478 



LOUISIANA. 



themselves fired upon by the negroes, one of 

 their number being killed. The next day 

 another difficulty occurred, in which Homer 

 Mitchell, a Eepublican tax-collector, and two 

 negroes, were charged with having fired upon 

 Joseph Dixon and another young man, the 

 former being mortally wounded. " On the 

 following day," continues the account, "the 

 whites turned out in force, capturing the white 

 Radicals, Twitchell, Dewees, Egerton, Howell, 

 Willis, and Holland, together with six of the 

 most prominent negro followers. On Sunday, 

 at their own request, the six whites were 

 started to Shreveport under an escort of seven- 

 teen men, and while en route were intercepted 

 and shot by a party not yet identified. The 

 six negroes were set at liberty, unharmed, be- 

 fore the escort left Coushatta." The people 

 of Red Eiver Parish published an address in 

 reference to this affair, in which, among other 

 things, they said : 



To the colored people we have to say that our 

 action in the present instance must fully convince 

 you of the sincerity of our repeated declarations to 

 you that our war was only against such of you as are 

 silly and vicious enough to combine with the horde 

 of scallawags and carpet-baggers who, like vultures, 

 have been preying upon our people for eight long 

 years, and whose voracity seems to be insatiable. 

 To all such we give fair warning. 



To those who want peace and the redemption of 

 Louisiana we guarantee ample protection in the full 

 and free exercise of all their civil and political rights 

 under the law, and we earnestly request you to go 

 peaceably and quietly to work. 



Some of the oad white men who have been for 

 years inculcating vicious ideas into the minds of the 

 colored people of Red Biver. and arraying them 

 against the true interests of the country, the white 

 people, and their own, were arrested for their com- 

 plicity in a cold-blooded, murderous assassination 

 upon our estimable fellow-citizen Joseph B. Dixon. 

 They have tendered their resignations, and left this 

 morning, at their own earnest prayer and request, 

 under a guard of our best citizens, selected by them- 

 selves, to depart from the State, promising never to 

 return. 



The opposing account of this tragedy was 

 materially different. It is in the following 

 statement, published on the 3d of September, 

 by Governor Kellogg, after offering a reward 

 of $5,000 for the capture of each person im- 

 plicated in the affair : 



To the Pablio : Having felt it my duty to issue my 

 proclamation offering a large reward for the appre- 

 hension and conviction of the murderers in the Cou- 

 shatta outrage, and to the end that the law-abiding 

 citizens of the State may fully comprehend the mag- 

 nitude of the crime committed, and be induced to 

 render more active assistance to the officers of the 

 law, I deem it proper to make the following state- 

 ments. These facts are gathered from reliable infor- 

 mation received at the Executive Department : 



On or about the 28th day of August, 1874, a body 

 of persons belonging to a semi-military organization 

 known as the " White League of Louisiana," assem- 

 bled in the town of Coushatta, parish of Eed Eiver. 

 in this State, for the purpose of compelling, by force 

 of arms,- the State officers of that parish to resign 

 their positions. These officers were men of good 

 character, most of them largely interested in planting 

 and mercantile pursuits. They held their positions 

 with the full consent of an admittedly large majority 



of the legal voters of the parish, this being a heavily 

 Eepublican parish, as admitted by their fusion re- 

 turning-board. The only known objection to them 

 was that they were of Eepublican principles. Frank 

 Edgerton, the duly qualified Sheriif of the parish, 

 in strict compliance with the laws of the State and 

 of the United States, summoned & posse comitatus of 

 citizens, white and colored, to assist him in protect- 

 ing the parish officers in the exercise of their un- 

 doubted rights and duties from the threatened un- 

 lawful violence of the White League. His posse, 

 consisting of sixty-five men, were overpowered by a 

 superior force assembled from the adjacent parishes, 

 and finally, after several colored and white men had 

 been killed, surrendered themselves prisoners, with 

 the explicit guarantee that their lives would be spared 

 if the more prominent Eepublicans would agree to 

 leave the parish, and those holding^ office would re- 

 sign their positions. These stipulations, although 

 unlawfully exacted, were complied with on the part 

 of the Eepublican officials, who were then locked up 

 in the jail for the night. The following-named per- 

 sons were among those who surrendered and re- 

 signed: Homer G. Twitchell, planter, and Tax-Col- 

 lector of Red Eiver Parish, and Deputy United States 

 Postmaster in charge of the post-office at Coushatta ; 

 Robert A. Dewees, Supervisor of Registration, De 

 Spto Parish; Clark Holland, merchant, and Super- 

 visor of Eegistration, Eed Eiver Parish; W. T. How- 

 ell, Parish Attorney and United States Counsel; 

 Frank S. Edgerton, Sheriff of Eed Eiver Parish, and 

 M. E. Willis, merchant, and justice of the peace. 

 On the following morning, Sunday, the 30th of Au- 

 gust, these persons were bound together, two and 

 two, and conducted by an armed g_uard to the McFar- 

 land plantation, just over the parish line of the Eed 

 Eiver, within the boundaries of Bossier Parish, about 

 forty miles east of the Texas line. There they were 

 set upon and deliberately murdered in cold blood. 

 On the night preceding the murder, a body of forty 

 members of the White League of Caddo Parish, 

 mounted and armed, left the city of Shreveport, and 

 were seen riding in the direction of the place where 

 the murder was subsequently committed. Their 

 bodies were buried where they fell, without inquest 

 or any formality whatever. 



WILLIAM P. KELLOGG, Governor. 



The reports of numerous outrages in Louisi- 

 ana, Alabama, South Carolina, and other South- 

 ern States, having reached Washington, led to 

 a determination on the part of the President 

 to take measures for their suppression. For 

 this purpose the following instructions were 

 issued to the Secretary of War : 



LONG BRANCH, N. J., September 2. 1874. 

 To General W. W. BELKNAP, Secretary of War: 



The recent atrocities in the South, particularly in 

 Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina, show a dis- 

 regard for law, civil rights, and personal protection, 

 that ought not to be tolerated in any civilized gov- 

 ernment. It looks as if, unless speedily checked, 

 matters must become worse, until life and property 

 there will receive no protection from the local au- 

 thorities until such authorities become powerless. 

 Under such circumstances it is the duty of the Gov- 

 ernment to give aid for the protection of life and 

 civil rights legally authorized. To this end I wish 

 you would consult with the Attorney-General, who is 

 well informed as to the outrages already committed 

 and the localities where the greatest danger lies, and 

 so order troops as to be available in case of neces- 

 sity. All proceedings for the protection of the South 

 will be under the Law Department of Government, 

 and will be directed by the Attorney-General in ac- 

 cordance with the provisions of the enforcement act. 

 No instructions need therefore be given the troops 

 ordered in the Southern States, except as they may 

 be transmitted from time to time on advice from tho 



