“The immediate cause of this terrible affair was the assemblage of this Convention; the remote cause was the bitter and antagonistic feeling which has been growing in this community since the advent of the present Mayor, who, in the organization of his police force, selected many desperate men, and some of them known murderers.  People of clear views were overawed by want of confidence in the Mayor, and fear of the thugs, many of which he had selected for his police force.  I have frequently been spoken to by prominent citizens on this subject, and have heard them express fear, and want of confidence in Mayor Monroe.  Ever since the intimation of this last convention movement I must condemn the course of several of the city papers for supporting, by their articles, the bitter feeling of bad men.  As to the merciless manner in which the convention was broken up, I feel obliged to confess strong repugnance.

“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.