The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-10-26
AN INFAMOUS JOB,

criminal Jurisprudence of this or anv Other
State. It appears to be simple category O
all the crimes known to our Code. made ou
with special reference to the exigencies of the
present campaign, and to be applied to the
first decent and influential man or number O.
men who might assume to Interfere with the
diabolical plan matured at Washington OF
| plunging this State into the horrors of O. race
conflict.
| There are no better or more honorable gen
tlemen In Louisiana, none more universally
respected and esteemed, than the victims of
this prosecution. Yet, upon the affidavit of
an ignorant and lying negro. who swears as
was shown in the affidavit published by us
| yesterday, that he was procured, through his
own Ignorance and error" by Oren Mayo,
parish attorney, and John Young, sheriff of
| Cnncordia parish TO make affidavit charging
these gentlemen with murder rape, horse
stealing, burglary, larceny and violent as
sault. Was greater or more wanton atrOcity
ever perpetrated? ? Was ever the law and its
purposes perverted to more shameful ends
| than in the arrest of these gentlemen upon
such provocation and at the hands of such a
| tool?
| Yet, all this was done under the supremacy
of the local laws. In the days of the carpet-
| baggers when the State Of Louisiana was run
| as q province, when an extraneOus and alien
| authority controlled her political machinery
when her local lawmaking power was held to
have no use or inherent power, save to pre-
scribe legal forms for processes of spoliation-
in those days we were accustomed to such
nrnpppHinpc
practice then to make arbitrary arrests. to
withhold the evidence and the charges made
to procure them, to impose excessive bail. and
to even refuse it absolutely, as in this in
stance. But, since that day, we had indulged
the fond belief that great constitutional
battle had been fought and won-that.
even when the people of the United
States had allowed their will to be
set aside and q fraudulent Pres-
dent to be inaugurated, Louisiana, alone and
unaded with nothing to sustain her but the
justice Of her cause, the deathless courage of
her people and their devoted love of constitu-
tional freedom, had forced from the usurper,
on the alternative of civil war, the restoration
OF her autonomy and the relegaton to her
local authority Of all control over her domes-
tic affairs. We had an idea, and we have it
still, that such episodes as that chronicled in
our dispatch from Col. Young and Mr.. Shields
were at an end in this State. and that the
personal freedom of our citizens could not be
interfered with except by open and constitu-
tional processes.
Yet here we see honored and honorable citi-
zens arrested, imprisoned and refused either
hearing or bail, on charges manifestly false
and sworn to have been procured-and for
what? Simply because, as officials and mem
bers of community threatened with slaugh-
ter and devastation, they had taken steps to
protect their lives and property and enforce
the laws. The brutal wretches themselves
who were the real criminals, and their still
more criminal and cowardly instigators, who
organized at Washington and in this city the
diabosm that was destined to overwhelm the
South with terror and crime, 60 unwhipt Of
justice, while those who have attempted to
avoid the bloody catastrophe are made the
victims,
Such things have happened before in Louis
lana, but never under such circumstances.
The officials of Concordia have in this in
stance, diverted the local laws of Louisiana to
their inaTisitorial purposes. They have
used the processes of our State courts In the
accomplishment Of their silent and malignant
pu1'poses-and this, they aver, has been done
under the special instructions of the Demo- |
cratic Governor Of Louisiana The reply
of Gov. Nichols to Col. Young's dis
patch, published by us yesterday,
disclosed the wicked perversion of his instruc-
tions of which the officials Of Concordia were
guilty in making these arrests. There must
be some means of Furnishing such creatures
as these. If the statutory law prescribes
none, there is a great unwrtten law by which
the people of the community outraged by
such proceedings against its most worthy
citizens can rid itself of the official authors of
such q glaring outrage.
The proof continues to accumulate that
these outbreaks have all been anticipated and
deliberately brought about at Washing
ton. They all bear the marks of the
same devilish ingenuity, of the directing
agency of the same cowardly hand. They are
not merely local demonstrations, but whether
they occur in North or Middle Alabama. Mis-
sissippi, South Carolina or Louisiana. there
is q coincidence of time and circumstances
that can leave no doubt of q comprehensive
and extensive conspiracy. Taft's letter. the
visit to Hayes of the South Carolina negroes,
the Issuance of arms to them, the singular
resemblance in all material facts between the
Natchitoehes and the Sumter affairs, the cir
cumstances of the Concordia and Tensas riots,
the stealing Of the registration books at Cou-
shatta, the facts in regard to which are
contained in our dispatches this morn
ing, together with the extract from the min
utes Of the Red Warriors in this city, stating
that 1.-The propriety Of destroying the ballot
boxes was discussed in case it was found that
the National party had lost the election, and
was offered that the militia might |
be called out, and such a course thereby pre-
vented.
"In reply it was stated that the militia
would have its hands full in the country bv
that tme.''
All these facts go to show eonclusively a. |