New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-10-08
Governor of Louis lana,

10 sell the Sl, 5ob,OUO IN Oonus.
The Senate adjourned.
G. Il. MERRITT,
Secretary Of the Senate.
In the Senate on Saturday, October 5, Mr
Braughn, having moved to take up the bill
for the relief Pierre Soule, said:
Mr.. President, In explanation of this mat.
ter will state that Mr.. Soule, when he
first presented his bill, asked fee of $1,000
in case where the attorney on the other
side, Mr.. Roselius, received fee of $4,000.
By the Senate it was amended to S. 600, and
now, because Mr.. Soule happened to sym
pathize with the Confederate cause in the late
war, the House has reduced the fee to $4,000.
When the five thousand dollars appropriated
by the bill as it passed the Senate are
thrown upon the market, they will only be
worth about twenty-five hundred dollars in
curreDcy-only one fourth of the amount
received by Mr.. Roselius, the counsel on
the opposite side. | move that the Sen.
ate adhere to the original bill.
The motion was adopted.
Senate bill No. 1856, relative to the State
Penitentiary being under consideration,
Mr.. Ray: Mr.. President l presume this
bill is understood by all the Senators. |
move that it be considered engrossed.
Mr.. Pinchback; l object.
Mr.. Ray: The session is drawing to a
close and this is matter of very considera-
Bile Importance. As matters are now situated
neither the State nor anybody else can go
on with it. The lessees of the Penitentiary
can do nothing until this bill is passed. If
there is any good reason why it should be
postponed
Mr.. Pinchback: Mr.. President, I have
some friends here from Baton Rou-e that l
want to speak with in regard to this matter,
and for that reason / would like to have it
put off until next Monday or Tuesday.
Mr.. Day: A full aud detailed statement
of the affairs of the Pcnitentiary has been
printed and before the Senate for some
time. 1t is impossible that any priva te
individual should have more thorough
understanding of the details of
that institution than the Board Of Control
who have made this report. A few days dc.
lay might put this thing into a very critical
position. The State is not in condition
to work it, and the lessees can lot DO any
thing with it in its present state.
Mr.. Wilcox: Mr.. President, I hope this
bill will be taken up section by section and
acted upon.
Mr.. Wittgenstein: I move to lay the mo
ton to make the bill the special order for
Monday on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was
adopted.
Mr.. Blackman: move the bill be now en-
crossed.
Mr.. Pinchback call for the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays being ordered the bill
was ordered engrossed.
Mr. Wilcox: | ask a suspension Of the
rules to put the bill on its final reading.
Mr. Plnchback: object.
Mr.. Day: desire 10 say that, as chair
man of the Penitentiary Committee, it
was my duty to investigate all the
affairs of the Penitentiary, the laws
passed and contracts entered into by the
State, and regard the present lease as the
most favorable and the best that has ever
been made on the part Of the State, When
the Penitentiary was leased to McHaddon.
Ward Il Co., they had great deal OF
machinery and some of the first mechanics
in the State, and the contract with them
was that the State should have one-tourth
Of the net profits. The present lessees enter
into contract with the State with no
machinery on hand, and obliGate themselves
to pay the State one.half OF the net pro-
ceeds and guarantee the State against all
losses. There has never been such favor
able contract since the Penitentiary existed.
During about sixteen or eighteen months
that the State had the Penitentiary OIL its
hands, / have the figures to show that it
cost $500 900. The sooner we put it in the
hands of men that will make it profitable
both for themselves and the State, the
better.
The rules were not suspended-l4 yeas, 7
nays.
The bill was made The special order for
Monday, october 6.
Senate bill 249, IAN act to provide the
means of protecting and reclaining the
swamp and alluvial lands of Louisiana from
inundation by the issue of bonds of the
State to the amount of $4,000, 900, and fol
the redemption of the same, having been
read.
Mr. Lynch: move to take up the bill
section by section.
Adopted.
The first section having been read,
Mr.. Blackman: In addition to the bonds
we have already issued, this bill proposes
the issue of five millions more If you pass
| this bill, although gentlemen tell us it will
not go into effect unless the General Gov.
ernment indorses the bonds; but whether Sc
or not the State must nevertheless pay this
enormous sum in addition to the fifteen mil
lions of debt already upon it. 1t is creating
debt to that amount, the interest and
principal of which must be paid. Now.
sir, l do not believe that the peo.
pie of the State, under present cireum-
stances, car meet these Obligations. And
one effect of it will be that the levee bonds
already issued will scarcely be worth the
paper upon which they are written. If you
wish the State to retain its credit, If you
wish our obligations to be worth cent,
stop at once the issuing of such an immense
number OF bonds, What is the reason that
the warrants for per diem and mileage OF
members are worth nothing? Simply be-
cause of the enormous debt of the State.
Simply because the State cannot provide BY
taxation to meet this debt. This levce
question touches more than one interest.
IL touches not only the landholders upon
the banks of the Mississippi, but the people
OF the hill parishes. l hold now as | held
two years ago, that these levees never can
be built by State aid alone, and as opposed
appropriations for it then, oppose ii now,
and the history of the last two wears has
borne me out in the position then took.
know that it is to the interest of the
State to build these levees: that there is an
immense amount of the richest country in
the world TO be protected by these leYees.
It is tue richest portion of the State. Yet
at the same time II does not comprise one.
sixth nor one-eighth of the State. The
people of North Louisiana, whose lands are
entirely above overflow, have already been
taxed to build these levees, when they do
not receive an iota of benefit therefrom.
There Is another provision If this bill
that object to. 1t taxes the people of the
whole ssateEmakes no provision that the