USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. III > Part 16
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"In many parishes the late election was the occasion of most disgraceful acts of intimidation, eventuating in several instances in scenes of massacre shocking to the sense of civilized man and only finding parallels in the annals of savage warfare. These instances of savage cruelty, unprovoked, but willful and premed- itated, seem to have been instigated by the hostility of certain classes to the laws of Congress, by which the Government has embodied the colored population into the body politic and vouch- safed to them equal civil and political rights. This course, even beyond what was perhaps intended by its authors, produced such terror and dismay throughout large portions of the State that the election was worse than a farce, for it was a crime against the whole people. The injury done our material interests by the occur- rences immediately preceding the election is second only to that inflicted by the same leaders in their wicked efforts to destroy the
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Union. They diverted emigration and capital from us, injured our credit, demoralized our laboring classes, diminished our com- merce, sowed the seeds of personal discord which will require years to eradicate and produced a general feeling of insecurity and distrust, preventing thousands from voting, while hundreds were compelled to vote a ticket repugnant to their convictions and destructive to their civil liberty.
"The following statistics will give some idea of the manner in which the election was conducted: By contrasting the vote polled not quite six months before the ratification of the consti- tution with the vote cast for General Grant the absolutism with which one party ruled the election will be apparent. Out of forty- eight parishes in the State, seven towit: DeSoto, Lafayette, St. Landry, Vermillion, Franklin, Jackson and Washington polled in April for the ratification of the new constitution 4,704 votes, but did not give General Grant a single vote. Eight other parishes, towit : Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, Moor- house, Union, St. Bernard and Sabine gave 5,520 for the consti- tution, but cast only ten votes for General Grant. Twenty-one parishes, casting for the ratification of the new constitution 26,814 gave General Grant 501 ; and the whole State polled in April for the constitution and the Republican State ticket 61,152 votes, or a majority of 17,413, but gave General Grant in November fol- lowing only 34,859 votes. I give these statistics, not in a partisan interest, but to show you more clearly the utter disregard exhib- ited in large portions of the State for the rights of those opposed to the old governing class and the inadequacy of the laws to pro- teet the citizens in the exercise of their civil and political rights."
Congress had divested the state anthorities of the right to organize the militia, and when the Federal troops were withdrawn, the governor was powerless to prevent the open intimidation of the voters. But even if he could have called out an organized militia, it is not probable that they would have obeyed his orders to prevent such intimidation, because the opposition was against negro domination and not against law and order. The leaders of the opposition were the most enlightened, self-respecting and law-abiding in the state, but they were bound never to submit to negro rule. The emancipation of the slaves, the destruction of the principle of secession, the employment of Federal bayonets to foist the negro to political and therefore social equality, the ascend- ency of Republicanism in a state that was overwhelmingly Demo- cratie without the negro vote -- all contributed to rouse the lion of liberty and the pride of a thousand years in the breasts of the old
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and tried Louisianians. However, the legislature authorized the governor to call upon the president for assistance in enforcing the election laws, but President Johnson adroitly evaded the request ; whereupon the governor took steps that would lead to the organ- ization of the militia.
He recommended the passage of a vagrant law, and in that connection said, "The object of the Legislature of 1865, in the adoption of the vagrant law, was simply to re-enslave the colored people. The natural indignation aroused at it has caused an abolition of all such acts and leaves the State without authority to repress the growth of vagrancy." Ile advocated the abrogation of the 99th Article of the constitution, which placed strong polit- ical disabilities upon certain persons who had aided the rebellion. He recommended the building of many of the levees, and expressed the wish that the government should aid the state in these necessary improvements. The assessment rolls of 1868 showed a total of two hundred and fifty-one million dollars. .
In 1869, the general assembly passed acts or resolutions to investigate the sale of certain levee bonds; to authorize New Orleans to refund its floating debt of circulating notes by the issuance of three million dollars of seven per cent, twenty-year bonds; to ratify the Fifteenth amendment to the federal consti- tution ; to incorporate the Grand Lodge of Masons; to organize a Commission of Emigration ; to regulate public education, and to incorporate several railroads and industrial companies.
The legislature of 1870 passed acts to regulate the conduct of elections ; to improve public education ; to change the name of the Mandeville & Sulphur Springs Railroad to New Orleans & North- eastern Railroad; to incorporate the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third degree Masons; to postpone indefinately the collec- tion of th taxes of 1861-64, and to incorporate savings banks, educational institutions, railroads and industrial associations.
