New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-02
THE PEOPLES COLUMN.

|
| brief Communications Pnblished-Lopg
Ones Invariably Rejected-IHe Editor not
Respousible for the Sentiments Expressed
in the Comm unicatiOns.
The Carrollton Annexation scheme.
CARROLLTON, January 30, 1872.
EDITOR REPUBLICANS:
Permit me through your paper to reply to
an article which appeared in the Sunday
Times, entitled "a voice frem CarrOllton."
voice, perhaps, and we might add ''ror ct pre-
tered nil" is this same sapient Times CORES.
pundent. His reasons for the annexation or
Carrollton to New Orleans, are like man.
"fearfully and wonderfully made"
First and foremost in this array OF potent
reasons like the grenadier corps OF regi.
ment, comes the following: 1.-The cities of
CarrOlltOn and New Orleans are included
within the same protection levees, ana are
drained by the same system and company.
and one OF their most efficient and powerful
drainage machines is erected in CarrOlltOn'
Convincing argument: but why not in
clude the whole State OF Louisiana and all
the territory watered by the Mississippi
within the charmed circle of annexation
and consequent civilization, unless the ar
gument, like the protection levees he al
ludes to, won't hold water. lie omlts' now
ever to state that the drainage machine
! he SO much admiles has been paid for and
| belongs to jefferson parish, which has al
! ready paid its eight installments of the
| fund 1t is little strange that the huge
monopoly which charges a dollar for every
| shovel full of dirt it takes up and another
| for LAYING it down, should have escaped the
| eagle eye OF the writer, and the palpable
| fact that the citizens of CarrOlltOn and
parish of Jefferson are abundantly compe-
| tent to attend to the drainage Of their own
district
The second and third reasons are equally
| powerful and convincing with the first:
| I'VE have the same Metropolitan Police and
our gas is Orleans gas Why not go back
| to the coal beds OF Pennsylvania and &C
! knowledge our Indebtedness to the carbon
ferrous era, which has furnished us at this
remote period with such brilliant and I'M
| wavering light, and the writer with so clear
| and convincing an argument, and raise our
| voices in loud hOsannahs for the boon OF
gas without light and police without pro-
| lection.
But the benefits to be derived from an
| nexatiOn he never ventures to enumerate.
The inevitable depreciation of property he
| adrOitly passes blythe fact that property
| in the Sixth District has been reduced in
stead of enhanced in value since its annexa-
ton. In the next reason he informs us: Son
our river front the levee demands the con
slant attention Of the authorities of New
| Orleans" notwithstanding the fact that the
| CITY of New Orleans has not spent dollar
on the CarrolltOn levees. whatever may
! have been done in the interest of NOyes &
CO. in digging that canal, made for Orna
| ment, not use. which stands, under all cir
cumstances, sluggish exponent Of the
capacity Of its projectors. who charge a
dollar for lifting every shovel full of dirt
and another for laying it down.
1t may also be observed that the levees
| 40 = o livpifo nf CarrOllfOn have bpan
built by the Levee Company, and not by
the city of New Orleans, and that, by the
conditions of the amended charter, the con-
troll of the levees will be in the hands of
the city of Carrollton. He next attempts
to lay the burden of depreciating the war
iants on the shoulders Of the present COun-
Gil. when it is we'll known fact that the
chronic state of depreciation into which
said warrants had fallen, under the old
Democratic Council, was never, for mo-
ynent. relieved, till the Republican Council
took charge Of the city affairs.
Tue whole debt of the city of Carrollton
is about $4,000. while its assets are over
800, 900; and its municipal affairs are in a
more prosperous condition than any other
to augment, nor any likelihood that taxa
ton will be increased beyond the present.
rate. that is. State and municipal. together
about three per cent. while that of New
Orleans amounts to from tive to five and a
half per cent. is it at all strange that we
find nine tenths of the citizens directly OPP
posed to an annexation which imposes on
their unwilling shoulders, their portion of /,
debt of So. 00O. 600 in which they had no
part nor ever helped to create. Why should
they not be opposed to an annexation
which forces them to abandon buildings
which cost them $S0,0O0. together with
other improvements, Tor the purpose OF
becoming remote suburb of Il territory
comprising forty-eight square miles, one
third of which is still desOlate and unoc-
cupied. Should they stand idly by and
and permit by passive inactivity such a
disposition to be made of themselves, and
their property by a few City park and
State House spectators while nine tenths OF
the people proper are utterly opposed to an
nexatiOn in any and every form! The citi
zens of the parish of Jefferson would also by
this contemplated annexation be deprived OF
the seat of justice, and their courthouse
which cost them $4,000, would have to be
abandoned, and they compelled in their
impoverished and crippled condition, to
bear the expense of erecting a new one.
Lastly, looking at the contemplated an
nexation from legal point of view, article
eighty three of the constitution of 1865
provides that .the General Assembly shall
divide the State into judicial districts
which shall remain unchanged for foul
years. and in conformity with this article
the General Assembly has divided the
State into judicial districts by the adoption
of Rays Revised Statutes Of 1870, and
therefore, can not be changed during the
judicial term aforesaid, without violating
the constitution itself.
ECHO FROM CARROLLTON.
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