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DISCLAIMER (0:00)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 The following program contains descriptions of violence and suggestive topics that may not be appropriate for younger audiences. Listener discretion is advised.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (0:09)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 You\u2019re listening to the American Narrative: Histories of a Nation, a podcast series by Discover America. I\u2019m your host, Tim Murphy, alongside cohost Grant Shea. Welcome to episode three!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grant (0:18)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 All right, man! Excited to\u2014third time\u2019s a charm. We\u2019re lucky number three. Excited to hear what we\u2019re going to talk about today.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (0:26)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Grant, you previously mentioned that Reconstruction is one of the most underappreciated periods in American history, and also one of your favorite subjects to explore. Well, have I got the story for you tonight.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (0:36)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Today, we\u2019ll be discussing the Battle of Liberty Place: the apex of political violence in Reconstruction Era Louisiana.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The advent of Reconstruction brought about a profound transformation in the sociopolitical landscape of the post-Civil War South. For generations, Southern society had been dictated by the hierarchal orders of plantation culture\u2014a paternalistic agrarianism fundamentally dependent on slavery and white supremacist ideologies. However, this oppressive system was categorically undermined with the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments\u2014which provided immediate citizenship and voting rights for formerly enslaved African Americans\u2014and other legislative policies that advanced black enfranchisement, social progressivism, and the promise of civil equality.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Confederate veterans returning home from war found many of their former institutions of power and authority occupied by their adversaries: Radical Republicans and Freedmen. Many Southerners\u2014especially those committed to the antebellum status quo and white superiority\u2014perceived these changes as tyranny. There was no consensus on how to deal with the punishing trifecta of military defeat, federal occupation, and emancipation\u2014or even to accept these realities at all. This atmosphere of uncertainty and resentment fostered a volatile, and often racialized struggle for political power. Nowhere was this turmoil more intense than in Louisiana, where, according to the 1870 Census, African Americans constituted the majority of the population, giving them unprecedented political leverage, in principle.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ascendancy of the black coalition coincided with the proliferation of Yankee \u201ccarpetbaggers\u201d\u2014opportunistic Northerners who moved to the war-torn South to advance their own economic interests and political aspirations. Henry Clay Warmoth\u2014affectionately known as the \u201cPrince of Carpetbaggers\u201d\u2014was the epitome of Northern corruption. While serving as the 23rd Governor of Louisiana, his administration became synonymous with demagoguery and political grafting in southern folklore. When questioned about the integrity of his office, Warmoth cynically remarked, \u201cI don\u2019t pretend to be honest\u2026I only pretend to be as honest as anybody in politics\u2026Why, damn it, everybody is demoralized down here. Corruption is the fashion.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grant (2:45)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 That\u2019s not a\u2014not necessarily the way to broaden your coalition.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (2:54)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 At least he\u2019s forthright about it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grant (2:56)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Yeah, I mean, you know, he\u2019s certainly just\u2014he\u2019s not putting on any airs, yeah.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (3:02)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Originally from Illinois, Warmoth first distinguished himself as an officer in the 32nd Missouri Infantry, later becoming the charismatic commander of Louisiana\u2019s Grand Army of the Republic chapter. This prominent position elevated Warmoth\u2019s profile among Union veterans and the state\u2019s Republican constituency. Between November 1867 and March 1868, Warmoth served as a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention, where he vigorously campaigned for a progressive civil rights agenda. His efforts were instrumental in aligning the Republican Party with newly-enfranchised black voters. Warmoth also persuaded the convention to lower the proposed minimum age requirement for governor from 35 to 25, which conveniently made him eligible to run for office at just 26 years old. When the new State Constitution was ratified on April 17, 1868, Warmoth\u2014bolstered by his popularity with Unionists and African Americans\u2014secured victory in Louisiana\u2019s gubernatorial election.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For some Republicans, Warmoth\u2019s meteoric rise\u2014along with his moderatism, propensity to court conservative Democrats and former Confederates, and reluctance to sign comprehensive civil rights legislation\u2014threatened their own political ambitions. Partisan infighting, personal enmity, and antagonism bitterly brewed within the Republican ranks. One of Warmoth\u2019s detractors described him as \u201cthe Boss Tweed of Louisiana, except that that amiable villain, with all his infamies, is a gentleman and a saint compared with the unscrupulous despot who fills the executive chair.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (4:29)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 And for reference, Boss Tweed refers to William M. Tweed, the infamous leader of New York City\u2019s Tammany Hall, a notorious political machine synonymous with greed, exploitation, and corruption.