New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-08-07

The Meeting Last Night
THE WRONG VIEWS ENTERTAINED
THE WRONG RESOLUTION ADOPTED

About TWO hundred and fifty Citizens
| principally from the lower part Of the city
assembled at the Merchants Exchange
Royal street, last evening. 1t had beef
announced that the object OF the meetin:
was to protest against a proposition t
remove the Red river and Ouachita rive
steamboats, from their present location to
| point in the neighborhood Of ITALIA street
and the conversation Of the groups as
I sembled was to that purpose.
| The rotunda of the Exchange had beer
| prepared for the occasion. A number o
lamps cleaned from the walls. a table, witt
water pitcher and glasses, chairs for thu
president and any possible number of vice
| presidents. were all there. In the rear was
| a small table set out for reporters, on which
was lying a copy Of resolutions to be of
| fered at the meeting, written fOrcibly and
| clerkly. The meeting was called for sever
| o'clock.
Halfpast eight o'clock arrived and no one
appeared to open the meeting. nor did there
seem to be any one present authorized to
take the lead. Men began to look wonder
ingly at one another. At length gentle,
man, who certainly was not one of the orig
inators OF the meeting. assembled the stand
and calling the assembly to order. proposed
that George d. Hite. Esq. should be ap
pointed president. The yeas were unani
nous. and Mr.. Hite took the chair This
proposer was w. j. Golding, Esq. of the
Novelty Iron Works. There were no vice
presidents or secretary appointed.
Mr.. H;te, on taking the chair made a
pithy address, which. as it proceeded, was
listened to with silent, open-eyed, open
mOuthed wOnderment. for it seemed as if he
was talking the other way. He said, i'll
effect. that those who proposed to move the
Red River cotton landing want more room
to handle their cotton. and want to remove
in order to get room; would be willing to
stay if there was room enough; would &C
up or down, did not care where, SO that
there was plenty OF room to work.
Mr.. Hite further said that if the parties
concerned could have landing at Il rOOmy
part of the levee. they would be willing t.
go back to the old landing to take in
freight.
Mr.. Golding explained that coming to see
and hear at the meeting. and finding a full
hour and "a half after the time specified that
there appeared no one present to engineer
the affair. he had moved the appointment
of Mr. Hite as president. Here there were
slight expressions OF dissatisfaction. mingled
with loud calls for NJ. Finley, Administra-
tor Of Commerce, who. with Mayor Elan
ders. was present. Mr.. Emlcy assembled
the rOstrum amidst a storm of applause. He
proceeded to show the difficulties of the city
administration III arranging so as to meet
conflicting interest In relation to the re-
mOval of the landing question. nothing had
been done. except 20 listen all around TO
know all the diverse views of those in any
way interested. He showed the situation
and relations of various landings. particu-
larly above Canal street. He stated that
from Canal street landing up to Morgan S
landing, a distance of two thousand and
FIVE feet, was wanted for Western produce,
that the Morgan landing was six hundred
and thirty-three feet OF continuous wharf:
next came the Chattanooga landing, space
OF three hundred and eighty-four feet. Adj
Joining this last was the space now occupied
by the Alliance steamers. measuring two hun
bred and tOrty-fve feet. and next to that
was the landing TO Which it was proposed
to move the Red river steamers. length
of five hundred and twenty-five feet. The
levee down town was. unfortunately, very
narrow.
The speaker was frequently interrupted
by questions and fragmentary remarks of
persons in the audience.
j. A. Walsh, Esq. next proceeded to adj
dress the meeting. BY this time the dlsssat-
isfaction among the audience grew louder.
and Mr.. Walsh was frequently interrupted.
He took the ground direct that commerce
human regulation; that it was the nature OF
commerce to seek its source and no law
could prevent it. The commerce of New
Orleans came from up the river. and so con-
stantly tended mp the river. A voice in the
crowd, THE river runs down. The
speaker was proceeding to remark upon the
dead and alive want of enterprise in the
lower part of New Orleans. ascribing it
principally to absenteeism. At this point
the clamor in the assembly became fast and
furious. for it began to dawn on them
they came to hear. and that some how or
other the wrong set had got possession of
the meeting, and were engineering it with
lightning speed the contrary direction.
Without motion or vote the crowd, or at
least one end Of it, seemed to resolve itself
into committee of speakers, who spoke
pretty much all at once. As the general
committee thus self-elected comprised sew
eral nationalities, each with peculiar
enunciation, intensified by earnestness, the
meeting soon grew very suggestive OF the
Tower of Babel The burden and gist
seemed to be that they did not like it. but
could not exactly tell how TO help it.
One or two became insulting and men,
acing toward the speaker. but were at once
put down by the others. who though excited
by feeling that they were not fairly dealt
with. expressed what they had TO say, if not
in classical English, at least in the spirit of
gentlemen. After an immensely of noise.
and the failure of several very opposite res
olutions, the president proposed the follow
ing resolution, which was carried. He
said it slow
Resoired, That the City Administrators
be requested, at their discretion, to desig-
nate proper locality for the landing place
OF the Red River cotton boats, from ITALIA
street downward.
The Goac,1cafdr seemed to have q pc
culiar charm, and the yeas were unanimous.
But after a moments reflection, it again
dawned on them that this meeting somehow
was not this meeting; that they must acciden
tally be at some other meeting of opposition
proclivities. Like the old woman who, when
asleep, had her petticoats cut short by the
tricky peddler, they were not certain that
they were they. but that perhaps they were
some other crowd.
At length some one moved to adjourn.
But this was stoutly combated, on the
ground thatthey had all the time been doing
something else, and SO must not adjourn
till they had done something else. How
ever, as the crowd was thinning, an adj
joUrnmcnt was carried
On the whole. the meeting was splendid
sample of the best method of how not to
do it. AS to the resolutions which were
prepared to offer to the meeting, their name
was never heard. 1t is a pity that the
one giving the thanks of the citizens to
the Times, Bee, Bulletin, rEpoque and Re-
PUBLICAN, were not passed.