The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-18
LEVEE CONVENTION ARRAIGNED.


| SCATIiING REBUkE FROM PLANTER.
To the Editors of the Bulletin:
1t is with profound establishment and &
deep sense of disappointment that the
people of the overlooked district have read
the proceedings of the Levee Convention
lately held in your city, for the purpose, as
was supposed, Of devising some remedy in
the future for the disasters of this year, and
lastly, though not least, to express the
righteous Indignation of suffering thou
sands at that gigantic swindle known a.
the Levee Company.
But what was the RESULT
The delegates duly assembled at the ap-
pointed time, many Of them protessedly the
opponents Of sentiments, of which the re-
solutions passed by meetings in Lafourche
and Terrebonne are fair sample.
After sundry speeches, denunciatOry of a
levee company in the abstract, but in ex-
IRENE laudation of the gentlemen who by a
special Providence, have been called to the
direction of the one under consideration,
they passed whitewashing resolution to
the following effect:
Be it reso1red That we deem it expedient
and our present duty to cooperate with the
Levee Board for the purpose of obtaining
the reconstruction of the levees of the State
before the next annual period of high water
provided the Levee Company will give the
various overlooked sections of the State d
, fair representation on the board.
Wherein would ask of the gentlemen
who composed that convention, is the stu
alton changed from what il was few days
before, when they put on their war paint
and danced their war dance, preparatory, as
their constituents fondly believed, to the
scalping of the Levee Company and all con-
nected with it9 Has that corporation done
anything in the interim to inspire conf
dence, or has it given security
Nay, further, has it bound itself by any
specific promise to do a specific work :!
On the contrary, it's mouth-piece, Mr.
Kenner, aumsed you with gilt ering gem
eralities and vague determinations to
do all that was possible. Professions
which the bitter experiences of the past
season should have taught the value of.
But see you have saving clause, a pro-
visO that you should have representation on
the board.
Poor, honest, deluded country gentlemen,
do you suppose that even if yon could rec
oncile it to your cOnsciencies to sit there,
the three or four individuals who would be
given places in the directory would have
any voice in the control of affairs!
According to the pu blished statement of
their president, the Levee Company have
advanced for work done in construction and
| repair, a sum amounting to nearly $500. 900
while under the most favorable circum-
stances, the tax to be collected this year for
levee purposes, will not exceed 100000. Adj
hitting their exhibit to be correct, they are
creditors of the State to an amount greater
than the whole levee fund, and is it not
among the human possibilities that even
such patriotic and self-sacrlfcing gentlemen
as compose that company, might see fit to
reimburse themselves when they once have
the moneys in hand. and let the levees take
care of themselves
No, gentlemen you have been wanting in
great dnty; the people expected that even if
you shrank from assuming the responsibility
of recommending the destruction of this
hideous monstrOsity, at the risk Of leaving
nothing in its place; that you would at least
put ii upon record that You suffered under
protest. and were not the willing instru-
ments of yo UT own ruin.
TIC! had light to expect at your hands
the arraignm mt of the culprits at the bar
of public opinion, and an expression of the
universal execration in which they are held.
You have yet a cnarco to redeem your errors