New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-05-30
ECommpn i ca ted
Colonel Campbell on Wheelbarrows and
Popular Rights,

1t is not for plain citizen, like myself, to
engage in controversy about railroads, with
one who seems to overflow with railroad ideas,
figures, plans, estimates, and financial schemes
like our eloquent fellow citizen, the Assistant
Alderman from the Melpomenian District. But,
| Mr.. Editor, have ideas in regard to the ordi-
nance now before the Board of Aldermen, which
as they do not relate to technical matters, may
not be regarded as over-presumptuous, for pre-
senting, in my humble way. The first is, that
being a voter and citizen, and having long
| thought with COL Campbell and Col Smith, that
| o railroad across the Rigolettes, running along
the coast, through the severalde delightful summer
resorts that stud that shore, and connecting our
| city with Mobile, and thereby with the railroad
lines that stretch along the Atlantic, desire to
vote on the question of the corporation sub
scribing to such a work-as the Legislature has
graciously provided | shall do. There are d
great many of my neighbors who desire to do
likewise,
Though we live in the neigh berhood of the
Melpomenian Depot Of the Great Northern Road
we are not SO narrow minded as not to desire to
see other parts of our city favored with rail-
roads We know that as we increase the value
Of their property, we diminish our own taxation
We voted for the other two, and we desire to
vote for the third Great, then, was my sur
prise to read a speech Of Colonel Campbell,
to this, that the people should not and ought not
to be permitted to vote on this proposition to
subscribe to the extension Of the Pontehartrain
Road; that the people ought not to be trusted in
such matters; that the superior intelligence of
the twenty or thirty citizens, who are selected
for us at party caucUses as Representatives in
the City Council, and by the nature of their
election, are endued with a higher degree of in
telligenoe than we possess, ought to be per-
ftaa i
madness. 1t is true that the people may select
their Representatives, and thereby may dispose
of the whole revenues of the corporations but
they cannot vote on a proposition to vote
sl 500, 600 for railroad which they desire
Perhaps the gentlemen of the Council who
take this view may, in excess of modesty, think
that the manner in which the people have dis
charged the first duty, is proof of their inabil-
ity to perform the second. If those gentlemen
were TO vote against giving the people the right
to vote on this bill, should certainly think the
argument a good one.
But Col Campbell, according to the report Of
the Delta, says that he is not wheelbarrow
(perhaps the Colonel thinks he is ichofe team
to wheel propositions and bills before the pee-
pie. - Now, sir, l cannot perceive what dis
grace there is in Colonel c., or any representa-
i've of the people, wheeling propositions before
his misunderstanding them on a question
OF taxation--taking their will. desire and con-
yiction, and regulating his conduct thereby
certainly it is not considered disgraceful before
an election to consult the people. I am sure I
have often heard the Colonel's voice enuneiating
the doctrine, ror popati cor dei, watch am
told means, that the voice Of the people Ia the