Biography of 	Dostie, Anthony Paul 1821-1866
Submitted by 	Jeffrey C. Holtz December 2002

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ANTHONY PAUL DOSTIE was born 20 June 1821 in Saratoga County, NY, and died 6
August 1866 in New Orleans, LA.  He married (1) EUNICE HULL 1840 in
Amsterdam, NY.  He married (2) MARY LAVINIA WHEELER 1847.

Notes for ANTHONY PAUL DOSTIE:
DOSTIE, Anthony Paul, dentist, born in Saratoga County, N. Y." died in New
Orleans, La., 5 August 1866. He was a barber in early life, but became a
dentist, and removed to Chicago, and subsequently to New Orleans. He was an
active Union man during the civil war, and by his fearlessness gained both
warm friends and bitter enemies. On the reorganization of the Louisiana
government, during the war, he was appointed state auditor, and he was also
a member of the constitutional convention of 1864. Dr. Dostie, in company
with a Republican minority in New Orleans, was anxious to extend the
suffrage to the freedmen, and to deny it to all those who had taken part
against the national government in the civil war. The convention of 1864, in
adjourning, had resolved that it should be the duty of the president to
recall it "for any cause, or in ease the constitution should not be
ratified, for the purpose of taking such measures as may be necessary for
the formation of a civil government in Louisiana." Dr. Dostie and his
associates now began to agitate the recall of the ohl convention. The
project was at first received everywhere with derision, being regarded as a
revolutionary movement, since it was claimed that the resolution above
quoted gave the convention no power to amend the constitution that it had
adopted. Finally, however, the president pro tempore of the convention
issued an order re-convoking it on 30 July 1866.

On 27 July a meeting was held, which adopted resolutions calling for the
enfranchisement of the Negroes, and at the same time speeches were made to a
large assembly of freedmen outside. That of Dr. Dostie asserted that, if the
convention were interfered with, "the Streets of New Orleans would run with
blood." This ;speech was afterward spoken of as "intemperate" by General
Sheridan. the City authorities now threatened to break up the convention as
an unlawful assemblage, but the mayor was told that this would not be
permitted by the U. S. forces then in the City. Part of the convention
assembled on 30 July and, while a recess was taken for the purpose of
obtaining a quorum, a conflict between a body of Negroes and the police
occurred outside of the building. This precipitated a riot, and the Negroes
took refuge in the building, and were attacked by the police and by a mob,
which also wreaked its animosity on members of the convention. Dr. "Dostie
was one of its first victims. Although unarmed, he was shot and beaten till
he was supposed to be dead, and thrown into a cart with the dead bodies of
other victims of the riot. He was finally taken to the hospital, where he
died six days afterward in great suffering.

See "Life of A. P. Dostie, or the Conflict of New Orleans," by Emily H. Reed
(New York, 1868).

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright (c) 2001 Virtualology