Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1849-10-31

Now, felloW-citiZens, | appeal to you to sa'
who is the slanderer in this instance. Had
have exerted myself to the greatest extent t.
which malice and falsehood could lead, could
have misrepresentcd Mr.. II. or slandered hi:
swamp bill more than he himself has done
But these incongruous and irreconcilable state
ments made by MIR. Harmans0n in his severa
s~peeches heretofore noticed, are in good keep
ing with the following extract of his speech re
ported in the Southern Mirror; the last clause
of which is as follows "a have no more to say
But for this vile and scandalous outrage upon
my personal character, this charge of my being
leaguel with spectators to ruin m country
by which he hopes in his mad and blind fury to
ruin me and my children, for this | say, never
will | speak to that man so long asI live, unless
compelled to do so by my public duty. | nil
have nothing more to do with him. | have
done with him forever" And thus he patheti-
cally appeals to the people of his District to
save him and his children from disgrace, by
sending him to Congress. Fellow citizens,
Mr.. Harmanson, in his speech at Baton Rouge,
boosted over me of his children, for you must
know | have none; and when he did so,
thought it was the proud emanation of a ia
Tiers feeling, and not the %triumphs of that
much political advantage. 1have none to CON-
IleIlu 10 your ~ i1jptitjICS. Uul Ii L lllul, NOu lOT-
bid that ! should ever offer them as an expia-
ton or p~alliation for my political sins. He APP
| peals to you, to save him from my ISLANDERS and
endorse his political rectitude, in the very breath
in which he confirms my charges, and boldly
asserts that he has entered one thousand acres of
the lands covered by his bill, and that too since
it's passage, and before the state can receive
| one dollar of the price thereof. And where
oer.Io,,opn, bn mid for the Iar,I rb2 noos
it go to the "peopte who are sorely tared for The
building Of lerees achjch haze served to recla'm
400 900, acres!1" Oh no. "the injustice, Of the
General Governments p~ochetiag the funds arising
from the SAFE Of these lands" is forgotten, and it
is permitted to 'pecket the funds arising from
the sale'' of his thousand acres. 1t wouldn't
do to wait until the state had acquired a per-
feet right to these lands, and then entering them,
give the state the benefit of the "funds arising
from their sale:" but the land must be entered
first; his title must be secured, and then bring
on his swamp bill machinery and tax the people
to drain and redeem and render it sin a Geu
tears the most rOlHable land in the Slate" If
this is not a right handsome speculation, then
| know not what is. Here Mr.. Harnanson
gets one thousand acres o fland, at swamp land
prices; and in a short time sufficient money is
raised by taxing the people, to redeem it from
the swamp, when 10. Mr.. HIS. thousand acres
of land is, as he says himself. "gf the most valua-
Die lands in the State" Who of you, fellow
citizens, would not think yourselves making a
fine speculation if you could purchase one thou
sand acres of the best land in Louisiana at
swamp land prices! Mr.. HIS. purchase is just
about such a bargain; true, his thousand acres
are not at present the best lands in Louisiana,
but if You will consent and submit to a tax suf-
ficient to raise five millions of dollars, they will,
he says, be SO sin few years" Fellow ~citisens,
notwithstanding Mr.. HIS. pathetic representa-
lions of bis hard struggle in Congress in passing
this bill; notwithstanding he tells you that he
labored three years and frequently, during that
time, day and night, still, the very day on which
the bill passed by a vote of 100 to 81, as may be
found at page 592 of the Globe of lS49, "Mr.
Harmanson moved a reconsideration of that
vote, and moved that that motion be laid on the
table, And thus prevented the signing of the
Bill by the President urltl the last day, but
one, of the session. Why did he do this! Why |
did he keep back the bill until he was ready to
come home HIMSELF! Was II that he might be
the heralder of his own achievements? Or was
it that he might have the first and choicest grab
at these lands! I will leave you to decide this
question, after informing you that Mr.. Hartman
son pocketed his bill when it was signed, and |
wheeling homeward at Gilpin's speed, entered
one thousand acres of the land covered by it,
as he admitted in Port Hudson; which admis-
sion is evidenced by the following certificate.
PoRr HupsoN, August I'd, 1S49.
We the undersigned certify that at the date
written we were present at a political
meeting held at Port Hud son, at which discus
sion took place between the Hon. John II. Har-
manson and Col. R. A. Stewart; the latter in
his speech called upon Mr.. Harmanson to state
whether or not he had entered one thousand
acres Of swamp land, within the meaning of
is generally termed Mr.. Harnlanson's
swamp bill, and also whether or not he had en-
tered such land since the passage Of said bill;
10 all of which Mr.. Harmanson answered in the
{Siqnad.) L. D. BREWER,
J. HUNTER COLLINS,
He STANARp,
r.. N. DouNALLEY,
r. T. YOUNG,
Such, fellow citizens, are the facts, we'll
Known to Mr.. Harmanson when charging me so
with slandering him. Such are the
acts, which he would obliterate from your
minds by his constant and crying appeals to
rour sympathies; and such, too, are the facts
hat sustain me while exposing the unholy
manner in which Mr.. H. has acquitted himself
# the honorable duties that devolved upon
as your representative in Congress.
Mi. Harmanson charges me with grossly mis-
epresenting him ON the Irish relief Bill. there
Omit freely and frankly, my inability to make
speech, without contradicting sorIething, that
fr. III. has said in some one or other Of his
aried and contradictory speeches. But in this
5 in all the rest of his vituperative charges, be
urns out to b his own misrepresenter. / will
ere call on gentlemen present to state what
III. Fl. said in G~reenburg, that he had contribu-
ed to the relief Of the Irisha On reply to this
question, two gentlemen, Messrs Y~oungblood