In January, 1871, Governor Warmoth congratulated the legis- lature on the large crops of sugar and cotton and on the general prosperity. There had been a notable increase in commerce and in the price of real estate. In 1870 the people had accepted four amendments to the constitution : 1. Repealing the 99th Article of the constitution, which placed political disabilities upon several classes; 2. Limiting the state's indebtedness prior to 1890 to twenty-five million dollars ; 3. Prohibiting certain delinquent offi- cials from holding office ; 4. Removing the inability of the gover- not to re-election. In regard to the first the governor said : "This article by reason of its disfranchisement of an influential
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clement of our citizens for political reasons was obnoxious to them and their friends as the result has proved, and was dis- tasteful to almost all. Incorporated in our constitution by an unwise spirit of retaliation, and by its peculiar phraseology serv- ing mainly to irritate and humiliate, while debarring from suf- frage and office only the most scrupulous and upright of the class it was aimed against and admitting all others, it had all the most odious features of disfranchisement with none of its good effects, if such there be. It is to the lasting credit of the first Republican administration of Louisiana that the amendment to strike out this last vestige of the war in our constitution was passed with the unanimous Republican vote of the General Assembly and indorsed unanimously by the people. It is no longer a part of the constitution. Henceforth in Louisiana all disabilities resulting from the war are removed."
At this time it was the unanimous sentiment in Louisiana that the general government should take upon itself the burden of maintaining the Mississippi levees. It was acknowledged that the state was powerless to prevent the annual inundations of the best soil within its borders. Rivers and harbors everywhere else were receiving assistance and why not here? it was asked. Before the state were the large problems of opening the various water- courses, the building of railroads, the care of the levees, the clos- ing of crevasses, and the improvement of the ocean commerce. Finally, the legislature passed the bill granting the construction of levees for a term of years to a private corporation, but it received the prompt veto of the governor. Since its organiza . tion up to 1871 the Board of Public Works had built 6,058,750 cubic yards of levees at a cost of three million two hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars, and needed at least two million dollars more, with large annual revenues thereafter, to put them in fair condition. Notwithstanding his veto, the governor con- fessed that something different from the past should be done. It was about this time that congress first showed a willingness to assist the state with the levees ; but, owing to the political troubles which almost immediately arose, postponed action indefinitely. The governor had recently organized the militia, and accepted several volunteer companies; he had been asked to form a par- tisan militia, but refused and accepted the adherents of all parties and factions. He addressed the following significant warning to the members of the legislature: "I warn you, gentlemen, against certain schemes of plunder which are already organizing and will continue to be organized and presented to you for your votes. These are propositions which, under the guise of
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public improvements, or of claims against the State, are simply plans to rob the treasury and fill the pockets of unprincipled spec- ulators." He declared that bribery in Louisiana was a common occurrence and should be stopped. At this time the bonded debt of the city of New Orleans was seventeen million three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, and the rate of taxation there two and five-eights per cent. City bonds were worth only about seventy-five cents on the dollar. The new city charter recently promulgated was not yet satisfactory, and should be amended. Heroic measures to relieve the city should be adopted. The debt which had been caused largely by the multiplicity of gov- ernments within governments should be simplified. Corruption and extravagance without a thought of the future had been indulged in ever since the war. He suggested refunding the debt at a low rate of interest. He noticed with gratitude that emi- grants from Germany and from the Northwestern states were coming into Louisiana.
In January, 1872, he sharply criticised the act of the state auditor in publishing to the world that the debt of the state amounted to forty-one million, one hundred and ninety-four thousand four hundred and seventy-four dollars, when in reality the actual debt was but twenty-two million two hundred ninety - five thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars. The auditor per- sisted in adding to the actual debt a contingent debt of eighteen million eight hundred ninety-eight thousand six hundred and eighty-three dolars, and in this connection the governor said, "This ยท is no more a debt, to be employed as such at the expense of our State credit than is the endorsement of a promisory note by an individual who is secured for the liability he assumes by a pledge of five-twenty bonds or real estate in the proportion of four dollars to one. In the first place there is not the slightest probability that any of these roads, except the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas, will be constructed ; and, in the second place, if every one of them should be built, the State would be amply secured from ever having to pay the endorsement, for the reason that the roads chartered, if constructed, would be worth four times the amount guaranteed. This unwise course of the Auditor has tended to depreciate our securities and has given the enemies of reconstruction capital from which to misrepresent our government and to throw dis- credit upon us abroad. In 1861 our debt was ten million one hundred and fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-two dollars. In 1868, when the present administration came into power, it was fourteen million three hundred and forty-seven
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thousand and fifty-one dollars, and it is now twenty-three million forty-five thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars. This increase consists in three million dollars employed for the repair of levees; three million dollars to take up the floating debt which had been increased prior to the inauguration of the present gov- ernment ; two million five hundred thousand dollars subscribed for stock of the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Railroad Com- pany, and seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars subsidy granted to the same company. . The bonded debt on which interest is being paid is nineteen million eight hundred and fifty-eght thousand three hundred dollars, the annual interest on which amounts to one million four hundred and three thousand eight hundred and twenty dollars. Of this debt one million three hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars in State bonds have been purchased and are held by certain trust funds in the treas- ury, which, if cancelled, would reduce our interest paying debt to eighteen million five hundred and one thousand three hundred dollars and the annual interest to one million three hundred and twenty-two thousand four hundred dollars. The condition of our State finances demands your most serious attention. The report of the State Auditor will show a deficit for the past year of nearly two million dollars. This has been caused by the ineffi- ciency of tax collectors and the enormous appropriations made at the last session of the General Assembly in excess of the revenue."
