The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1891-05-14
Report Of the New Orleans Grand jury.

burke. Inc sentiment was echOed ny
the Grand Jury in New Orleans yestef-
day,
That body ofpublc spirited citizens
has devoted six weeks to a thorough,
impartial investigation of the popular
outbreak in the Crescent City which
has riyeted the attention of the civiliz-
ed world,
1t finds no indictments against the
actors in the tragedy OF March Il. Its
verdict is that the outbreak was not
mob violence, but Il popular uprising,
1t was not criminal, but justifable--a
movement of the people for their own
safety.
Hence Parkerson and his associates
were not executioners of lynch law.
They were leaders of the masses, risen
to mcto out justice to assassins who
had escaped merited punishment only
through intimidation and corruption
of the jury that tried it, The doings
OF that memorable day were the acts
OF the people, and, 'as Burke, has said,
you can not indict n people, They
were approved by the community,
and what the community approves
c2n not be criminal.
This is the conclusion reached and
officially announced by the Grand
Jury after thorough investigation and
careful consideration of all the facts
Its researches prove the existence of
the notorious Malta; that it is a secret
organization of Italians and Sicilians
driven as criminals from their own
country; these foes of human society
were banded together here as con
spirators, armed with daggers and STU
lettos for assassination ;, that 1.,k
record is damned by long list
blood curdling crimes; that they havd
mcnNced life and tegYoYized the com!
IRGnity.
The midnight assassination of Chief
of Police Hennessy was Il crime of I'M
paralleled atrocity. But even in the
face of that great provocation the citi-
zens of New Orleans waited patiently
for the law to take its usual course.
They waited for justice to be done by
an impartial jury.
1t was only when verdict "start-
ling, amazing and shocking to public
opinion" had been announced, when
it was believed that the jury had been
terrorized and bribed by the accused
Malta conspirators-a belief now
shown by the Grand Jury to have
been well founded-when it was evil
dent that the ordinary course of JUS
tice had failed to punish the guilty
and protect the innocent-it was only
then that the people took the law into
their own hands and remedied the
failure of the tribunals of justice 1t
was then that they resolved not to sur
render their rights to a secret organ
ization of Sicilian conspirators and to
strike down assassination for their
own safety.
This is the verdict of the Grand Jury
which speaks for the people of New
Orleans, 1t will be the verdict of the
American people and of the civilized
world, whenever the facts are known
1t is no time to sermonize about mob
violence. An uprising of the people is
not an outbreak of mob. 1t is idle
, to moralze about law and Justice tax
ing their usual course. Safety of the
community is the highest law, and
when statutes and courts fail then
higher law reigns
The New Orleans Grand Jury claims
for the people of that city all due re
spect for the forms of law "But," il
aptly says, "where this lofty principle
is condemned by the practice OF. assas
sination for revenge or spite, and con
cealment under the most binding
oaths renders powerless the efforts o
the law to reach the chief actors anC
r to secure witnesses, it becomes thu
r duty of thepeople in the exercise of thei
sovereign rights to issue their deere,
| Of condemnation"
That has been done in New Orleans
1 The Malta, instead of the community
is now terrorized. The lives of Law
abiding citizens are safer there. Jus
tee has been indicated by the people
The disease called for the cure. The