PUBLIC DOOUMK- 



731 



States fchttll extend to all oases lu law or equity aris- 

 ing under tint provUiona oi'aaid act and of the act 

 :i!n. tnhtU'ry thereof. Congress M6UU to have con- 

 templated equitable- a* well tut lend proceedings to 

 j.tv\ , nt tliu denial of suffrage to colored citizen*, and 

 it may be safely asserted that if Kellogg't bill in tlio 

 above-named ease did not present a cane for the equi- 

 table interposition of the court, that no such case can 

 under the act. That tin- court* of tho I'liiti-il 



have the right tointerfon- in various way s with 

 us so as to maintain political emmlity 

 unJ rightM tlu- re in, irrespective ot race or color, in 

 comparatively a new and to some seems to be a star- 

 tlitu; idea, but it results as clearly from tho fifteenth 

 amendment to tho Constitution and tho acts that 

 have In. 11 paused to enforce that amendment, u the 

 abrogation of State laws upholding shivery results 

 fr.'iM the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution. 

 \Vlnle thu jiirisdii'tion of tho court in the case of 



.: . Warmoth and others is clear to my mind, 

 it seems that some of tho orders made by the judge 

 in that and tho kindred case of Antoino are illegal. 

 Hut, while they are so held and considered, it is not 

 to be forgotten that tho mandate of this court had 

 bri-n contemptuously deflcd, and they were made 

 while wild scenes of anarchy were sweeping away all 

 restraint of law and order. Doubtless the judge of 

 this court made grave mistakes, but the law allows 

 the Chancellor great latitude, not only in punishing 

 those who contemn his orders and injunctions, but in 

 preventing the consummation of the wrong which 

 he has judicially forbidden. Whatever may be said 

 or thought of those matters, it was only made known 

 to me that tho process of the United States court was 

 resisted, and as said act specially provides for the use 

 of the army and navy when necessary to enforce judi- 

 cial process arising thereunder, I considered it my 

 duty to see that such process was executed according 

 to the judgment of tho court. Resulting from these 

 proceedings through various controversies and corn- 



Constitution, 1 have recognized as the government of 

 the State. It has been bitterly and persistently al- 

 leged that Kellogg was not elected. Whether he was 

 or not is not altogether certain, nor is it any more 

 certain that his competitor, McEnery, was chosen. 

 The election was a gigantic fraud, and, there are no 

 reliable returns of its result. Kellogg obtained pos- 

 session of the office, and, in my opinion, has more 

 right to it than his competitor. 



