It is with justified alarm that I post my opinion. I was recently twice privileged with invitations to present research to a Laredo organization whose central organizational theme concerns the influence of Spain in North American history. The lecture topic was the violent insurrection in colonial Spanish Louisiana in 1768 and the ensuing trial of the rebellion’s leaders in 1769.
Very much like the former Republican president and his cronies did in 2021, colonial leaders issued false allegations and vilifying propaganda instigating armed rebellion to oust the legitimately appointed governor. Over one thousand colonists participated in the coup de etat forcing the governor and his pregnant wife to flee at gunpoint.
A second governor was appointed to establish order in Louisiana and bring the culprits to justice. Twelve leaders were arrested and tried for “sedition and treason.” The trial lasted three months. Five rebel leaders were executed by firing squad; the rest were given prison sentences ranging from life, ten years, and six years. One was exonerated and another banished. All guilty parties had their properties confiscated. The new governor issued a general amnesty for all other participants of the insurrection.
I conducted the research twenty-two years ago while attending the University of New Orleans and perceive this lesson pertinently timely in view of the January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at our national Capitol. What I find astounding is the level of willful ignorance, lack of readership, apathy, and apparent cultic narrowmindedness of some citizens, especially those blindly addicted to the lying “nest of vipers,” FOX “News.” To wit, while waiting for handouts for the presentation at a local business, the person making copies curiously asked about the paper’s theme and responded with “Oh, that was a ‘real’ insurrection, not like the one on January 6 last year.” I ponder how people are so ill-instructed, misled, or malevolently uninterested in finding truth that they naively feel it doesn’t affect their wellbeing, much like gullible lost sheep who can’t think for themselves.
The January 2021 riot was extremely violent as exhibited by insurrectionists’ own self-recorded videos and pervasive news media coverage. People died. The mob was armed with bats, metal poles, and dangerously toxic chemical sprays. They brutally beat and stomped law officers. It was planned, as evinced by video recordings of the former President’s and his co-conspirators’ goading and the many communications of so-called “militia” thugs who instigated the violent dissolution of our duly elected American government.
Highly insulting to rational Americans was the violent horde hiding behind the national flag and hypocritically calling themselves “patriots” and “Christians,” their godless treason overtly betrayed by their criminal behavior. The millions of dollars of damage incurred in the halls of Congress was nothing but vicious vandalism.
The wheels of justice seem to turn slowly now compared to the application of judicial procedure in 1768 New Orleans, but our Constitution regardless requires they turn in order to ensure and maintain the order and domestic tranquility guaranteed by that same document that established our on-going experiment in democracy. I am not a vengeful person, but I took an oath when I enlisted the military to defend our nation from all enemies. The people who participated in the violence of January 6, 2021 are undeniably traitorous enemies within our own borders.
Peace to all, harm to none.
