Macheca organizes paramilitary 'club'

Group of 'white citizens' backs overthrow
of Republican government in Louisiana

On this date in 1874...

Joseph P. Macheca, a produce importer and steamship line owner allied with Louisiana conservative Democratic interests, on the evening of September 9, 1874, called to order an organizational meeting of the white supremacist Cosmopolitan Democratic Club of the City of New Orleans.

A press report by the Daily Picayune indicated that the meeting, held at Royal and Orleans Streets, drew a large number of "foreign citizens," including immigrants from Italy, Austria and Spanish-speaking countries. (The Royal and Orleans location is behind the landmark St. Louis Cathedral and about one city square from the Orleans Ballroom, where Macheca's violently racist Innocenti organization regularly met six years earlier.)

The group supported a resolution that was starkly racist:

Whereas it behooves all good citizens to take part in the approaching campaign, in order to redeem the State of Louisiana, and relieve her from the present usurpation - Be it resolved, That we, as white citizens, do form ourselves into a Democratic club, to be known as the "Cosmopolitan Democratic Club" of the city of New Orleans.

Daily Picayune, Sept. 10, 1874.

At the time - the Reconstruction period following the Civil War - a liberal Republican Party (known in the South as "Radical Republicans" and "Black Republicans") encouraged African American voter registration, while an entrenched conservative Democratic Party fought to maintain the status quo. Backed by President Ulysses Grant, a Republican-dominated Congress in Washington, D.C., and the federal military, Republicans controlled the postwar state government (the "present usurpation" referred to in the resolution). Within New Orleans, the Democratic establishment embraced white immigrants, then arriving in increasing numbers, in an effort to offset the new voting power of the Republicans.

When the Cosmopolitan Democratic Club elected officers, Macheca was selected as grand marshal. Today that position would be the ceremonial leader of parades, but it had a more military function in 1874. All present at the meeting must have recalled Macheca's leadership of bloody marches through African-American neighborhoods during the 1868 election season.

The military purpose of the Cosmopolitan Democratic Club became evident less than a week later, as "Captain Macheca" and his men participated in a large-scale insurrection against Republican state government. The revolt was organized by the Crescent City White League, a network of paramilitary groups (like the Cosmopolitan Democratic Club) that was led by former Confederate officers.

Macheca's force played a pivotal role in routing state militia and New Orleans Metropolitan Police in the September 14, 1874, conflict recalled as the Battle of Liberty Place. The victory was short-lived, as federal troops were quickly moved into New Orleans to restore Republican control.

144 years ago: Innocenti control the streets

144 years ago: Returning home from a meeting of Joseph Macheca's paramilitary Innocenti organization, a prominent member is shot to death by an unknown assailant. The Innocenti direct their anger at African American neighborhoods in New Orleans. They take over the streets around the Treme Market, pushing out police patrols. Federal officials later send two companies of soldiers to the area to restore order.

Innocenti raids begin

On this date in 1868...

Joseph P. Macheca, a native Louisianan engaged in importing and selling Central American produce, began (Oct. 24, 1868) leading a conservative, Democratic Party-aligned paramilitary group on violent anti-Republican marches through New Orleans.

The marches of the "Innocenti" organization were designed to suppress African American voter registration and election turnout for the then-liberal (often branded "radical") Republican Party. Repeated through several days, the marches led to bloody clashes in some of the Crescent City's African-American neighborhoods.

Macheca's role as director of the marches was screened somewhat by the Innocenti selection of Pascalis Labarre, a local official, as president of the organization. When later questioned, Labarre admitted knowing very little about the group's founding and purpose.