The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-10-27
Results of GranliSm in Louisiana,

Us'Aa1io'i ol Louisiana, inst pubilshe
by the Central Council of the Pro,
erty Holders Union, contains som
curious details relating to the var
Gus fraudulent pretences under whic
millions ofindebtment have been ia.
tened upon the taxpayers of tina
State by their irresponsible rulers
Reviewing the different items of wha
purports to be the State debt, the re
port specifies each act which author
lied the issue Of bonds or other eyi
dences of debt and the result is as
founding. 1t shows that the differ
ent Legislatures have voted, mainl,
to private individuals, bonds which
aggregate in principal and interes
for the whole time they to run, NOR,
than the entire value of the taxable
property Of Louisiana. The most O
this reckless extravaganza has beer
the work of,the Legislatures which
have been in power since 1868. The
report says that if city and Parish
bonds donated in like manner be ad
ded, the aggregate will be nearly
double the value of the taxable prop.
erty in the State.
The total debt authorized by leg.
islation, according to this report,
reached $685. ESQ; but deductina
$4,000, 900, the estimated amount OF
miscellaneous debts of all sorts re.
garding which no satisfactory infor-
nation can be had, and various bonds
Of different classes which we're au-
thorized but never issued, there still
remain liabilities to the amount OF
$50, 3l2,280, exclusive of interest,
which were actually incurred and re-
main unpaid.
The most interesting feature of
this report is found in the comments
upon the disposition of the various
bonds. Thus from 1865 to 1870 tue
amount of So, $4,000 was issued in
bonds for levee purposes, and there
are yet no sufficient levees; while a
State debt of $21, 100000 has been
created in favor of a levee company
will build the levees. When the le-
wees were made by each land propri-
etor in front of his own property,
they were a more effectual protection
against the overflow than they are
now.
This report gives new fact in re-
'ation to the Vicksburg, Shreveport,
and Texas Railroad swindle, which
was fully exposed long ago in The
Sun, and in which John I. Ludeling
the present Chief Justice of the Su-
preme Court of Louisiana, bore the
most prominent part. 1t SAYS that
in 1872 the Legislature passed an
act to exchange bonds of the State
for stock of the company, when the
company was already in debt more
than twice the amount Of it's assets,
and that Gov. Warmoth at first re-
fused to sign the bill: but after sud-
den visit from Labelling the act was
promulgated late in the summer of
1872, hut appeared ON it's face to have
been approved on April 10, thus an
tedating suit that had been brought
by the Acknowledgement against the
company for interest on the bonds.
Both Warmoth and Kellogg issued
to LudeIing aud his associates hun
dreds of thousands of dollars in
bonds, Kellogg giving them $4,000
in 1873, long after the suit was COM
menced in the United States courts,
charging those frauds which the Su
preme Court afterward decided were
undoubtedly proven.
In the space of three years from
1869 the Legislature made donations
to the New Orleans, Mobile and
Chattanooga Railroad Company
amounting to 100000, in bonds
bearing eight per cent. interest aud
running for forty years, thus binding
the taxpayers to pay altogether, in
principal and interest, the sum of
$l6,SOO,QOO, the company having
agreed to build a road to Houston,
Texas. No road has been built fur
ther than Donaldsonville, eighty-two
miles above New Orleans, and that
has been sold under a first mortgage,
the State having received neither
value nor security for its advance.
These are but a few examples of
the wholesale robbery of the proper
ty holders of Louisiana which has
been carried on in Legislative bodies
where ignorant negroes fresh from
the sugar and cotton fields competed