Year: 1873




PLOT TO AFRICANIZE THE STATE Or
LOUISIANA.


A correspondent of the New Orleans
Picdylule, who recently visited Grant
parish, thus describes the plans of the
Kelloggites there. He says: at was
their plan for all the negroes in the par
ish of Grant to organize themselves Sc
cretly, with the aid of the negroes from
the adjoining parishes of Rapides and
NatchitOches, and seize the courthouse
and other buildings at COlfaX. These
they were to fOrtify as a stronghold and
basis of attack. As soon as the posse
under Sheriff Nash (which they expect
ed had been defeated, they We're
to extend their attack in sort of radius,
the negroes rising as they advanced and
aiding them in the completion of their
purpose. They thus expected to cut the
whites up in detail, and, as they them
selves expressed it, "kin all the men
and children, and keep the women for
themselves" These organizations were
perfected for weeks beforehand, and
were made during the pretended eXer-
ercise of church worship, the colOred
women and children not being
permitted even to understand the
secret. TIE negro leader, Ward, openly
stated their object, and a few nights be-
fore the attack and the one preceding
his escape to New Orleans, made q
speech in POpe's cOlored church, near
Alexandria, to the colored men of that
neighborhoOd, stating his plot, and urg-
ing them to arm themselves with all
speed and take part in the outrage. He
himself, he said, was going to New Or
leans, where he had been promised arms
and ammunition, which he would for
ward to them on some steamboat,
which, when she landed, they were TO
seize, and taking the eatables, kill the
passengers and others, and keep the boat
for purposes of transportation. This
meeting was held at night, and with
out lights, the doors of the church
being closed so as to preventintrusion
Every plot was arranged and every
plan adopted to make the revolution q
success, when the negroes of AleXan-
dria were to rise and murder the whites,
seiziDg the town. After its capture,
Ward said: you can have all the wo-
men for yourselves, only kill the men
and exterminate this G-d-d white race
out of this country Some of the 9TH
er details are too horrible for descrip-
ton, and yet had it not been for the
brave determination Of Sheriff Nash and
the gallant men with him, they would
most certainly have been brought to a
successful issue, and the entire portion
of our State bathed in blood, while out
RACES too fearful to mention would have
been perpetrsted by the lawless negroes.


Personal.


Grant parish, says the Shreveport
Times, was organized by the legislature
of 1868 out of portions of the now adj
joining parishes, with a view of creating
an additional supply of offices for the
carpetbag vagabonds. Since its organi-
zation there has been little or no paro-
chial government in it. The creatures
who have been installed in the several
offices have stolen the small amount of
taxes collected; but one term of the
court, we are told, has been held, and
what of official duty has been performed.
has been performed for price. The
chief of this ring is


WILLIAM CALHOUN,


who is a native of Louisiana, is the
scion of what was In 1861 one of the
wealthiest and most respectable fami-
lies in the State. The vast area of lands
stretching around Colfax, and still
known as the Calhoun plantations, at
test the once lordly wealth of the fami-
ly whose territory it comprised and who
also owned over a thousand slaves. The
immediate members of the family who
survive are William Calhoun and his
sister, lovely and accomplished lady,
now refugee in a northern State from
a home disgTaced by her brother. CAL
houn is a hideous-looking hunchback,
with less than ordinary intelligence, and
q morose nature as misshapen as his
physical frame. He was horn a gen.
tleman, educated as such, and
during his youth and earlier manhood
was the associate of gentlemen; yet be
seems to have been endowed with low
and vicious instincts and tastes, and
when the confusion incident to the war
and its disastrous determination in a
measure broke up the boundaries of So
cial orders, Calhoun naturally sought
companionship in the society of his
former slaves. He mingled with them
upon terms of perfect social equality,
and they rented and cultivated in the
free-negro fashion, his broad-acres. A
short time after the war Calhoun visited
New Orleans to purchase mules and
supplies for his plantation, and meeting
there a handsome mulatto girl, became
enamored of her and sought to win her
to his soft embraces. The maiden, how
ever, seems to have been somewhat coy,
and the enraptured hunchback was
forced to pay down to the mother five
thousand dollars in cash ere he bore
the dusky beauty to his domains on Red
river. Gradually sinking lower in the
social scale, or desinous of strengthening
his influence with the negroes, Calhoun
in short time married his mulatto con-
cubine in the most approved fashion.
His authority among the negroes now
became absolute; his word was their
law, his counsel their guide. Under
these circumstances he became man
OF Importance to the leaders of the Rad
zeal party, and obtained such legislation
as he desired in his own interest, and it
was at his instigation that the parish of
Grant was organized. About the time
of his marriage his sister returned from
Europe, and was so incensed at his dis
graceful conduct that she refused to
speak to him when they met, and he pun
ished her audacity by slapping her face.


WARD.


Ward, who really organized the recent
insurrection of the blacks in Grant par
ish, is an Ohio negro, and has been in