Year: 1871

une committee caused the place anu nOur W
be omitted. The primary elections were
held pursuant to the call of the committee.
The convention was to be composed of one
hundred and sixteen delegates. All the
delegates seats were uneontested, with the
exception of those that supported the State
administration. Under this state of facts,
all that the Republicans of the State asked
was that the delegates should be summoned
to meet in some public place in the city
commonly used for political meetings, and
should there proceed to organize the con-
vention in the ordinary manner. The friends
Of the State administration asked nothing
more.


Mr.. Packard, Mr.. Casey and their CO.
adjutors on the Central Committee, did not
pursue this plain course. They refused to
announce the place selected by them until
the day before the meeting of the conven
ton. Mr.. Packard and Mr.. Casey and their
abettors on the Central Committee selected
the United States CustOmhouse as the
place of meeting. This was extraordinary
and indecent 1t was degradation of an


mportant United States editice for the
partisan purpose of faction of a political
party. 1t was violation OF the right of
the public who were interested in the busi-
ness to which the Customhouse is legiti-
mately devoted, and it was an insult to the
State authorities of Louisiana.


By this official action of the Marshal and
Collector, they thought to withdraw q
political meeting of the citizens of the State
from the jurisdiction and protection of the
State authorities, assuming that these au-
thorities were unwilling to do their duty,
and aimed to place it under the control of
the United States deputy marshals, acting
in the capacity Of a police, who were APP
pointed by Mr.. Packard himself, at the
time a partisan member of the convention,
After selecting the Cust0mhouse as the
place of meeting, these United States Off
cials, as members of the convention, then
undertook to prepare a roll of the cOnven-
ton and declare who were delegates enti-
tied to vote on the preliminary organization
and who were not. They then assumed to
decide who should be admitted to the floor
oc the convention, and to issue tickets to
those whom they pronounced entitled to
admission.


They refused these tickets to number
of gentlemen who had been elected dele
gates. They issued tickets to their friends
inside the Customhouse, and to all others
from window of the postofhce depart
ment of the Customhouse, the delegates
being compelled to push their way through
a large throng of people and climb mp TO
the window on the ledge Of the building to
receive their tickets. They, on the day Of
assembling, closed and barred the entrance
to the Customhouse against all citizens, and
interrupted the convenience, safety and
comfort.of business men by the presence Of
a political convention in the building, and
for twelve hours absolutely impeded all
egress and ingress to and from the building
TO the business community.


Mr.. Packard, United States Marshal, in
his official capacity, called out and armed
large number of deputy marshals, and
stationed them in the building, without any
authority of law. Mr.. Packard, United
States Marshal, in the absence of any law,
without color or pretext, and to subserve
self and partisan ends, without the consent
of or consultation with the Governor of the
State called out two companies of United
States troops, and had them stack their
aims in the Customhbuse, in the hall lead
ing to the convention. Mr. Packard repre-
sented to committee of gentlemen, all of
whom are present that all these official
acts had been done with the full advisement
and consent of the highest authority, by
which we understood him to mean that of
the President and his chiefs of depart
ments.


A body Of eignty-five delegates, headed
by Governor Warmoth, himself a delegate,
had with great difficulty obtained tardy
admission; one by one, into the Custom
house, toward the door of the hall, for there
was no other way, md had been refused
admission in the hall of the convention by
deputy United States marshal. Governor
Warmoth, while speaking to the delegates
who surrounded him, and commenting upon
the extraordinary spectacle of an armed
United States force guarding the doors OF a
political convention of a State, was
interrupted in the midst of his re-
marks by a United States commissioned
officer, who addressed him some remarks in
low tone, which, as taken down on the
spot by a reporter of the New Orleans
Times, were in these words: "What you say
is untrue; | will not permit you to invite a
riot if you are Governors" or, as they were
afterward reported en- the same day by the
officer himself to prominent official of the
Customhouse: you have gone far enough;
what you say to these troops is untrue, and
| can not allow you to speak in this man
ner." This officers manner in approaching
Governor Warmoth daring his speech was
authoritative and imperative.


We respectfully submit to you that the
action of Mr. Casey, Collector of the port,
in granting the use of the CustOmhouse for
q poll .ica1 convention was in violation of
law, breach of official prOpriety and de
fogatory to the dignity of the United
States government. We submit that the
action of Collector Casey in causing or al
lowing the doors of the Customhouse to be
barred and locked against the community
who had business there was a still greater
violation of law and of official propriety and
duty, and a very great scandal upon the
authority of the United States government.
We submit that the action of Postmaster
Lowell. in using the United States post
office for the purpose of issuing tickets, was
an act of the same character.


We submit that the action OF Mr. Packard,
United States Marshal, in calling out and
armipr deputy United States marshals to
police the Customhonse and preserve order
at a Republican invention, was in violation
of law, "a gross breach of official duty and
grave outrage upon the rights of public as
sembly and free speech.


We submit that the action of Mr.. Packard,
as marshal, in making requisition for two
companies of United States troops without
authority of the Governor of the State, to
preserve order, and around the precincts of
a political assemblage of the citizens of
Louisiana, in stati0ning them in the
principal hall of the Customhouse,
and in causing them to barricade
by their stacked arms the entrance to the
hall in which the convention was convoked
was without shadow of authority, in
fagrant violation Of law, an insult to the
government of Louisiana, and grievous
assault upon the constitutional right of
public assemblage and free speech. That
the action of the United States officer COM
manding the troops, in interrupting the
Governor in the course of speech being
made by him, as q delegate of political
meeting, to his eo-delegates, and in making
any remarks or Commands at al, much
more in making those which he was re-
ported to have made by listeners and by a
responsible party to whom he himself re-
peated the su bstance of his re-
marks, was high handed interven-
ton of the military authority of the
49, 4nl 81 A.. &c