President Grants consideration
that other prominent Louisianians would not
have.
"Bishop Wilmer positively declined to act
for the Nichols government. He was
priest, he said, not politician. 1t it was
made clear to him. he said, that the people of
Louisiana desired that he should go to Wash
ington as priest and their representative,
to endeavor to avert bloodshed, he would
gladly go. The representative of the
Nichols government made the bishops de-
termination known to other leading men.
Soon afterward the judges of the supreme
court, the mayor and the president of the
cotton exchange formally requested the bish-
op to 60 to Washington to secure pc ace if
possible.
"The bishop went to Washington and
called upon President Grant in the White
House. President Grant was polite of man
ner but grim of face. Seeing this, the bishop
spoke in his most straightforward way. MIR.
President he said, 4 do not come to you as
the agent of any government, but as peace
maker. belong to no party, and l never
voted. You have enough chivalry in your
nature to make you sympathize with men
of your own race. The Louisianians have
borne all that they can, and they must now
submit to the oppression of negroes and
their white leaders, or resist. Bloodshed
must follow. You entered the White House
with the words, "Let US have peace" on
your lips, and you seem determined to 90
out with "Let us have war; on them. Your
sun will set in a sea of blood, and you will
leave only a heritage of obloquy to your sue
cessor.'
president Grant was apparently touched,
but he was silent, as though he were revolv-
ing in his mind what the bishop had saide
what do you recommend?' he then said,
with characteristic brevity. .The Louisiana
ans ask only that the United States troops
be restrained from interference the bishop
answered. They will soon settle the matter
of the Governorship of the State peaceably.
president Grant reflected, and then prom
ised to do what he could to prevent strife in
Louisiana. Then he went to his desk and
wrote 1of4or of inAro1nctiCy, for l2;oIor,