authority, but they must at all hazards preserve the peace, and not be restrained by technical points when, in their conscientious judgment under the rules above set forth, it is their duty to act. Post commanders, on being notified of the proposed holding of political meetings, may send an officer, and if necessary, a detachment, to watch the proceedings and see that the peace is preserved. «

It is believed that the condition of lawlessness that prevailed in Texas from the close of the war of the rebellion up to the readmission of the State in 1870, and for some years later, was due to a variety of causes not altogether political. "It is safe to say," reports Mr. Evans, the United States attorney for the western district of Texas, to the Attorney-General, under date of March 2, 1876, "that in Texas, with a population of 1,000,000, there are 3 men killed each day, amounting to 1,095 per year. One-fourth of these or more, are negroes, and killed mostly from political hatred to in Texas, the race." In his annual report for November 4, 1868, General Reynolds, the military commander, had

Lawlessness

1868-1870.

Armed organizations, generally known as "Ku-Klux-Klans," exist independently or in concert with other armed bands in many parts of Texas, but are most numerous, bold, and aggressive east of Trinity River.

The precise objects of the organizations can not be readily explained, but seems in this State to be to disarm, rob, and in many cases murder Union men and negroes, and, as occasion may offer, murder United States officers and soldiers; also to intimidate everyone who knows anything of the organization, but who will not join it.

The murder of negroes is so common as to render it impossible to keep an accurate account of them.

Many of the members of these bands of outlaws are transient persons in the State, the absence of railroads and telegraphs and great length of time required to communicate between remote points facilitating their devilish purposes.

These organizations are evidently countenanced, or at least not discouraged, by a majority of the white people in the counties where the bands are most numerous. They could not otherwise exist.

I have given this matter close attention, and am satisfied that a remedy to be effective must be gradually applied and continued with the firm support of the army until these outlaws are punished or dispersed.

Free speech and a free press, as the terms are generally understood in other States, have never existed in Texas. In fact, the citizens of other States can not appreciate the state of affairs in Texas without actually experiencing it. The official reports of lawlessness and crime, so far from being exaggerated, do not tell the whole truth.

And in his report for October 24, 1869, he said that "the number of murders in the State during the nine months from January 1, 1869, to September 30, 1869, according to the official records, necessarily

a General Meade to Adjutant-General, October 8, 1868; General Orders, No. 27, Department of the South, 1868.

H. R. Ex. Doc. 30, Forty-fourth Congress, second session, p. 139,

imperfect, is 384, being an average of about one and a half per day." To similar import is a report made by a special committee of the constitutional convention on the 30th of June, 1868, which states that about 900 murders had been committed in the State since the close of the war; of those, 304 had been perpetrated since January 1, 1869. The reason for this, as viewed from another standpoint, is expressed in a report made by a special committee on "crime and lawlessness,” appointed by a Democratic convention which met on the 6th of July, 1868:

1. The "general demoralization resulting from the war, and the absence of any government, civil or military, for several months after the conclusion of the war, and the sudden disbandment of a large number of Federal and Confederate soldiery who were thus released from military restraint at a time when the checks of civil law were also wanting;" 2 The "disorders had been increased in many localities by taking the execution of the laws from the civil authorities without replacing them by any other power;" 3. The "inefficiency of judicial and ministerial officers appointed by the military authorities;" and, 4. The "changed condition of society resulting from the emancipation of the negroes, the indolent habits and thievish disposition evinced by them, and the turbulent spirit which they have manifested, instigated by bad and designing men, and in many instances supported by the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau."

Riot

July 15, 1868.

To this explanation of the existing conditions it may be stated that while this committee was in pursuit of its investigation a rumor was being circulated among the negroes in the valley of the Brazos that a colored man had been lynched by a body of white men at Millican, Tex., and his body left hanging by the wayside. An armed band of negroes was hastily assembled near Millican under the leadership of an itinerant minister and marched to the town, intending "vengeance on the lynchers." On their way they encountered the sheriff with a posse. Both parties commenced firing, and when the affray was over some 20 colored people and 4 whites had been killed and several times as many wounded." This is a fair example of the incidents of reconstruction in Texas as reported by the military commander from time to time. The immense territory covered by the State and the long extent of frontier necessitated the presence of a large number of troops-three regiments of cavalry and from five to seven regiments of infantry, with an aggregate strength of nearly 5,000-and these were almost constantly employed. Aside from the 'frontier posts, from one to three companies were stationed at from fifteen to twenty points to aid the civil authorities. Galveston, Austin, Waco, Jefferson, Bryan, Huntsville, Livingston, Greenville, Nacogdoches, Brenham, Corpus Christi, Columbus, Helena, Lampasas, Tyler, and Indianola were among the towns thus garrisoned by Federal troops.

a General Reynolds to Adjutant-General, August 1, 1868.

Soon after the readmission of the State the legislature organized the militia, together with an efficient mounted police force; a law was passed prohibiting the carrying of deadly weapons; a number of jails were built, and most determined efforts were made by the State authorities for the suppression of lawlessness. Up to the end of 1870 reports had been made showing a total of 2,790 persons charged with crime and evading arrest; of this number, 702 were charged with murder, in some cases two or more, even seven murders being charged to a single individual. In addition 972 had been arrested, 109 of them charged with murder. By the end of 1871 the courts were in good working order; offenders were promptly arrested and punished and the civil law respected, so that the troops were withdrawn and resumed their frontier stations.

