New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-02-10
SATURDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY. 10, 1866

S<AI 9I11h-FSI. TERNIS--DAnY
Y 10, 1866.
fore, proposed substitute for all the amendments
that any debt contracted BY the Board 81 com.
missioners should be paid out Of road and leyee
fund.- or the swamp land fund, or by taxation
upon the alluYial lands benefited BY the works.
He would put this as q test question, and called
for the yeas and nal g.. fss5 .sie sg,ss @ ssS mi.
Mr.. Couvillon thought the bill was not correct.
The people only had the right to tax themselves
for such objects as these, under the Constitution
This legislature might approve what had already
been done. but could do no more. "a N e.taasst
MI. Mcconnell observed that the argument Of
the gentleman from De Soto (Mr. Elan was sub
stantially repetition Of what lie had said at the
extra session. that the taxes for these feVees could
only be imposed by the people themselves, and
after tie State had been divided into internal i'm
proyement districts. But the sense of the House
was then decidedly against him, both on thee
stitutional point and the duty Of the State. The
opinion Of the House Was that this was great
national concern, and assigned million ID bonds
/ to repair the breaches in our levee system. He
1
| this rs the permanent levee system Of the State,
but that this was q temporary measure To redeem
an immense body Of the most valuable lands from
the utter devastation to which they must 60 if the
| State should not give herald The argumenta as to
| unc stitutionalfty was not good. The gentleman
had maintained that this work could not be done
! without the establishment of improvement dis
| tricts. If Improvement districts were created
then this bill would be UNCONSTITUTIONAL not other
wise. Mr.. McC. repeated this was great national
work, and 80 the House had decided at the extra
| session. He thought it was proper, however, to
limit the expenditures Of the board, tre
Mr. Walker suggested these arguments as toex-
penditure were out Of place. The bill made no
appropriation but that Of s2o,O 900 for the expenses
Of the board. The only objectof the bill, in ne
gard to means, was to enable the board to use the
$500 600 returned to the levee fund by bin pre-
viously passed. y .ssjs tS ssssd.g. NJ ssi@
Mr.. Elan maintained the applicability Of his OBJ
jections and his amendment to the bill. Y rs IT'LL
Mr.. Bailey regarded the bill as practically Great
ing debt, and under the Constitution 10 debt
could be created without providing the ways and
means for its liquidation s + as@5sls5f 8s9s
mir. Tucker delivered q speech of considerable
length in favor of the bill The question raised by
the gentleman from De Soto should beime fairly
and squarely, and he was prepared to meet It.
The necessity of leveeing the Mississippi and its
tributaries was felt by all. It embraced,the com
mercial interests of the whole State He regarded
the spirit manifested as one of great Iiberality,
an unbecoming. spirit And he was struck with
the great inconsistency, Of some of the members or
the House. in connection with this matter of State
taxation, for, as it was argued partial benefits It
| would be remembered that in the prosperous
times of the State a common school system was
established, to be supported by general taxation
The alluvia parts Of the State were then the great
| tax payers. There was accumulated the wealth
of the State. But the number of children attend
ing schools in the alluvial districts was conlpara
| lively very small. The consequence was that the
money contributed in the allavial, districts was
almost entirely spent in the hill lands For instance.
his own parish Of ST. Mary paid annually school tax
Iof Sic 900, and received back but from $1,000 to
$4,000. The rest weuts to educate the children OF
the poor in the hills. wAn paid little or no taxes.
These hill gentlemen did not thifik that tax op-
1 pressive. They did not see that it was general
tax for sectional benefits; nor did the people of
the alluvia districts object. They were influenced
by large and enlightened views of public interest
But now, in time of great calamity, when the
leFees were all swept away, and the inhabitants of
the loWlands were at the mercy of the coming flood
| they were told it was unconstitutional and out
| rageously unjust to impose tax to shield these
people from utter ruin. The expense, it was de.
clared, must be borne by the sufferers themselves
| Such beralty must strike all. He had fought
this spirit until he sick and disguised with it,
| Mr.. Kent observed that although the people Of
| the pine hills might not be able to pay much
! taxes they did their duty by raising plenty Of
children. He himself was poor man, but he had
ten children, and he thought that was doing quite
as much for the State as the gentleman from ST..
Mary had done. ~ I'D z, ,,.S sss Si5g4 n lisss
| On motion Of Mr.. Mcconnell, Mr., EIams substi-
tute was laid on the table--yeas SO, nays 20. NV
Mr.. Mcconnell then offered an amendment that
the Board be limited in its expenditure to twelve
hundred thousand dollars U49Ifs 10 s1ssisGf
4 Messrs. Walker and Bailey withdrew their
amendments, and Mr.. McConnell's was adopted. Il
On motion of Mr.. McC loskey, the bill was further
amended, so that members of the board should
not be allowed per diem for more than thirtytsix
days in year. d 5t-ia54 .&ss@5oF saf
Thus amended, the bill passed its second read
ing, by vote Of so to %. ~ - @aE&- VI
And the House adjourned to Monday.