Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1866-1876

by John William Burgess

The New
Orleans riot.

Of course, when the constitution framed by the convention was adopted by popular vote and a "State" government was set up under it, common sense and common honesty would hold that the convention had been finally dissolved, no matter how the wording of the resolution might be forced in the opposite direction. The men of "'64" saw in this wording their only chance, however, to rescue the "State" government from the hands of the amnestied electorate, and in their desperation they were determined to attempt to make use of it. A number of the members of the old convention got together informally on the 26th of June. The president of the old convention did not call them together, and he would not preside at the informal meeting. He made some trivial excuse; but there cannot be much doubt in regard to his real reason. This informal meeting then proceeded to elect a pro tempore president, Judge Howell, an office-holder under the constitution of 1864. It was this man who issued the proclamation of July 7th, reconvoking the old convention of 1864. The time appointed by him was the 30th of July at noon, and the place designated by him was the Mechanics' Institute Building at New Orleans. The men called together were the members of the old convention, but to provide for any vacancies that might have happened or might happen in the former membership of this old body, Judge Howell called on the Governor, Mr. Wells, to issue writs of election. The governor did so, and ordered an election of such delegates to be held September 3d. He thus manifested his approval of the movement.

Naturally the party of the amnestied viewed this scheme for depriving them of the "State" government by means of a new constitution, framed by a defunct convention, and certain to contain a provision for negro suffrage, with the most intense hostility. They were not placated either by being referred to the consideration that the constitution framed by this convention must be submitted to the suffrages of the existing electorate, and must be ratified by a majority of the same, before it could be put into operation. They had a suspicion that the whole thing was instigated by the wicked Republicans at the North, and that the voting upon such a proposed constitution would be controlled by them through the military of the United States Government.

They, therefore, resolved to nip the plan in the bud by preventing the assembly of the convention, or forcing it to disperse if it did assemble. The mayor of the city, Mr. Monroe, the same who was mayor when the Union army entered the city in 1862, applied to the General in command of the United States troops in Louisiana, General Absalom Baird, to know what attitude the military authorities would take toward the convention, and informed General Baird that he intended to disperse the convention if it should attempt to assemble without having the approval of these authorities. General Baird was acting for General Sheridan, who was absent from his post, and he replied with much more caution than he would probably have done had he been alone responsible. He told Mayor Monroe that he thought the Governor of the "State," rather than the mayor of the city, was the man to interfere with the assembly of a body professing to be a "State" convention, if there was to be any interference at all, and he gave the mayor to understand that his proposed course might be perilous. This was the 25th of July. Two days later the mayor went again to the General, this time accompanied by the Lieutenant-Governor, who was of the party of the amnestied. He now told General Baird that the police would not undertake to prevent the assembly of the convention, or disperse its members when assembled, but that its members would be indicted by the grand jury and arrested by the sheriff. The General seemed to think that the convention could lawfully assemble, but agreed with the mayor and Lieutenant-Governor that both he and they would request instructions from Washington.

The General applied to the Secretary of War, and the mayor applied to the President. The General informed the Secretary of the movement to assemble a convention; that it had the approval of the Governor; that the Lieutenant-Governor and the municipal authorities considered it unlawful and proposed to prevent it by arresting the delegates; that he had declared to them that he would not permit them to do this, unless the President should so instruct him; and he asked for orders, in the premises, by telegraph. The Lieutenant-Governor and the Attorney-General of the "State" informed the President of the movement to assemble the old convention; informed him that negroes were assembling, incendiary speeches were being made calling them to arm themselves, and the President was being denounced; that the Governor was in sympathy with the movement; that the matter was before the grand jury; and that it was contemplated to have the members of the convention arrested by criminal process; and they asked the President to inform them whether the military authorities would interfere to prevent the execution of the processes of the criminal court.

Secretary Stanton did not reply to General Baird's application at all. He did not even communicate the General's application to the President. He afterward explained that he did not consider that Baird's telegram required any reply. Baird had said in his despatch that he had informed the Lieutenant-Governor and the city authorities that he would not allow them to arrest the delegates and break up the convention unless instructed to do so by the President. The Secretary did not propose to send the General any such orders, or to allow any such to be transmitted to him from the President through the War Department, and so the Secretary thought it best to let the matter rest where the General had placed it. He did not know that the President had been applied to by the other side, and the President did not inform the Secretary of the despatch which he had received. The confidence between the two men had been already so largely destroyed as to prevent even consultation upon these grave subjects.

The President, on the other hand, answered the application made to him. He telegraphed to the Lieutenant-Governor that the military would be expected to sustain, and not to obstruct, or interfere with, the proceedings of the criminal court. He did not send any orders to General Baird, however. Whether the Lieutenant-Governor showed his telegram from the President to General Baird or not is not positively known, so far as the writer of these pages has been able to discover, but it is probable that he did.

It was certainly then the understanding on all sides, at least, that the "State" and municipal authorities would deal with the delegates to the convention, if they interfered with them at all, through the grand jury and the officers of the criminal court, and not through the police. This did not mean, of course, that the police should not be present in the neighborhood of the convention for the purpose of keeping the public peace. They were ordered to assemble at the stations on the morning of the 30th (July) and to bring their arms. According to General Sheridan's report to the President, the riot was occasioned by the marching of a procession of negroes, about one hundred strong and partly armed, through several of the streets to the locality of the convention. It occurred about an hour after the members of the convention had assembled. Naturally a number of people, mostly of the lower orders, gathered on the sidewalks of the streets through which the procession passed. Hooting and jeering followed. Then a shot was fired, probably by a negro in the procession. Then other shots followed and the crowd rushed after the procession, which soon arrived in front of the building in which the convention sat. Brickbats now flew from each side and the riot was in full progress when the police appeared on the scene. The procession rushed into the building, leaving a few of its members outside. One of these and a policeman came to blows, when another shot was fired, upon which the policemen began firing through the windows of the building. After a few moments a white flag was displayed from one of the windows, whereupon the firing ceased and the policemen rushed into the building. Once in the building they fired their revolvers upon the persons present indiscriminately and with terrible effect. The persons who succeeded in escaping from the building were also fired on by the police and by citizens, and many were killed or wounded. Nearly two hundred persons were killed or injured, mostly negroes, but some whites, and among them some members of the proposed convention. There were no United States troops in the city at the hour of the riot, their barracks being outside. General Baird had ordered four companies to take position near the place of the convention, but owing to the fact that he had got the impression that the convention would assemble at 6 P.M., he had ordered them to repair to the assigned position at 5 P.M. They, consequently, did not arrive until the riot was over and the convention was dispersed.

Each party considered the other the aggressor. The Republicans of the North viewed the massacre as a new rebellion, while the amnestied Southerners considered the riot the result of a justified resistance to an attempt to force negro suffrage and then negro rule upon them. It is very nearly certain that the first shot was fired by a negro, but this would not justify the wholesale massacre executed by the police. It could, therefore, be held by the Republicans with a great show of truth that the public authorities of the reconstructed "State" government of Louisiana not only would not extend the equal protection of the laws to all persons, but would themselves deprive persons even of life without due process of law.