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (4:40)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 In 1871, mounting opposition against Warmoth coalesced in the form of the Custom House Ring\u2014a powerful political alliance comprised of federally-appointed Radical Republicans\u2014which derived its power through the management of custom duties, the primary source of federal revenue at the time. This anti-Warmoth coalition was primarily led by three men: Captain Stephen B. Packard, the U.S. Marshal for New Orleans; Oscar J. Dunn, Louisiana\u2019s African American Lieutenant Governor and President of the State Senate; and James Casey, the Customs Collector of New Orleans. Because their authority relied directly upon support from Washington, members of this faction were largely immune to the effects of social and political ostracism from conservative whites and the Warmoth administration. They all enjoyed the backing of the national Republican Party and President Ulysses S. Grant, especially Casey, who happened to be Grant\u2019s brother-in-law.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n There was some historical animosity between Grant and Warmoth. In May 1863, Warmoth was severely wounded during the Siege of Vicksburg and returned to Illinois to recover. While convalescing, Warmoth gave a candid interview to a local newspaper, detailing the recent setbacks and difficulties Union forces experienced in the Western Theater. Grant perceived Warmoth\u2019s comments as an aspersion of his military campaign that fomented exaggerations of Union defeat. Grant summarily issued Warmoth a dishonorable discharge for this insubordinate conduct. Unwilling to accept such a stain on his record, Warmoth traveled to Washington and appealed directly to President Abraham Lincoln. The War Department ultimately reinstated Warmoth to his rank and regiment.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Infuriated by Grant\u2019s public support for his enemies in the Custom House, Warmoth aligned himself with the provisional, anti-Grant, Liberal Republican movement.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Both the Warmoth and Custom House coalitions understood that their ability to maintain control over Louisiana\u2019s Republican Party depended on African American support. This essential constituency would prove critical in the forthcoming national and state elections of November 1872.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pinckney Benton Stewart (P.B.S.) Pinchback\u2014a prominent leader among black Republicans\u2014recognized the impending implications of the upcoming elections: \u201cAs a race, [we] are between the hawk of Republican demagogism and the buzzards of Democratic prejudice.\u201d Initially, Pinchback\u2019s camp endorsed Warmoth\u2019s renomination, but the incumbent adamantly refused to appear on the state Republican ticket alongside \u201cthe arrogant, dictatorial, and corrupt administration of General Grant.\u201d Warmoth ultimately withdrew his name from consideration and threw his support behind the respective Liberal Republican candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, D.B. Penn and John Young.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pinchback eventually relented and realigned his caucus with the Custom House Ring. This ticket featured William Pitt Kellogg, a white carpetbagger from Vermont, as the gubernatorial nominee, with Caesar Confucius Antoine\u2014a French-speaking <\/span><\/span>gens de couleur libre<\/span><\/span><\/em> (or free person of color) as his candidate for lieutenant governor. By pairing Antoine with Kellogg, Radical Republicans made a calculated appeal to black voters, wary of white Republican factionalism and Democratic hostility.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (7:41)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Now, this was just the discord between the Republican candidates. We haven\u2019t even mentioned the other contenders yet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (7:47)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Earlier that June, a new Reform Party assembled in New Orleans, drawing together a coalition of former Whigs and moderate conservatives who refused to align themselves with the entrenched leadership of antebellum politics. The Reformers envisioned a government committed to civic improvement, fiscal responsibility, and the restoration of honest administration\u2014a deliberate departure from the rampant cronyism that plagued both major parties. Despite their initial resolve, the Reformists faced a sobering reality: they lacked the statewide support necessary to mount a credible campaign. Party leaders then considered the possibility of merging their ticket with the Democrats, who nominated Lieutenant Colonel John McEnery for governor. McEnery\u2014the former Confederate commander of the 4th Louisiana Battalion\u2014was an intense, race-baiting orator who championed Black Codes and rejected ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. The <\/span><\/span>New Orleans Republican<\/span><\/span><\/em> denounced McEnery as \u201crepresenting the negro hating, schoolhouse burning, fire-eating Bourbonists.\u201d Despite the obvious contradictions with their own political philosophy, the Reformists officially joined forces with the Democratic Party on July 18.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On August 27, Democrat-Reformers and Liberal Republicans brokered an unusual alliance rooted in their opposition to the Grant administration. Together, they created a \u201cFusion\u201d ticket to challenge the Radical Republicans, nominating John McEnery for governor and D.B. Penn as his lieutenant. Louisiana\u2019s disillusioned governor Warmoth publicly endorsed this Fusionist campaign leading up to the November elections.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election quickly spiraled into one of the most turbulent and fiercely contested events in the state\u2019s history. Widespread fraud and voter intimidation characterized the electoral process. As one contemporary observer remarked: \u201c[The voting was] so shot through with fraud that no one ever had any idea who had actually won\u2026The election was dishonest, the count was dishonest, and there was no honest way in which the result could be decided.\u201d Official validation of the election results was entrusted to the state Returning Board\u2014 a body whose own partisan interests and internal divisions only exacerbated the controversy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n During his tenure as Governor, Warmoth signed two key pieces of legislation that endowed the executive office with considerable leverage over state elections. The first Registration Law of 1870 empowered the governor to appoint voter registrars in each parish (or legislative district). This provision gave Warmoth the practical means to influence not just who could register to vote, but also to subtly pressure local officials into supporting candidates loyal to his administration. The second Election Law of 1870 established the state Returning Board\u2014a five-member body, all handpicked by Warmoth, vested with the sweeping authority to review, amend, or discard parish vote returns in cases of suspected fraud or coercion. While intended to suppress voter intimidation and centralize electoral oversight, these laws quickly became tools for political maneuvering.