The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1874-10-03
4onaIosonoille Gbief.
Three Dollars ii Year
Address of Governor Kellogg.
STATE nrIa111s1ANA


So sss st5~ - STATE OF LOUISIANA,
Executive Department, )
New Orleans, September 3Oth, 1874.
To the People of the United States:
Events that have recently trans
PRED in this State have turned the
attention Of the whole nation npo1
: Louisiana affairs, and have caused &
resuscitation of the false statement.
and perversions Of facts which 70,
two years have been circulated fal
and wide, and which appear to have
been accepted as true by a consider
able portion Of the press and the peo-
: pie. | have waited until public feel.
ing, excited by the startling occur
rences that have taken place here
should have had time to calm down,
: so that q temperate statement Of act
ual facts might he dispassionatAly re-
ceived. %
: Close observers of Southern poll
tics have long been aware Of deter
: mination to overthrow Republican
i rule in Louisiana-strongly Republi-
can us this State is known to be-and
from the vantage point thus gained
to carry the movement into Missis-
: sippi and other Southern States in
1. which the fourteenth aud fifteenth
amendments to the constitution of
the United Stares are still respected
and to some extent enforced. In
1866 organized violence was resorted
to for this purpose, and was only de-
feated by the prompt action of Con-
gress. Fraud was employed in 1872,
but also failed to achieve the desired
result. In 1873 the unifcation dodge
was tried. The colored people were
promised mixed schools, employment
on street cars and in founderies and
equal rights in all bar
rooms and soda shops, and, in short,
more than the strongest advocate of
civil rights had ever asked for them,
on the implied condition that they
would put the Democrats in office.
This movement failed, and now in
1874, all the principles Of unification
have been reversed, and under the
organization OF the white mans party
an appeal has once more been made
to arms.
The events ofthe fourteenth of Sep
TENDER last are too well known to need
recital. There was no honest motive.
no substantial cause to Justify that
misguided and disastrous movement.
The sole purpose Of the leaders Of the
.insurrection was to obtain possession
OF the offices of the State and while
they were SO engaged, to the mani
fest injury of the commerce of the
city aud the credit of the State, the
great bulk of my supporters, who
form the producing element of the
country, were quietly engaged in
picking cotton, cultivating sugar and
harvesting the rice crop Of the State.
The reasons ASST gned for this erin
inal disturbance Of the peace of the
State were First, that this State is
not Republican, and that the present
State administration was not elected.
Second, that the present State ad-
ministration had been corrupt and OPP
pressiye.
Reversing for the sake of greater
clearness the order Of these charges,
| proceed to show that neither the
one nor the other is correct.
No candid reader will fail to have
observed that the charge of corrup-
ton and oppression, like all the ac-
cusations that have been made against
the State administration, is confined
i'll general terms, and no specific act
is brought forward, much less sus-
tanned by proof. | propose to con-
front these general charges Of wrong
doing by Il specific statement, taken
from official records. of the financial
condition of this State when the pres
ent government came into power, and
of its financial position now and also
to show where the responsibility of
the heavy State debt, which is most
unjustly charged upon my ndlninis-
tlation, properly rests.
When the present State govern
ment came into office there were out
from previous administra-
tions, Auditors checks on the treas
ury, known rs State warrants, which
the Treasurer had been unable to pay
for lack of funds, to the amount, in
round numbers, OF S2,3OO,OOO TAU
litor's report oflo72, page thirty Sky.
There were outstanding bonds issued
before and since the war to the
OF $2l 100000. Since have
been in office have signed $40 bonds
of $1,000 each and l25 second mort
gage bonds of the same denomination,
The latter issued upon !. section OF ten
miles of completed railroad. In both
cases the issuance OF these bonds was
by acts OF the Legislature,
passed previous to my coming into
office, and was rendered obligatory
apon me by a decision Of the Supreme
Court as to the first Issue, and by the
written opinions OF the law officers OF
he State as to the latter. No act OF
he Legislature has been passed dur
ng my occupancy Of the executive
chair to authorize the issue OF Il siDgle
bond to increase the Indebtedness Of
The State. The outstanding ,3OO,
)OO OF floating Indebtedness lett 10y
previous administrations has been re-