The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-29
NEW ORLEANS, THURSDAY APRIL 20, 1875.

have for friends one or two men known as
corrupt Gov. Kellogg is generally acknowl-
edged, even by his bitterest opponents, to be
a man Of amiable intentions, but he is con-
stitutionally trimmer. He seems to me al
most incapable of direct course, and for
such a movement as he now heads he lacks
courage and determination. If Marshal Pack
ard were Governor he would succeed. but
Packard's interest is not that Kellogg shall
succeed, for ne is Kelloggs rival tor the
United States Senate.
Meantime, so sore are the white people Of
the State over the too long continued misgov-
ernment that they view every movement and
every man with suspicion; and only the mos!
answering, bold and determined course, the
most vigorous punishment of corrupt men,
could satisfy the State sufficiently to gain the
new combination prolonged life. You Can not
travel far in Louisiana without discovering
that the politicians who, in the name of the
Republican party, rule it, and have done so
for the last seven years, in all the depart
ments of its government, State and local, are
emently and unanimously Getested by the
white people. l have been amazed to see
how all white men, and many blacks, to
my own neutrality-suspicious. rich or poor;
whether merchants, mechanics or profess
sional men; whether Americans, French, Irish.
German or Italian by birth; absolutely all
except the office-holders and their relatives
unite in this feeling of detesta.ioa of their
rulers. It expresses itself so wildly at the
polls that as noticed before, only five thou
sand whites out Of over ninety thousand
supported the Republican ticket at the last
election, and it is fact that most of these
five thousand are ofice-holders; the greater
part are strangers in the State, and very many
Of them may justly be called adventures. It
is SO universal a sentiment that have found
scarcely a colored man, out of Office, who did
not complain to me that toe Republican
whites are as faithless to their duty as they
believe the other side would be.
Now, this small band OF white men have for
more than six Years monopolzed all political
power and preterment in the State. They
have aid, collected and spent COR rather mis-.
spent or stolen) all the taxes, local as well as
State; they have not only made all the laws.
but they have arbitrarily changed them, aud
have miserably failed to enforce any which
were for the peoples good; they have openly
and scandalously corrupted the colored men
whom they have brought into political life;
they have used uni ust laws to perpetuate and
extend their own power, and they have prac-
ticed all the basest arts of ballot-stufting,
false registration and repeating at election
after election.
Ia the last election it was proved before a
committee of Congress that the Republican
leaders had, in the city Of New Orleans alone,
made not less than $500 false registrations. A
few days ago went down the river to attend
court, in order to see the working of q negro
jury. The court had to adjourn for lack of a
jury, and no panel had been drawn. because
the names being taken from the registration
lists of the parish, thirtysix out OF forty eight
were found to be fictitious-and this in q
country parish. The Republican Returning
Board was condemned as a transparent fraud
by two Congressional committees, and has, SO
far as know, no defender in Louisiana or in
the country, except the President, who has
just given Federal Office in New Orleans to
Mr.. Wells. who was chief of the board.
/ know of one case in the last election
where, the Conservative ticket being elected,
the records Of the election were carried by
the Supervisor from the Parish to Now Or
leans and concealed in house Of prostitution,
one Of whose inmates was sent to drive a bar
gain with the Conservatives for their return.
So common is corruption and SO unblushing
still, that the Grand Jury Of New Orleans,
only the other day, began An investigation to
discover who had altered, after its passage,
an important appropriation bill passed by the
Hahn Republican) Legislature, aud the dis
coyery of so gross and daring fraud scarcely
excited attention in New Orleans, where /
have myself seen colored membe of the
Legislature who were slaves but ten
years ago and began life with nothing at that
time-now driving magnificent horses, seated
in stylish equipages and wearing diamond
pins
Whatever we in the North may think of the
white people of the South, we can not forget
The fact that Louisiana has long established
o~I NV NTH la nj
plicated business and social interests, and
great accumulated capital, invested no. mere
ly in lands. but also in machinery and i'm
portant public works. New Orleans is one of
the largest commercial ports in the United
States; it has numerous body of intelligent
and wealthy merchants, the equal of any of
their class in New York, Philadelphia or Bos-
ton. The sugar planters of Louisi ana are in fact
they have large sums in
vested in machinery, and their business
requires much technical skill, and they are,
as class, the equals in intelligence and
character of Northern manufacturers. Now,
then. all these men, the cream Of the popu.
lation, with scarcely an exception, are united
in opposition to the present rulers of Louisi-
ana, whom they not only detest, but dread.
1t is not only the cotton planter of the remote
therefore, but the country traders,
lawyers and politicians who oppose the Re-
publican rule. How, in spite Of so united an
opposition, handful of politicians. most of
them strangers in the State, have maintained
themselves in power will try to explain in
another letter. CHARLES NoRDHoFF.
A Duel Of Journalists.
There is nothing remarkable, observes the
Pail Mall Gazette, in French journalists hay-
ing fought q duel But an encounter in which
M. Amedee Achard, whose death has Just been
took p,rt With M. Florentino, the
ell.known musical critic, was of no ordinary
kind, and deserves, perhaps, a word of men