Mobile was the scene of another riot on the 5th of August, 1869. There had been considerable excitement in the city for some days over the political issues that were to be determined at the August elections. Both parties had held meetings nightly, and the Republican meetings, participated in almost exclusively by colored men, had been

Riot at Mobile, Ala., August 5, 1869.

frequently interrupted. On election day, August 3, there had been some rioting, but this the sheriff had been able to suppress. On the night of the 5th the Republicans, having won the election, held a meeting to celebrate their victory; and, it having been rumored that the meeting was to be broken up, an immense crowd was present, and many of them were armed. The police, numbering about 100 men, were all on duty at the place of meeting, and, apprehending trouble, the sheriff had called upon the commandant of the United States troops. Before they could reach the spot firing had commenced, and within a few minutes, according to a newspaper report, "the bullets were falling like hail." The whites formed themselves into squads and marched about the streets, committing all sorts of depredations. When the troops arrived it was found that six men had been killed and twelve severely wounded."

a Mobile Nationalist, August 6, 1869; report United States Marshal Watson and of Maj. M. A. Cochran, Second Infantry, 1127, Department South, 1869.

S. Doc. 209- -9

VI. POLITICAL DISTURBANCES IN LOUISIANA, 1866-1876.

RIOTS AT NEW ORLEANS, 1866-OUTRAGES IN FRANKLIN COUNTY, 1868-CONFLICT IN ST. LANDRY PARISH-RIOTS AT NEW ORLEANS, 1871-72-THE COUSHATTA TRAGEDY, 1874-RIOTS AT NEW ORLEANS, 1874-THE AFFAIR OF JANUARY 4, 1875.

It has been observed that the obligation of acting upon the application of a State legislature, or of its executive, devolves upon the President the necessity of determining what body of men constitute the legislature, or who is the governor, before he can act. The Supreme Court has remarked in the Rhode Island case (Luther v. Borden, 7 Howard, 1) that the fact that two parties claim the right to the government can not alter the case, for both can not be entitled to it; that if there is an armed conflict it is a case of domestic violence, and one of the parties must be in insurrection against the lawful government, and that the President must, of necessity, decide which is the government, and which party is unlawfully arrayed against it, before he can perform the duty imposed upon him by the law. But it will be remembered that in the Rhode Island case the President (Tyler) had declined to accept this doctrine. In his message of April 9, 1844, he remarked, "I also with equal strength resist the idea that it falls within the Executive competency to decide, in controversies of the nature of that which existed in Rhode Island, on which side is the majority of the people, or as to the extent of the rights of a mere numerical majority. For the Executive to assume such a power would be to assume a power of the most dangerous character." Moreover, the dispersion of Mr. Dorr's slender army rendered it unnecessary for either issuing the proclamation or for removing the troops from Fort Adams. It was reserved for President Grant, in the Louisiana and afterwards in the Arkansas case, to apply this doctrine in responding to a call for Federal aid to suppress an insurrection, from each of two contestants, by reviewing their respective claims, and recognizing one of them as the lawful governor of the State.

The Louisiana cases are, moreover, of considerable interest and importance in presenting, as they do, about all the phases that are likely to attend a political situation of that character. Extending over a period of nearly ten years, during which the titles of five executives and of six rival legislative bodies were in dispute, besides involving two Presidential and four Congressional elections, there was necessity

for frequent and prompt, if not arbitrary, decision upon the part of the President in the interest of peace and public order. These cases are still further of interest in demonstrating the cheerfulness and alacrity with which the insurgents in every instance surrendered their pretensions at the demand of the General Government. In the more than twenty occasions on which United States troops were required to interpose between armed bodies of disputing partisans, there was no single instance in which they were called upon to fire a shot.

A dispassionate record of the circumstances and events that make up the history of the State of Louisiana for the more than ten years following the war of the rebellion exhibits a political and social condition that is little short of anarchy. "Since the year 1866," reports Lieutenant-General Sheridan to the Secretary of War, in a dispatch dated New Orleans, January 10, 1875, "nearly 3,500 persons, the majority of whom were colored men, have been killed and wounded in this State." In 1868 the official record shows that 1,884 were killed and wounded. From 1868 to the present time no official investigation has been made, and the civil authorities in all but a few cases have been unable to arrest, convict, and punish the perpetrators. Consequently there are no correct records to be consulted for information. There is ample evidence, however, to show that more than 1,200 persons have been killed and wounded during this time on account of their political sentiments. Frightful massacres have occurred in the parishes of Bossier, Caddo, Catahoula, St. Bernard, St. Landry, Grant, and Orleans. The general character of the massacres in the abovenamed parishes is so well known that it is unnecessary to describe them. The isolated cases can best be illustrated by the following instances, which I take from a mass of evidence now lying before me, of men killed on account of their political principles: In Natchitoches Parish the number of isolated cases reported is 33; in the parish of Bienville the number of men killed is 30; in Red River Parish the isolated cases of men killed is 34; in Winn Parish the number of isolated cases where men were killed is 15; in Jackson Parish the number killed is 20; in Catahoula Parish the number of isolated cases reported where men were killed is 50; and most of the country parishes throughout the State will show a corresponding state of affairs.”

To similar effect is the language of the President (Grant) in his message of January 13, 1875, in response to a Senate resolution calling for information as to the existing political situation in Louisiana. To say that lawlessness, turbulence, and bloodshed have characterized the political affairs of that State since its organization under the reconstruction acts is only to repeat what has become well known as a part

@That the aggregate of these murders greatly exceeded the number stated by General Sheridan, see the documentary proof published in H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 30, Forty-fourth Congress, second session, pp. 150 to 546.