“It is useless to disguise the hostility that exists on the part of a great many here toward Northern men, and this unfortunate affair has so precipitated matters that there is now a test of what shall be the status of Northern men—­whether they can live here without being in constant dread or not, whether they can be protected in life and property, and have justice in the courts.  If this matter is permitted to pass over without a thorough and determined prosecution of those engaged in it, we may look out for frequent scenes of the same kind, not only here, but in other places.  No steps have as yet been taken by the civil authorities to arrest citizens who were engaged in this massacre, or policemen who perpetrated such cruelties.  The members of the convention have been indicted by the grand jury, and many of them arrested and held to bail.  As to whether the civil authorities can mete out ample justice to the guilty parties on both sides, I must say it is my opinion, unequivocally, that they cannot.  Judge Abell, whose course I have closely watched for nearly a year, I now consider one of the most dangerous men that we have here to the peace and quiet of the city.  The leading men of the convention—­King, Cutler, Hahn, and others —­have been political agitators, and are bad men.  I regret to say that the course of Governor Wells has been vacillating, and that during the late trouble he has shown very little of the man.

“P.  H. Sheridan,
“Major-General Commanding.”

Subsequently a military commission investigated the subject of the riot, taking a great deal of testimony.  The commission substantially confirmed the conclusions given in my despatches, and still later there was an investigation by a select committee of the House of Representatives, of which the Honorables Samuel Shellabarger, of Ohio, H. L. Elliot, of Massachusetts, and B. M. Boyer, of Pennsylvania, were the members.  The majority report of the committee also corroborated, in all essentials, my reports of the distressing occurrence.  The committee likewise called attention to a violent speech made by Mr. Johnson at St. Louis in September, 1866, charging the origin of the riot to Congress, and went on to say of the speech that “it was an unwarranted and unjust expression of hostile feeling, without pretext or foundation in fact.”  A list of the killed and wounded was embraced in the committee’s report, and among other conclusions reached were the following:  “That the meeting of July 30 was a meeting of quiet citizens, who came together without arms and with intent peaceably to discuss questions of public concern....  There has been no occasion during our National history when a riot has occurred so destitute of justifiable cause, resulting in a massacre so inhuman and fiend-like, as that which took place at New Orleans on the 30th of July last.  This riotous attack upon the convention, with its terrible results of massacre and murder, was not an accident.  It was the determined purpose of the mayor of the city of New Orleans to break up this convention by armed force.”