Year: 1877

LAKE CHARLES, La, July 1S, 1877.
| Editor Democrat two companies O


the Thirteenth United States Infantry wer,


ordered to Calcasieu parish, a few weeks ago
| the impression was generally entertained


that they were sent here for the sole purpost
OF preserving the public peace in the event O


armed resistance by the citizens Of this parish


to the execution of the writ of sequestratior


in the suit, pending in the United States Cir


cult Court in New Orleans, of the United
States against Joseph Hampton and others
and it was everywhere believed until within
the last two days, that the commanding off.
Ger OF those troops was to be the sole Judge ol
the necessity OF their use, in any instance
against the citizens. This natural and uni
versal impression has just been r,dely and
Enthusiastically dispelled, by the sworn testi-
mony OF the commanding officer Of one Of
marshal here, in q formal examination, before
United States Commissioner Chamberlain of
the captain OF the steam tug Alert, upon the
charge OF resisting the deputy marshal in the
execution OF process Of the Circuit Court In
that civil suit


The evidence showed that the deputy mar
shal, accompanied by the commanding officer
Of the company referred to- q non-comnis-
stoned officer and six privates, boarded the
Alert in mid stream, seized and took possess
SlOu VI but WIbIlOup ally DTOtfsSS Oh HOIIrt
commanding. her seizure, arrested the cap
tain OF the Alert without any warrant OF ar
rest, (the latter Indignantly denying the right
OF the deputy marshal to arrest him without
a warrant, and refusing to submit to arrest
without warrant until the military officer re-
ferred to placed his hand on his shoulder and
told him he was the deputy marshal's pris-
Oner, placed his own men at the engine and
wheel, headed the Alert about and took her
up stream to Goosport, the site of the mill
t,v, II ,i<~1
with him to put the prisoner in the guard
house, which was accordingly DONE


This military assistance was furnished
upon the formal written requisition Of the
deputy marshal, introduced in evidence; the
commanding officers of the company referred
to testified that the troops were sent here
with strict orders that they were subject to
the requisition OF any deputy United States
marshal; and the deputy marshal swore that
ne was to be the sole Judge Of what consti-
tuted such resistance to him as deputy marshal
as entitled him to call for military assist
ance!


1t is true, the commissioner, after q full
hearing and argument of the case, charac-
terized the deputy marshals conduct as ''vio-
oner, but the startling and shameful fact re-
mains that in an ostensibly free State Of the
Union in time of profound peace, almost
in sight of a United States court, an Ameri-
can citizen has been, by the assistance of
SOlulerS OF the regular army OF the United
States, acting as q deputy United States mar
shaPs posse (the deputy marshal in his testi-
mony called them a p0sse) arrested, without
warrant, and thrust into military guard
house; and that the same deputy marshal
can commit just such an outrage again when
ever he desires to do so


The evidence is this case demonstrated, and
The commissioner SO declared from the bench.
that the conduct of the deputy marshal in
this instance was apparently intended to pro-
yoke q conflict.


Will the press of Louisiana silently see the
citizens of Calcasieu forced into conflict with
Federal troops by bum-bailiff, whose civil
process is the point of Federal bayonet, or
will it speak out in behalf of justice and of
aW? CAICAsJFT