midnight
Never , perhaps , in any public press had so sanguinary an appeal been issued . `` Citizens of New Orleans , '' it read in part , `` when murder overrides law and justice , when juries are bribed and suborners go unwhipped , it is time to resort to your own indefeasible right of self-preservation . Alien bands of oath-bound assassins have set the blot of a martyr 's blood upon your civilization . Your laws , in the very Temple of Justice , have been bought , suborners have loosed upon your streets the midnight murderers of an officer in whose grave lies the majesty of American law . `` Rise in your might , people of New Orleans ! Rise ! '' A similar note was struck by editorials , many of them couched in language even stronger and more suited to fan the public rage .