The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-04-02
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! Nc 33.

4 Car ISLAND CLAIMs-In the future history
of this great State of unprncipled peculators,
the above must certainly pass into settled by
, word for every bald faced and transparent
Eswinde, to be hereafter perpetrated on the peo-
t pie. "Cas Island claimsP' Let each citizen
examine into this matter for himself and if he
!; finds what we are about to say in reference to-
i Cat Island untrue, then let him pronounce us a
liar Internationally and damn US inevery truth
full consideration hereafter.
\ Cat Island is strip of alluyial land located
above Bayou Sara, in the parish of West Fell
ciana, and bordering on the Mississippi. It is
i called an island, from the fact that the high
4 lands skirt II on the east, and at their base II
stream Of water, coming from the hills and the
river, surrounds il at times, and. save the I'M
. mediate bank of the river, it has heretofore
i been frequently under water at high stages Of
4 the river. The whole area of Cat Island is set
down at az, 1O3 acres, of which about Is, 4O4
i accrued To the State under the donation from
congress. This last was taken up by specula
tors as soon as the design of "reeamIng' il
became known. Suppose the whole 15,4o4
acres taken at s 25 per acre, it would amount
4 to SI9, ,455 A board of swamp land commits
sioners were appointed in violation Of the cor
sttution which declares emphatically that they
shall be elected, and Mr.. d. G. jenkins, then
one of the editors of the Democratic Advocate
4 before having acquired residence in the
district-was appointed one of the commission
ers for the first district, in which the aforesaid
Cat Island is located.
4 Mr. jenkins went to work, and contracted
for $78, ,939 AZ of work to be done TO reclaim
this SIS ,455 worth of worthless land and con-
|templateda further appropriation Of public mo-
ney for the same Cat Island to make up the bill
Of costs to $4,000. This was done with the
fact staring the commissioners in the face, that
his district was only entitled by appropriation
to $65,625, and the illegal act of 1854 under
which the board was unconsttutionally organ
4 lied, expressly says that no contract shall be
entered into beyond the amount appropriated,
In the face Of these facts with the contractors
4 pleading ignorance Of the law, a bill has been
/ galvanized into life and legality BY the "great
|inquisitorial tribunal of the State" represented
i by the "great democratic party" appropriating
1000 more to go into the hands of specula-
tors, sallthe balance of the swamp land fund
has gone. This too, after the matter was fully
and freely discussed on Tuesday, and settled
i by some few democrats throwing off the usual
shackles Of party and voting conscientiously.
i What shall the people Of Louisiana say to
4 this? What monstrous mountain Of sin has
the,democratic central committee to answer for
through representatives inthe present leg-
islature!! IB. R. Comet
The London Times of the 18th ult has Sc.
cond leader on the presidents message, in
4 which it lectures American statesmen and the
national congress on their duty to inaugurate
a policy for the eventual emancipation Of the
slaves Il is the most difficult thing ii the
/ world to make foreigners understand that the
federal government ofthe United States is one
Of the delegated powers for common purposes,
and that among these delegated powers not
2 even an abolitlonist pretends that there is any
4 power to deal with emancipation. The Times,
\ however, makes the following significant con-
cesslonto slavery:
4 eve, in the old world, make but little way in
the cure Of social evils, so it would i'll become
us to prescribe for slavery. The manner Of
our own abolition was no model for any State,
least of all for one that had its slavery in its
own BOSOM"
So it is admitted that the policy Of British
emancipation, which cost England SO many
millions, is no model for any country.
An important admission, and one which the
seryile northern journals who delight applaud
to the echo every abolition sentiment uttered
by the British press, can digest at their leisure.
/ In his lecture on Nicaragua, at the Lyceun1
| hall, on Monday night, says the New Orleans
Picay1lne, doctor Mclean gave an amusing &C.
count of an interview he once had with the
young Mosquito king, who was dressed in the
full costume Of his country, to-wit: a straw hat
and a cigar. The young sovereign said his
father, the old king Bob, was very drunk when
he sold his lands to capt. Sheppard. Of Grey
town, and that therefore the grant of sale was
not valid, This is the grant which col. Kinney
has purchased, and under which he claims a
vast region of territory. 1t is about as the
English claim to Greytown and the Mosquito
coast, and neither party appears 10 have con-
suited the government Of Nicaraguay, the only
real and undoubted owner.
This old king Bob, by the way, was curi-
oslty. lie was excessively fond of rum and to-
bacco, IN which he was supplied BY the English
from Jamaica. About the time. the latter first
began to turn their serious attention to the ac-
QUESTION Of territory in Central America king
George the Third sent his sable brother rieh+
ly ornamented generals coat and cooked hat.
King Bob was excessively delighted with his
present, ,7and took every occasionto exhibit him-
self in his new dress. Theeaptain Of the Eng
lish war vessel which conveyed the present.
wishing to DO honor to the recipient Of his SOW
ereign's bounty, gave grand entertainments
on board, and invited king Bob and his cours
to be present. The latter came, and as they
approached the vessel the captain was gratif
ed to perceive that king Bob was dressed in the
coat and hat he had just received. But what
was the astonishment and CONSERVATION of all
to perceive, when he boarded the vessel, that
he had nothing else on. The 1udicrous ap-
pearance which the old Indian must have pre-
sented, dressed in a richly laced red coat, with
the tails hanging down behind, and full plum
ed cooked hat, and no other article whatever,
can be better imagined than described His
court, Of course, wore only the usual straw hat.
The editor of the Norfolk Herald approves Of
gov. Misses suggestion to raise fund from the