The governor declared that the previous legislature had passed reckless appropriations for the improvement of real and imaginary bayous, for the payment of real and fictitious claims against the state, for private charitable assocations and for the extravagant compensation of public officials, all of which had told heavily against the state's credit. He insisted that the wealth of the state depended on the security of the levee system, and that now for the first time Louisiana had "one comprehensive plan" for their construction. All previous plans had proved inef- fectual; the old riparian plan was obsolete, mainly owing to the change in the labor system. The act of February, 1871, had abolished the Board of Public Works and had created the Board of State Engineers. At the same time the legislature had con- tracted with the Louisiana Levee Company for the period of twenty-one years to take care of the levees of the state and to be paid a fixed sum on the assessed valuation of the state. The company was reputed to have a cash capital of five hundred thousand dollars and at its head were prominent citizens. It seemed that great improvements were about to take place. But
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various delays had occurred, and by January, 1872, the company had done little or nothing.
As showing the extravagance of the previous legislature, the governor stated that the senate had cost one hundred and ninety- one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four dollars and the house seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand one hundred and ninety-two dollars, or an average of over six thousand eight hun- dred dollars for each member of the general assembly. He said : "A careful calculation of the expenses of the General Assembly for mileage and per diem, even at the enormous rate of twenty cents per mile each way, shows that the total expenses ought not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars for the sixty days of the annual session, and the legitimate contingent expenses of both houses ought not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars; then what has become of the excess eight hundred and thirty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-six dollars? It has been squan- dered by the officers of the Assembly in paying extra mileage and per diem of menibers for days' services never rendered; for an enormous crop of useless clerks, pages, etc., for publishing the journals of each house in fifteen obscure newspapers, some of which have never existed, while some of those that did exist never did the work they were employed to do, although every one has received the compensation for it; in paying committees authorized by the House to sit during the vacation and to travel throughout the State and into Texas and in a hundred other dif- ferent ways. The enrollment committee of the House had over eighty clerks, the most of whom were under pay during the whole session at cight dollars per day, during which time ouly one hun- dred and twenty bills were passed, which did not require more than eight or ten clerks to perform the whole labor of enroll- ment." He advised fixed wages for all officials, and recom- mended a modification of the rigid requirements of the registra- tion and election laws. He protested vigorously against the act of the United States authorities in interfering with the factions of the legislature of 1872.
The legislature of 1871 passed laws reapportioning the state for senators and representatives; incorporating the Louisiana Levee Company with a capital not to exceed twenty million dol- lars and with vast powers and privileges; creating a Board of State Engineers ; securing homesteads to actual settlers ; confirm- ing the elaborate contract between the Louisiana Levee Company and the governor; creating a commission to secure a state-house in New Orleans; revising the state revenue laws; providing for the drainage of New Orleans; chartering the Upper Red River
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Raft Company ; establishing an institution for the deaf and dumb at Baton Rouge, and an institution for the blind in the same city ; authorizing New Orleans to issue one million dollars with which to pay its unsettled floating debt, and incorporating several rail- roads and other public institutions.
In 1872 the assembly passed laws objecting to the removal of the existing duty on rice; memorializing congress to refund the amount of the cotton and sugar tax collected by the government in the South during the war ; making Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi- gras, a legal holiday ; urging congress to donate one million dol- lars to each state for the endowment of a college; establishing a hospital for contagious diseases; incorporating an Academy of Arts and Sciences and several railroads, and appointing a joint commission to prepare an address to congress "fully setting forth the political crisis existing in our state and the responsible authors thereof." The lower house of congress had before also appointed "a select committee to inquire into the impending sit- uation of the public affairs of Louisiana, produced by the Carter revolutionists."
