New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-06-10
POLITICAL CORRUPTION.

The well known history of the Slaughter
house Company and its dark transaction
were not enough to open the eyes of GU
vigilant neighbor. Even Ship Island ma
nipulations failed to awaken the vigilanc
which is supposed to properly belong to tn
conductor of a newspaper. 1t required
the sworn testimony of a Democratic
Senator in a case before Judge Dibble, t.
enlighten the Times upon a point wei
enough understood by everybody else O
the least pretension to intelligence. And
this testimony is damaging to both polit
ical parties. The deponent, a shining
light of Democracy, one who hac
commanded the suffrage of the
very best class of our people," as
the Times loftily puts it, was the stake
holder in several of the cases where
money was paid for the passage of pri-
vate bills. He was the disbursing agent
in the transactions wherein "the bounty
or Justice of the State wa r~etailed for
stated prices" Nothing in the history OF
the New Brunswick codfsheries or the
career of the monte dealers of California
furnishes a parallel to the turpitude dis
closed to the innocent mind of the Times
man by the testimony before the Eighth
District Court. Even the very questionable
cotton transactions early in 1862, when A.
J. Butler secured a partner and manager
equal to the requirements of the occasion,
did not affect the Times. to such a painful
extent as the recently found knowledge
that Senators and Representatives in the
Louisiana Legislature sold their votes.
and appointed one of their number, a
Democrat, to receive and divide the plum
der. Nothing that ever occurred before
equaled this. The nearest approach to it
occurred in Georgia, about ninety years
ago, when hounds were employed to run
men out OF that virtuous State for voting
for the Yazoo frauds. Fortunately, at a
later day the rascally abolitionists and
Union men afforded the hounds full en-
ployment, SO that corrupt members, horse
thieves, secessionists and outlaws were
unmolested.
But we fail to see the logical connec-
ton between the domination of radical
ism in the South and the buying up of
Democratic members of the Legislature
by Democratic holders of SIaughterhouse
stock. 'We of the South" whether we
hail from Canada or Connecticut, find no
appreciable difference between a Repub-
lican or a Democratic salesman when we
are transferred to a company of mon
opolists. And if the Times has been so
blind to what has been going on in this
city for the past two or three years,
while its editors and conductors lived
here, how shall we accept its testimony
to the purity of our politics before the
war, when the conductors of that pre-
tentious sheet were roaming on the sandy
hills OF their native provinces ? We who
lived here before the war, and were well
acquainted with political affairs, saw
to condemn and little enough to
praise in the usages of the so-called
earlier and better days of the re-
When the agents of Judah P.
Benjamin offered to make bets of five hun
lred dollars with the members at Baton
Rouge that the little West Indian would
lot be elected United States Senator, and
'ermitted the members to hold the
takes, we knew that Judah's chances
7ere good, and SO they were; for he
the courted prize. When John
lidell euchred Pierre Soule out of the
nlted States senatorship, and was
.eered by the Democracy for his sharp
ess, we took a deeper dislike than ever
} the Democracy, and predicted that they
ould go on from bad to worse as they
ave ever since done in this State. And
hen every member of that party voted
r the Slaughterheuse swindle, we merely
garded that act as the logical Sc
lence of early teachings. All this
ould have been known to the editors OF
.e Times if they had been living here pre-
Gus to 1860; but as they have recently :
me in fresh from the country, and with
lily a thorough knowledge of the private =.
scalities of their little localities, and !,
one at all of public affairs, they are no .
'ubt quite surprised to find there are, ,
en- here, veterans in the art of villainy. .
the course of another year or two they :
IL probably make the discovery that -,
Eruption is not strictly confined to .
rty, but that the Democracy is more !;
one to it than any other. !:
The people already know who are the )
re workers who managed the jobs in the :
It Legislature. They know who paid the :,
'ney disbursed by the Times Senator, :
well as who voted for the iniquitous
assures. And neither the Georgia ex- q
lple, lauded by the Times, of hunting =
to death with bloodhounds, mo- the =
tally barbarous practice of hanging =
I'M to trees without trial, is likely to be y
here, no matter how ardently =
Times may desire it. '
THE LESSEEs OF THE NEW CANAL. II