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1890/1891

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1891

Correspondence in relation to the killing of prisoners in New Orleans, 14 March 1891 (FRUS 1891, Documents 602-662)

The chapter heading and document list for the State Department's printed correspondence with Italy about the Hennessy case and the 14 March 1891 killings, from Secretary of State Blaine's telegram of 21 October 1890 through the March 1891 exchanges.

Date: 1890/1891
Kind: case-file
Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1891
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: A publication of the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. A United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105; the document dates from 1890-91.

The chapter page lists the printed correspondence, Documents 602-662 of the 1891 volume. The first documents date from October 1890 (Secretary of State Blaine to Governor Nicholls, 21 October 1890) and run through the March 1891 telegrams between Blaine, Baron Fava (the Italian minister), Governor Nicholls, and the Italian consul at New Orleans. Correspondents include the Marquis Rudini, Consul Corte, Mr. Porter, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Adee and Attorney General W. H. H. Miller.

Only the document list was captured from this page, and it stops at Document 631 on the chapter page. Individual documents are at history.state.gov under the number; Documents 602, 612-615, 619, 620 and 623 were opened for this archive. Documents 632-662 (late March 1891 on, including Baron Fava’s recall) were not opened.

itemMr. Blaine to Governor Nicholls, telegram, 21 October 1890 (FRUS 1891, Document 602)Secretary of State Blaine relays to the Louisiana governor the Italian minister's report that the New Orleans mayor had caused the arrest of innocent persons and issued proclamations tending to excite the Italian colony, and that the great body of Italians wanted the law to 'punish the murderers of the chief of police.'itemList of those who were registered as voters, Supervisor of Registration, Parish of Orleans, 15-16 December 1890 (FRUS 1891, Document 613)A certified abstract of voter-registration records for ten of the Italians charged in the Hennessy case, plus a separate certificate for Salvador Coscenso, sent to Washington by the U.S. Attorney. It gives each man's registration number, precinct and, where stated, naturalization or declaration of intention.itemList of those whose status is unknown, U.S. Attorney William Grant, New Orleans, 17 December 1890 (FRUS 1891, Document 614)U.S. Attorney William Grant's list of nine Italian-born men 'in custody, charged with the murder of Chief D. C. Hennessy' who do not appear from any record to have been naturalized, with their ages; the companion to the registered-voters list.itemConsul Corte to Baron Fava, telegram, New Orleans, 14 March 1891 (FRUS 1891, Document 615)A short telegram, in translation, from the Italian consul at New Orleans to the Italian minister at Washington on the day of the killings: a mob led by members of the 'committee of fifty' took the jail and killed eleven prisoners, three of them Italians and the others naturalized.itemMr. Blaine to Governor Nicholls, telegram, 15 March 1891 (FRUS 1891, Document 619)Secretary of State Blaine's telegram to the Louisiana governor the day after the killings: three or more of the victims were subjects of the King of Italy, the treaty guarantees their protection, and the President regrets that a question for the courts was transferred 'to the passionate judgment of a mob.'itemGovernor Nicholls to Mr. Blaine, telegram, New Orleans, 16 March 1891 (FRUS 1891, Document 623)Governor Nicholls's reply to Blaine's telegram of 15 March: everything is now quiet, he anticipates no further trouble, and 'the recent action was directed against particular individuals; their race or nationality was not a factor in the disturbance.'itemPresident Harrison's annual message, 9 December 1891 (paragraphs on the March 1891 New Orleans killings)The President's message to Congress, printed at the head of the 1891 Foreign Relations volume, calls the March lynching at New Orleans of eleven men of Italian nativity 'a most deplorable and discreditable incident' and says the federal government had no power under existing law to intervene.