America's First January 6th Happened in 1874
Despite the fact that the “unprecedented” attack of January 6th occurred more than three years ago, the United States has still struggled to recall an adequate historical event that could assist us in defining the nature of the crime (Was it an insurrection?) and adequately punishing all those involved, especially former President Donald Trump.
Just last month, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat published a piece titled, “Why Jan. 6 Wasn’t an Insurrection.” And it also appears likely that the Supreme Court will decide that Colorado cannot remove Trump from their state ballot for creating the January 6th insurrection and allegedly violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Since Trump left the White House his life has become nearly consumed with criminal and civil litigation, yet despite his numerous charges, he still has not been charged with rebellion or insurrection.
If we cannot define the crime, then we cannot define the punishment, either.
This uncertainty imperils our democracy and will have a massive influence on the 2024 presidential race, but the most troubling aspect of this dilemma is that the United States does have a parallel historical event for January 6: the 1874 coup d’etat in New Orleans over the disputed gubernatorial race of 1872 – what Confederate sympathizers would call the “Battle of Liberty Place.”
To understand the logic (or illogic) of this coup d’etat, we must understand the events of the preceding years that led to Southern Democrats’ deciding to forcefully overthrow the government of Louisiana in response to losing an election that they felt was stolen from them. The actions of two centuries ago are so similar to those of three years ago that the only thing “unprecedented” about January 6th is that the latter attack was upon the national and not a state seat of government.
Following the Union’s victory in the Civil War, there was much debate in Congress about what should be done with the states of the Confederacy and what should happen to those Americans who had sworn allegiance to the Confederacy. One of the biggest questions was whether former Confederates should be allowed to hold elected office in the United States. In 1865, to address this concern, Congress formed the Joint Committee on Reconstruction to help determine the path forward for the nation; part of the committee’s work consisted of preventing former Confederates from holding elected office.
For example, in 1866, Alexander Stephens, the former vice president of the Confederacy, was elected to the U.S. Senate by Georgia’s legislature, and upon arriving in Congress he stated that his beliefs had not changed and that granting voting rights to Black men would be “about as great of a political evil as could befall [Georgians].”
Congress not only refused to seat Stephens, but his election also made Congressional Republicans aware of a new Southern strategy of filling Congress with Confederates, so that the South could win a de facto second Civil War within the halls of Congress instead of on the battlefield. There was a legitimate fear that if Confederate Democrats obtained enough power they could nominate Robert E. Lee as their presidential candidate and win the Civil War through the ballot box instead.
To prevent this nightmarish outcome, the joint committee and Congress prevented Confederates from holding elected office; drafted the Fourteenth Amendment that included Section 3, which prevents insurrectionists from holding elected office; and made ratification of the 14th Amendment a requirement for Southern states to rejoin the Union. Yet, despite these efforts, Southern Democrats remained committed to destroying Reconstruction and kept plotting to do so through both violence and the ballot box.
During Reconstruction, white supremacist insurrections moved from military engagements on Civil War battlefields to violent attacks against enfranchised Black Americans and white Republican politicians to prevent their participation in American democracy. A white supremacist government was the desired goal of both the Civil War and the anti-Reconstruction insurrections.
Republican politicians did not anticipate this strategic shift from Southern Democrats, believing that the 14th Amendment and the requirements for rejoining the Union would be sufficient for keeping the peace and creating a more racially equitable and just American democracy. However, upon rejoining the Union, the former Confederate states commenced a reign of terror that served as a kind of perpetual insurrection. To counter this threat, the federal government created the Department of Justice in 1870 to prosecute these crimes and used military force to suppress the terror.
In 1868, Louisiana was readmitted to the Union after agreeing to the terms and conditions of the Reconstruction Act of 1867 and ratifying the 14th Amendment. After rejoining the Union, the gubernatorial election of 1872 presented the first opportunity for Louisiana’s former Confederates, who were Democrats, to regain control of the state.
In the election, between Republican William Pitt Kellogg and Democrat John McEnery, widespread fraud and voter intimidation made it impossible to accurately count the votes, so it was left to the courts to decide the outcome. After they sided with Kellogg, McEnery created a “rump” or alternative legislature, and still tried to govern the state. However, the inability of McEnery’s rump government to collect taxes, generate funds, or have any legitimate power compelled McEnery to attempt his first, but not his last, coup d’etat.