The serious turmoil in the state in 1871 and 1872 was occa- sioned by two factions of the people, each of which endeavored to gain control of the legislature. The first difference was between the governor and Lieutenant-Governor Dunn. The question of patronage was blended with the other conflicting interests. The governor was disliked by a large element, which made threats of impeaching him. The struggle to get possession of the speakership led to violence and measures of the most arbi- trary character. Finally troops and the city police were required to prevent open combat. Back of all the dissensions was the steady determination of the better whites to rule the state, or rather not to be dominated by carpet-baggers, negroes or bayo- nets, the result of whose extravagant rule, or rather robbery, is only feebly set forth in the foregoing messages of Governor Warmoth. It was a saturnalia of corruption and peculation, unequalled in history, except maybe, in other reconstructed states, at the same period.
Never before were the people of the state in time of peace. so torn in pieces by factions and dissensions as in 1872. After a summer of angry discord the Democrats, Reformers, Fusionists and Liberals united in naming John McEnery for governor, and the various Republican factions united in naming Willam P. Kellogg. At the succeeding election both elements resorted to any and every method to win and both claimed the success of their candidates. McEnery was probably clected by a fair vote.
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The war was carried to the organization of the legislature. Under the order of a partisan Federal judge, two assemblies claimed to be legally elected, one of them without count or returns, or evidence of right. When open conflict seemed inevitable, the Federal government interfered with military authority, with the final result that Mr. Kellogg was recognized as the lawful governor by President Grant. But the opposition was dissatisfied and after- ward referred to him as a usurper, who had been placed in power by Federal troops. The sinister feature of all this turmoil was the fact that the legislature finally recognized, contained at its organ- ization sixty-eight persons of color not half of whom were elected. Several of the state officers installed were colored. Thus in reality it was still a war against colored and outside dom- ination-a domination that had become both corrupt and unbear- able. Corresponding contests occurred in all portions of the state. It was a war for supremacy, with the race problem menacing the future, and wholly supported and maintained by the use of bayo- nets and Federal power, against the protest of an immense major- ity of the white people, including Governor Warmoth and other Republicans, who joined in an ineffectual appeal to the president and congress.
Several important laws were passed in 1873 by this working legislature, among which were those regulating the conduct and maintaining the freedom and purity of elections; appointing a joint committee to investigate the recent election, particularly the acts of the returning boards; authorizing the governor to disor- ganize any military company that refused to obey his orders ; urging congress to pass a "civil rights bill that would insure all classes of citizens their full rights and enjoyments as American citizens throughout the entire land;" requesting congress to locate a United States district court in Northern Louisiana ; improving the public schools; declaring it a crime to usurp a public office ; appropriating one hundred thousand dollars to arm, equip and maintain the state militia ; protecting the civil rights of all citizens of whatever race or color; asking congress to quiet the titles of settlers on the Houmas grant, and incorporating several railroads, etc. They likewise passed the following preambles and resolui- tion :
"WHEREAS, The paramount question in Louisiana is that of levees for the protection of our alluvial lands from overflow ; and "WHEREAS, The present tax of - mills on the dollar which is now assessed and collected to pay the Louisiana Levee Company
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for the construction and maintenance of said levees is a grievous burden upon the property of the state; and
"WHEREAS, These levees are as much national work as the improvement of the rivers and harbors throughout this country for which money is now being drawn so freely from the national treasury ; therefore,
"Resolved, That our delegation in Congress be respectfully requested to use their utmost efforts towards securing the passage at an early day of an appropriation by the national Government of an amount sufficient to put the levees in the Mississippi valley in a proper state of repair and thereafter to maintain them in that condition."
In 1874 the Coushatta affair, whereby several white Republican officials were killed, attracted the attention of the whole country. At the bottom of this bloody occurrence was the question, who shall rule the state? The white people of Red River parish after- ward issued an address to the public, in which appeared the fol; lowing statement : "To the colored people we have to say that our action in the present instance must fully convince you of the sincerity of our repeated declarations to you that our war was only against such of you as are silly and vicious enough to com- bine with the horde of scallawags and carpet-baggers, who, like vultures, have been preying upon our people for eight long years." It was another blow, and a severe one, against negro or outside rule, and was intended to strike terror to the hearts of the blacks, and prevent their general co-operation with the carpet-baggers in the attempt to dominate public affairs in the state. But it was a violation of existing law. Governor Kellogg promptly offered a reward of five thousand dollars for each person implicated in the Coushatta affair. The Committee of Seventy deplored the sad condition and in a series of resolutions adopted the following : "Resolved, That in our opinion the immediate restoration of the State Government to the hands of its legally elected officers, from which it was arrested by Federal power, is the true remedy and would quickly compose all our difficulties and restore peace and good order."
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