Year: 1876

RADICAL PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN.


The policy the Radicals intend to pur
sue In the opening campaign is now
clearly discernible. 1t has. at least,
the merit of audacity and mercilessness.
The schemes they devised in 1879 and
1874 to provoke violence sink into insig-
nificance beside the means now on foot
to agitate the State and embroil the
whites and blacks In conflict. No such
wicked scheme has been dreamed OF in
politics since Machiavelli published
the Prince indeed. we question ii any
thing in that wonderful book. wonder
full as q textbook OF political duplicity
and assassination, compares in cold
blooded atrocity with the Radical scheme
OF the campaign in Louisiana.


Yesterday United States District At
torney Beckwith stated, in substance,
that he expected the campaign to be
chiefly, bn the part Of the Democrats,
an indiscriminate murder OF negroes.
This falsehood his party have deter
mined to make the basis of their opera
tions, and they will spare no effort to
excite the negroes in every parish to
movements which will provoke the ven
geance Of the whites. The Administra-
ton seems to be In full accord with this
scheme OF violence and blood. Gen.
Morrow, who proved to be too honorable
a man and too true soldier to lie in the
interests of the Radical party, has been
removed from the State, and Colonel
Brooke, an officer in full accord
with all the Infamous plans OF the
party, put in command at Baton Rouge.
Recently we printed an order OF Gen.
Anger, organizing a new military dis
trict out Of certain parishes, which
Packard feels it necessary to carry, and
empowering the officers in command OF
the troops in that district virtually to
subvert the civil authority, and deal in
the most summary manner with the
people. The Republican and its satellites
In the parishes have already begun to
circulate the most fearful stories OF the
ferocity and pertinacity with which the
Louisiana Democrats hunt down and
murder white Republicans and the un-
fortunate negroes, and the Admin
istration press have taken up
these scandalous falsehoods, re-
dressed them in still more terrible
eloquence and scattered them still more
widely to defame our State and ruin our
people. Packard and his lieutenants
are now busily inflaming the minds Of
the negroes, and melting them to out
breaks which they know must result in
the most terrible calamities to the ne
groes. But IL the whites, in defense OF
themselves and their property, are
forced to kill negro assassins and riot
ers, started on the war path by white
Radicals, the purpose Is as well served
a. though the whites had, in cold blood
and out of pure brutality, murdered the
negroes. There are hundreds Of news


papers to misrepresent these woeful
transactions, and thousands OF hired
tongues in the North to repeat the
burning lies. The terrible riot in West
Feliciana and Wilkinson county; the
Union Rights Stop outrage near Port
Hudson, and the recent discovery OF q
plot among the negroes in West Fell
ciana to murder four prominent citizens.
were all excited by white Radicals.
with view OF forcing the whites, in
self-defense, to kill the negroes, that
the bloody story might be misrepre-
sented and scattered broadcast as indi-
cations Of the atrocious cruelties Of the
Louisiana Democrats.


The impression must be created
throughout the country that the civil
authority in the State is powerless to
enforce the laws, and that, therefore, a
military force must be retained in the
State, and with this force the whites are
to be overridden and intimidated. il pos
sible. Col. Brooke at Baton Rouge has
made the first move on this line. Last
week, a negro, in difficulty with a
planter In East Baton Rouge, was
slightly wounded by pistol-shot. He
proceeded to town and reported the
facts to the sheriff, who directed him to
a magistrate and told him to make out
an affidavit, and he would Immediately
arrest the offender. The negro, instead
OF doing as he was directed, and as the
law required. went to Col. Brooke and
made his complaint. Brooke sent for
the Sheriff in a tempest Of passion, and
insisted upon his taking body OF
troops to arrest the planter. The Sheriff
refused positively to accept the troops,
assuring Brooke that if the negro made
the affidavit he could arrest the offender
without any aid from the military.
Brooke was forced finally, in face OF the
resolute determination Of the Sheriff, to
attend to his own business, to let the
law take its course, and the Sheriff pro-
ceeded without even posse or deputy,
and arrested the party charged with the
ofense without any difficulty whatever.