Governor Nicholls to Mr. Blaine.
Baton Rouge, March 21, 1891.
Sir: At a late hour on the 15th instant I received a dispatch from you having reference to the forcible breaking, on the 14th of this month, of the jail in this city, and the killing of eleven persons confined therein under indictments found in the criminal district court for the parish of Orleans.
You stated to me that it has been represented to the President by the minister of Italy accredited to the Government of the United States that among the killed on that occasion were three or four subjects of the King of Italy. The telegram disclosed an apprehension on the part of the minister, evidently shared in by the President, that the disturbance was a continuous and swelling disturbance, which might involve the Italian subjects in New Orleans.
I have reason to believe that the hope expressed by the President that I would cooperate with him in maintaining the obligations of the United States toward Italian subjects who might be within the perils of the excitement, and that farther violence and bloodshed might be prevented, was based upon that belief. The President further expressed the hope that all offenders might be promptly brought to justice.
On the 16th I telegraphed you that there was no excitement in the city at that time, and that I saw no reason to anticipate further trouble. I also stated that the action taken was directed against particular individuals, and that the race or nationality of the parties did not enter as a factor into the disturbance. A week has passed since the date of my dispatch, and the opinion then entertained as to the termination of the trouble has proved to have been well founded. The men killed, as I have stated, were confined in prison, under indictments found in the criminal district court for the parish of Orleans; the sheriff has made his return of the facts to that court; the judge thereof has charged the grand jury now in session in regard to the matter, and the whole subject is, I assume, now under investigation by that body.
I am satisfied that most of the persons killed were American citizens, but it is probable that two or three were Italian subjects.
I have, etc.,