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grant (10:36)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Yeah. You know, I wonder, too, like…you know, there\u2019s only so much oversight you can have with electoral\u2014I feel like, at the end of the day, there\u2019s this element of trust that\u2019s inherent in vote tabulations and in running any voting process. Because it\u2019s like, the more oversight you have, you know, you think \u2018yes, that would help ensure accuracy,\u2019 but it\u2019s also\u2014it can be influenced by the same forces that the underlying vote process does, like it\u2019s just\u2026there\u2019s only so much you can do, you know? At the end of the day, it really\u2014the final backstop\u2014is just the trust and the faith you have in the vote counters.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (11:21)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Yeah, and also, like, he\u2019s using this legislation\u2014his legislative authority\u2014to influence the elections, too. Or at least bias the outcome of the elections, because he\u2019s appointing these registrars, he\u2019s appointing the state Returning Board to authorize the election, too. And, we\u2019ll get to this a little later, but you know, the Returning Board\u2019s ultimate authority is to say: \u2018Okay, this vote is legitimate from this parish. But because we suspect coercion or voter intimidation, because the vote count trended in the opposite direction to like, the opposing party, we\u2019ll say that that vote doesn\u2019t count and we won\u2019t consider it in out election.\u2019 So it\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (12:02)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Yeah, it\u2019s kind of a double-edged sword, as we\u2019ll see. But it definitely\u2014it kind of speaks to the corruption of Reconstruction politics.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (12:12)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 On November 14, the Louisiana State Returning Board met to certify the official ballot count. Although Warmoth had personally appointed these representatives, his influence within the Republican Party had significantly diminished. Intense lobbying efforts (and alleged quid pro quo) caused the Returning Board to split along party lines. Each side declared victory and dismissed the legitimacy of opposing board members.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The emergence of competing Returning Boards prompted Governor Warmoth to take decisive action. On November 20, he signed a new election law\u2014passed by the legislative session earlier that year\u2014which repealed the Election Law of 1870 and dissolved the existing Returning Boards. Pursuant to that new legislation, Warmoth established a third Returning Board with Fusionist-allied Gabriel DeFeriet as chairman. The DeFeriet Board subsequently declared McEnery the winner on December 4.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Custom House Ring moved to procure the Grant administration\u2019s endorsement and settle the disputed election in federal court. Unsurprisingly, the Republican-controlled judiciary ruled in Kellogg\u2019s favor.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n At midnight on December 5, Captain Packard received a court order from U.S. Circuit Judge Edward H. Durrell authorizing him to seize the state capitol, ostensibly to \u201cprevent the further obstruction of the proceedings in this cause, and further to prevent\u2026the imminent danger of disturbing the public peace.\u201d This directive was strengthened by U.S. Attorney General George Henry Williams, who instructed Packard “to enforce the decrees and mandates of United States courts no matter who resisted and General [William H.] Emory will furnish you with all necessary troops for that purpose.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n At 2:00 A.M. on December 6, Packard\u2014accompanied by his deputy marshals and two companies of federal infantry\u2014forcibly occupied the state offices inside the Mechanics\u2019 Institute. With General Emory\u2019s troops guarding the statehouse, Custom House leaders arranged a special session of the state legislature three days later, and only admitted representatives certified by their own Returning Board.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Inside the Senate chamber, Lieutenant Governor Pinchback publicly accused Warmoth of attempting to bribe him with $50,000 in exchange for \u201coverriding the law and organizing the legislature according to direction.\u201d These allegations were sent to the House of Representatives, which overwhelmingly voted to impeach the sitting governor. Under the rules of succession, impeachment automatically suspended Warmoth from office and elevated Pinchback to the governorship. Despite this unconventional ascension, Pinchback became the first African American to head a state government in U.S. history.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grant (14:41)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Wow. That\u2019s kind of a crazy way to get there, you know? Is it\u2026Tim, do you happen to know if the impeachment proceedings if\u2026I don\u2019t know what the structure of the Louisiana state government would have been back then, but was it bicameral? Like, was there a House, or a House of Delegates, or whatever they structured in the Senate, or was it just one body?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tim (15:10)<\/span><\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Yeah, so it was bicameral. So, the Senate\u2014they issued the charges of impeachment, you know\u2014attempting to bribe a public official. And in order for that to be recognized and authorized, they have to send that to the House of Representatives\u2014the State House of Representatives\u2014and they were the ones who ultimately said \u2018yes, we have cause to believe that some sort of corruption occurred, and we grant the motion to impeach the governor.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grant (15:38)<\/span><\/span><\/strong>