On the 20th of February, 1873, the Committee on 

 Privileges and Elections ol the Senate made a report, 

 in which they say they were satisfied by testimony 

 that the manipulation of tho election machinery by 

 Warmoth and others was equivalent to 20,000 votes, 

 and they add that to recognize the McEnery govern- 

 ment would be recognizing a government based upon 

 fraud, in defiance ot the wishes and intentions of the 

 voters of the State. Assuming the correctness of tho 

 statements in this report, and they seem to hare 

 been generally accepted by the country, the great 

 crime in Louisiana, about which so much has been 

 said, is, that one is holding the office of Governor 

 who was cheated out of 20,000 votes, against one 

 whose title to the office is undoubtedly based on fraud, 

 and in defiance of tho wishes and intentions of the 

 voters of tho State. Misinformed and misjudging as 

 to the nature and extent of this report, the supporters 

 of McEnery proceeded to displace by force in some 

 counties of the State tho appointees of Governor Kel- 

 logg ; and on the 18th of April, in an effort of that 

 kind, a butchery of citizens was committed at Colfax, 

 which, in blood-thirstiness and barbarity, is hardly 

 surpassed by any acts of savage warfare. To put 

 this matter -beyond controversy, I quote from the 

 charge of Judge Woods of tho United States Circuit 

 Court to tho jury, in the case of the United States 

 against Cruiknhank and others, at New Orleans, hi 



March, 1874. lie said : " In the eate on trial there 

 are many tacts not in controversy. I proceed to state 

 tome of them in pretence and hewing of counsel on 

 both tides, and it I state M a conceded fact any nut- 

 ter that is disputed they can correct me." After stat- 

 ing the origin of the difficulty, which grew out of an 

 attempt of white pontons to drive tho parish judge 

 and BuorifT, appointees of Kellogg, from office, and 

 thrir attempted protection by colored persons, which 

 led to tome fighting, in which a number of negroes 

 were killed, the judge says : " Most of those who 

 were not killed were taken j.ri.-oners." Fifteen or 

 sixteen of the blacks had lifted tho boards and taken 

 refuge under tho floor of the court-house. They were 

 all captured. About thirty-seven men were taken 

 prisoners. Tho number is not definitely fixed. They 

 wore kept under guard until dark. They were led 

 out two by two and shot. Most of the men were shot 

 dead ; a tew were wounded, not mortally, and by pre- 

 tending to be dead were afterward during tho night 

 able to make their escape. Among them was the 

 Levi Nelson named in tho indictment The dead 

 bodies of the negroes killed in this affair were left un- 

 buried until Tuesday, April 15th, when they were 

 buried by a deputy marshal and an officer ot milita 

 from New Orleans. These persons found fifty-nine 

 dead bodies. They showed pistol-shot wounds, the 

 great majority in the head and most of them in the 

 back of the head. In addition to the fifty-nine dead 

 bodies found, some charred remains were discovered 

 near tho court-house, six dead bodies found under a 

 warehouse, all shot in the head but one or two, which 

 were shot in the breast. The only white men injured 

 from the beginning of these troubles to their close 

 were Hadnot and Harris. The court-house and its 

 contents were entirely consumed. There is no evi- 

 dence that any one in the crowd of whites bore any 

 lawful warrant for the arrest of any of the blacks. 

 There is no evidence that either Nash or Cazabat, 

 after the affair, ever demanded their offices to which 

 they had set up claim, but the Register continued to 

 act as parish judge and Shaw as sheriff. These are 

 the facts in the case, as I understand them to be ad- 

 mitted. To hold the people of Louisiana generally 

 responsible for these atrocities would not be just"; 

 but it is a lamentable fact that insuperable obstruc- 

 tions were thrown in the way of punishing these 

 murderers, and the so-called Conservative papers of 

 the State not only justified tho massacre, but de- 

 nounced as Federal tyranny and despotism the at- 

 tempt of the United States officers to oring them to 

 justice. Fierce denunciations rung through the coun- 

 try about office-holding and election matters in Loui- 

 siana, while every one of the Colfax miscreants goes 

 unwhipped of justice, and no way can be found in 

 this boasted land of civilization and Christianity to 

 punish the perpetrators of this bloody and monstrous 

 crime. Not unlike this was the massacre in August 

 last. Several Northern young men of capital anden- 

 terprise had started the little and flourishing town of 

 Coushatta, Some of them were Republicans and 

 office-holders under Kellogg. They were, therefore, 

 doomed to death. Six of them were seized and car- 

 ried away from their homes and murdered in cold 

 blood. No one has been punished, and the Conser- 

 vative press of the State denounced all efforts to that 

 end, and boldly justified the crime. 



Many murders of a like character have been com- 

 mitted in individual cases which cannot here be de- 

 tailed ; for example : T. S. Crawford, Judge of the 

 Parish, and the District Attorney of tho Twelfth Judi- 

 cial District of the State, on their way to court, were 

 shot from their horses by men in ambush on the 6th 

 of October, 1873 ; and the widow of the former, in a 

 communication to the Department of Justice, tells a 

 piteous tale of the persecutions of her husband be- 

 cause he was a Union man, and of the efforts made 

 to screen those who had committed a crime which, to 

 use her own language, " left two widows and nine 

 orphans." To say that the murder of a negro or a 



