The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-12-03
PACKARD SPEAKS FOB HIS PARTY
A Radical Campaign Document

Republican party" of which Packard is chief
and President.
The members of the Union, so far as we
know and 80 far as any acts recorded upon
their record may testify, are earnestly desir-
GUS of relieving, not only the property which
they hold and represent, but the property In
general of the citizens of New Orleans, from
the load of excessive and unnecessary taxa
ton. As an organization, independent OF all
parties, the Union sought to know no" lar
and in what manner the Republican party
would act to give to property the desired re-
lief Being non partisan IN character, the
members of the Union sought to secure the
assistance of all political parties in the State
to adopt means of reform which will relieve
the real estate interest from its present alarm
ing depression and impending ruin" They
then state what is especially desirable:
/, Limit of State tax to one-half of one per
cent, and of city tax to one per cent, on all
taxable property at market cash value.
2. One assessment in five years, with ap
peal to courts as to the justice of assess
ment.
8. Prohibition of the loan of the credit Of
the State.
4. Reduction of salaries.
5. Relief of defaulting taxpayers and
6. The permission to pay taxes by install
ments.
To fair and honorable committee, repre-
senting party in whose power it is to secure
these reforms, with due and appropriate
notifications, this request of very honor
able and highly respected association ought
to have been an appeal sufficient to elicit a
very candid response. The frank representa-
tives of truly honest party would have
ans wered the communication in the same
spirit in which it was presented. But in the
absence of candor, honesty and all concern
for the public good, the Central Executive
Committee of the Republican party ought in
good taste to have limited themselves to their
brief resolutions, however unsatisfactory.
Those resolutions we quote, to show how
widely they differ in spirit from the letter Of
Packard, with which, they we're communi-
Gated:
Resolved That the object announced in the
communication received from the Committee
of the Central Council of the Property
Holders Union merits and commands our
unqualified approval.
Resolued, That practically to assure that
end the Union is requested to submit to this
committee, at the earliest date, drafts of bills
tending to the relief proposed.
Resolved, That this request finds especial
force in the fact that the committee fails to
discover by what method the proposed limi-
tations to taxation can be made to suffice the
interest on the public debt and the main
tenance of the schools, levees and govern
ment of the State.
The property holders prese nted their griev-
ance to the rulers of the party without
whose help immediate relief is impossible.
The committee representing that party re-
plies as above without breach of courtesy. If
the matter had been left there, it would only
have been suggestion to the public to wait
and see what the Radical Governor and the
Radical majority in the State Senate would be
willing to do for the relief of taxable property.
But Packard uses these resolutions only as
the stick to which he ties poisoned barbed
arrow. He is man of opportunities, and as
such has improved this opportunity to attack
the members of the Property Holders Union
because they are Democrats, and to attack
and denounce the whole Democratic party of
Louisiana The letter of Packard, purporting
to be merely reply to the Union is in reality
q most elaborate and cunning campaign docu-
ment, which he has no doubt ere this for
warded to high Radical authorities in Wash
ington.
Deficient space precludes even an analysis
of this carpet bagger's manifesto. Il is sat
urated with insincerity, sophistry, misrepre-
sentation and falsehood from date to sigma
ture. The key falsehood is thus stated:
1t has, at all times, been the desire of the
| Republican party in Louisiana to accomplish
the reforms referred to in your communica-
ton, in so far as possible and practicable and
consistent with public credit and the efficient
collection of the revenue.
All the rest of the long, cunning, hypocrit-
ical, elaborate and mendacious document is
an attempt to substantiate this Statement
which all sensible men in Louisiana know to
be absolutely untrue.
1t is not true that the present administra.
ton came into power pledged to reforms, no
such pledge being found in the platform of
the adical party. Kellogg was put in power,
not by the votes of the people, but by the
audacious scheme of rascality sanctioned by
Durell, but invented by Packard. This fact
alone precludes him from any hearing before
the people of this State, and he ought to
know that everything to which his name is
signed must at all times hereafter bear the
odor of fraud in the nostrils of the American
people.
The range of Packard's electioneering doc
ument takes in the whole period since the
military order of Gen. Sheridan put an end to
the Peoples Legislature of 1861 To even
the casual reader, though a stranger to the
history of louisiana for the past thirteen
years, the letter would lack the insignia OF
truth. Yet the correction of all the falsehoods
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