The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-16

In many localities Federal troops were de
tailed for service under marshals and depu
ties, and not only made large arrests immedi
ately before the election, but reports tha
! they We're coming to particular neighbor.
| hoods about the election time for the purpose
OF such arrests, served, as the Conservative.
claim, to intimidate, and sometimes even te
produce stampede among the white voters
How differently the two parties look upor
the same fact will appear from the testimony
Of Mr.. Riddle.
He was United States Commissioners in the
parish OF Iberia. Shortly before the election,
upon the application Of colored persons, he
issued large number of warrants. He con.
sidered it his duty upon the arrest of the per.
sons charged to require bail from sureties who
possessed landed estate within the parish Ger.
tilted to by the assessor of the parish to be OF
sufficient value and Of, which the title was
approved by the registef of deeds This rule
necessarily produced delay to procuring bail
for the persons arrested and he was waited
on IN one case by procession of citizens
who offered him bond, signed by every man
in the procession.
This he regarded as in derision of his pro-
ceedlngs and refused to receive the bond. He
was called as witness to prove the intimida-
ton that existed in that parish. He had no
knowledge of any act of the kind except this
procession, which he thought was calculated
to intimldate the colored voters. He had no
idea that arrests made upon his warrants and
the proceedings under them had any effect in
interfering with the Conservative vote.
On the other hand, the Conservatives in
that neighborhood thought about this Just the
reverse. Indeed, the reports Of tho military
officers in command of the forces of the
United States in the country, though generally
indicating a condition of quiet and order, take
sometimes different view of the situation
On the other hand, it vas in evidence that
the blacks who sought to act with the Con-
servative party were, on their part, sometimes
exposed to enmity and abuse. In the interior
one colored man was shot for making Con
sentative speech.
In New Orleans it appeared that colored
men who sought to cooperate with the Con-
servatives were subject to so much abuse from
the police and otherwise, that an association
OF lawyers volunteered to protect them, but
with little effect. The general condition of
affairs in the State of Louisiana seems tc be
as follows: The conviction has been general
among the whites since 1872 that the Kellogg
Government was an usurpation.
This conviction among them has been
strengthened by the acts Of the Kellogg Legis-
lature abolishing existing courts and judges
and substituting others, presided over by
judges appointed by Kellogg, having extraor-
binary and exclusive Jurisdiction over polit-
ical questions by changes in the laws, CEN
Trailing in the Governor every form of polit-
ical control, including the suspension Of the
elections by continuing the Returning Board
with absolute power of the returns of cleo
tons; by the extraordinary provisions enacted
for the trial OF titles and claims to office; by
the conversion of the police force maintained
at the expense Of the city of New Orleans into
an armed brigade of State Militia, subject to
the command of the Governor; by the crea-
ton in some places of monopolies in mar
kets, gas making, water-works and ferries
cleaning vaults, removing filth and doing
work as scavengers; by the abolition of
courts, with the election of judges, and the
of other courts, with judges APP
pointed by Kellogg, in violation OF the Con-
stitution of the State; By enactments punish
ing criminally all persons who attempted to
fill official positions, unless returned by the
Returning Board; by unlimited appropria-
tons for the payment Of militia expenses and
for the payment of legislative warrants, vouch-
ers and checks, issued dqfing the years 1870
to 1872; by laws declaring that no person in
arrears for taxes, after default published, shall
bring any suit in any court of the State,
or be allowed to be a witness in his own be-
half; measures which, when coupled with
the extraordinary burdens OF taxation, have
seemed to vest, in the language of Gov. KEEL
logg's counsel, degree of power in the Gov
ernor OF State scarcely exercised by sove-
reign in the world.
With this conclusion is general want of
confidence in the integrity Of the existing
State and local officials want of confidence
equally in their purposes and in their person
ael, which is accompanied by the paralyza-
ion of business and destruction of values.
The most hopeful witness produced by the
kellogg party, while he declared that bust
hess was in a sounder condition than ever be-
ore, because there was less credit, has since
declared that "there was no prosperity"
the sureties of the State have fallen in two
7ears from 70 or 80 to 25; of the city of New
orleans from 80 or 80 to 80 or 40, while the
all in bank shares, railway shares, city and
,ther corporate companies have in degree
Throughout the rural dis
riots OF the State, the negroes reared in the
habits of reliance upon their masters for sup
BORT, and in a community in which the mem
,ers are always ready to divide the necessa-
les of life with each other, not regarding such
punishment, from the nature of the local Of
icials, had come to flching and stealing
ruit, vegetables and poultry so generally, as
Bishop Wilmer stated without contradiction
rom any source, that the raising of these
rtcles had to be entirely abandoned, to the |
,reat distress of the white people; while
within the parishes as we'll as in New Orleans |
he taxation had been carried literally to the |
xtent of confscation.
In New Orleans the assessors are paid |
commission on the amount assessed, and |
louses and stores are to be had there for the |
axes. In Nachitoches the taxation reached |
bout per cent Of the assessed value on the |
In many parishes all the white |
republicans and all the Office holders belong
o single family. There are five of the |
ireens in Office in Lincoln. There are seven !
f the BOUTS in office in Nachitoches. As |
he people saw taxation increase and pros
'erity diminish, as they grew poor while Off
ials grew rich, they became naturally sore
hat they loved their rulers cannot be pre-
ended.
The Kellogg Government claims to have
educed taxation. This has been effected in !
,art by establishing q board to fnnd the deht