On March 5, 1873, McEnery’s supporters attacked the Metropolitan Police of New Orleans, who were an integrated police force that protected the Kellogg government. McEnery’s attempted coup d’etat was swiftly defeated, but he was undeterred. Over the next year, his supporters became more organized, enlisted the help of white supremacist militias, and engaged in multiple massacres across the state.
In response, Black Louisianans in the city of Colfax started digging trenches around their courthouse in anticipation of an attack from McEnery’s supporters.
On Easter Sunday, April 13, the Ku Klux Klan, the White League, and supporters of McEnery attacked the courthouse in Colfax and killed between 60-150 Black Americans. (It is impossible to get a precise count of the deceased because many bodies were thrown into the Red River or removed from the courthouse and possibly added to mass graves.) The Colfax Massacre remains the deadliest single-day conflict of Reconstruction and highlighted the lengths to which former Confederates were willing to go to end Reconstruction. Yet, despite the fact that the perpetrators’ identities were well known, almost all of them escaped prosecution, and the Supreme Court’s 1876 decision in United States v. Cruikshank made it impossible for the federal government to prosecute them.
Following the attack at Colfax, the Department of Justice attempted to prosecute the few known culprits, but the Cruikshank decision thwarted their efforts because the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government did not have jurisdiction to prosecute these crimes. Instead the states had jurisdiction, but state courts never prosecuted these crimes. From this decision, Black Americans became de facto helpless against white terrorism in the South.
A little more than a year later, on September 14, 1874, McEnery attempted his second coup d’etat upon the Metropolitan Police of New Orleans. In this battle, McEnery’s forces, which included the white supremacist militia, the White League, greatly outnumbered those of the police. McEnery had an estimated 8,400 militia men, and the police force consisted of only 600 men plus the support of 3,000 Black militia men. As a result, McEnery’s forces overpowered the police and claimed control of the state government.
For three days, McEnery controlled Louisiana, but his rule was short-lived once President Ulysses S. Grant sent federal troops down to New Orleans. Upon learning of the impending arrival of federal troops, the White League and McEnery’s forces retreated, and no one was prosecuted for the coup d’etat. In response to the rampant violence consuming Louisiana and undermining democracy, federal troops remained stationed in the state until the end of Reconstruction.
Following the end of Reconstruction in 1877, Southern Democrats quickly regained control of the former Confederate states and began implementing an agenda to deprive Black Americans of their freedoms. The Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, validating a “separate but equal” society, was the culmination of this agenda.
The Southern Democrats also engaged in a narrative war to champion and lionize the South while demonizing Black Americans and their white allies. Under this narrative, McEnery’s coup became a battle for freedom meriting celebration rather than a violent insurrection demanding condemnation. The failed coup thus became known as the Battle of Liberty Place and, in 1891, a monument thereto was established on Canal Street in New Orleans. This monument to insurrection stood in the heart of New Orleans for more than a century until it was removed in 2017.
The similarities between the McEnery and Trump insurrections are evident. McEnery lost an election that he claimed was stolen from him, and his supporters attacked the seat of government. And his supporters included racist militias. Trump’s insurrection followed the same template. And while both insurrections may have deviated from the static Civil War definition of an “insurrection,” the spirit, intent, and desired outcome of each was virtually the same.
Yet, perhaps the most striking similarity between these insurrections is the United States’ alarming reluctance to prosecute the perpetrators as insurrectionists.
Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment was created to prevent former Confederates and insurrectionists from holding elected office, and the Department of Justice was created to prosecute individuals who were denying Americans, and especially Black Americans, their constitutional rights. Yet during Reconstruction, the Supreme Court and especially Southern legislatures severely weakened, ignored, and undermined the spirit of these new constitutional standards. Resulting in anti-Reconstruction insurrectionists receiving hardly any punishments for their actions.
Our nation’s reluctance to prosecute or prevent former Confederates from holding office resulted in the forces who were willing to destroy the nation becoming arguably the most influential voices in the nation. Jim Crow segregation and more than a century of celebrating racist insurrectionists has been the outcome.
The United States struggles to define and punish the perpetrators of January 6 because America rarely punishes white insurrectionists and prefers to depict white-led insurrections as battles for freedom.
If Donald Trump wins the presidency in 2024, it will not be “unprecedented” when a monument is created at the Capitol to celebrate the “heroes” and “freedom fighters” of January 6.