The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-03-08
The Naschitcciaes Prisoners.

ches parish lave been on trlal; by
jury, in The y. s. Circuit Court, al
New Orleans, upon an indictment
found by~a Federal Grand Jury
charging them with an attempt, by
violence and intimidation, to pre-
vent certain republicans in Natchi
toches from voting at the last elec
ton for j. Madison Wells for Con
eress. The evidence, published
daily, shows .conclusively that last
September two or three white and
Black scounGrels. VINO tor many
years past have been constantly
and persistently engaged i'll stirring
up and keeping alive bad feeling
between the white and cOlored peo-
pie of Natchitoahes, for purely self
ish and mercenaly purposes, were
informed by a very few leading de-
mocrats that their room in Natchl-
tocbes was preferable to their com
pany, and that acting upon this
suggestion, these arch instigatorS
of discord packed their carpetIbags
and left. The evidence shows that
the question of voting for Mad.
Wells, or any other man, for Con
gress, wasnoteve mentioned; and
that out of the fifty-two prisoners
on trial largely more than one half
of them had nothing to do with,
nor to say to, the yamosing carpet
baggers.
Yet these flfty.two men, nearly
all of them with families at home
dependent ON their labor for sub
sistence, at this season of the year,
when their absence from home for
many weeks means the certain fail.
ure of their crops, most of them be- I.
ing farmers, by the operation OF
Federal laws enacted by Il repub- /
lican Congress for the express pur-
pose OF controlling elections in the
southern states, are dragged hun
dreds of miles away from home to
be tried and convicted 10y jurors
who have sworn in substance that
they have no sympathy with south
ern men, and to be sent to the peni 1
tertiary by judges whose tender
are cruel. And when this
Natchitoches case is disposed of the
same horrible travesty of Justice
awaits scores Of prisoners from
Tensas and Caddo parishes.
The animus of these political
trials hes on the surface. Hts sim
ply an organized scheme by the
most desperate leaders of the re-
publican party to manufacture pO-
litical capital for the next ipresiden-
tial campaign; TO array u solid
North against q solid South, and |
to furnish a pretext, if one becomes
necessary, for throwing out the
electoral votes of southern states
for the next democratic candidates
for president and vice-president.
and more immediate OBJ
ject, is to reduce the democratic
i'll the next House of Re.
by sending demo
cratic congressman elect to the
penitentiary-seyeral of them. in
Louisiana and elsewhere, beinglin
Guided in these political prosccu.
tons. 4
The democrats in Congress are
making a gallant fight for the re-
peal OF the laws under which these
political trials are being conducted.
In the interest of justice, humanity
and peace, may they win that fight.
-------sr------ 4
Senator Roscoe ConlSling, who
aspifes to the leadership of the re-
publican party, jim addition to the
square knock-,lown Hayes, gaveIhim
lately in the matter of the NewI
York custom house appointments. 4
has just been sat down at his own
Or .flIa Nj, ;n,+ al |