New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-06-13

six years, and was reelected In 1853.
Both these gentlemen resigned early in
1861. Mr.. Benjamin was never defeated
for the position. A contest took place
some time during Folks administration
in which Pierre Soule was successful, but
as we are not aware of any irregularity
in that transaction we made no allusion
to it. Probably at that early day the Sill
dellian tactics had not been fully intro
duced.
Again, the Times says:
As to the cock and bull story about bets
on the election of Mr.. Benjamin, the stakes
being held by legislators, we have only to
state the well known fact that in the cleo
ton held at Baton Rouge for Senator, in
1861, to which we presume reference is
made, Mr.. Benjamin was beaten by T. j.
Semmes.
AS we were abiding to the election of
Mr.. Benjamin to the United States Senate
in 1859, of course we made no reference
to the contest between Messrs. Benjamin
and Semmes for the Confederate Senate in
1861. On the twenty-fourth of January,
1859, the Legislature then in session at
Baton Rouge met in joint convention
and elected ]. P. Benjamin on the first
ballot. He received ffty-seven votes,
Gray fifty, and Randell Hunt FIVE The
Democracy had been squabbling and
quarreling over the question for three or
four days previously, during which time
there was fun for the young politicians
who were not strictly under 'fnstruc-
tons.
OF course Mr.. Benjamin was not can
didate for reelection in 1861. On the
contrary, he, with the other Southern
Senator's resigned early in that year, and
his political history, so far as we know or
care anything about him, closed.
Another blunder, quite as absurd as the
above, occurred in the Times on Monday,
in the course of an article on American
Citizenship" which, by the way. con-
tains sound doctrine. But the writer, in
alluding to the Martin Kosta affair,
says:
The heroic Ingrabam carried his point,
and Daniel Webster demonstrated in the
immortal Hulsemann letter that no foreign
power could interfere with or exercise any
control over a person who had taken the
initiatory steps and complied with the re-
quirements of our naturalization laws to be-
come citizen OF the United States.
Daniel Webster wrote the Hulsemann
letter in response to complaint of the
Austrian minister that Kossuth received
too much attention and hospitality in the
United States. On one occasion, early in
1852, public dinner was rendered him
in Washington, at which Mr.. Webster,
then Secretary of State, was present, and
made a short speech mplimentary to
the distinguished exile. For this ofense
Mr.. Webster was taken to task by Hulse-
mann, and this brought out the historic
letter.
1t was William L. Marcy, Secretary of
State under Pierce, who wrote the Kosta
letter, nearly year after Mr.. Webster's
death.
No student of American history should
be ignorantof these great events, nor con-
fuse the one with the other. Least of all
should the conductor of newspaper with
a fair circulation fall into the grievous er-
ror of misleading the public mind. The
older citizens of Louisiana are not likely
to be deceived; but those who, like the
Times man, are new importations, depend
upon the local press for information, and
are seriously interested in having such as
is accurate.